Just looking into the eyes of our youth tells the whole story. They look as if they have given up; some are just in limbo, while others are pushing back with crime and violence. A visit to work places, banks, government reception, security posts, or just walking the streets, establishes a lost generation among the failures of their adults.

All that is budgeted for our youth is a colonial styled education without frills. Gone are the days of extra curricular activities which forced discipline and encouraged skills. Our generation of the colonial era not only had household, yard and animal chores, children were subject to terrible beatings by parents for wrong-doing. All that is now considered outdated and corporal punishment of children is frowned upon.

The school’s curriculum is still geared to teaching to read, write and spell, all the other subjects are for getting into schools of higher learning, and not applied to investing skills into the economy by a young and talented scheme.

Each year hundreds of young people are dumped into the government and private workforce without ceremony or consideration of their future. They are just given ‘jabs’ with no thought of growth and ambition. Their passion gets watered down and ultimately wasted, as the daily grind of small island life and the badmindedness of old plantation prejudices deplete their value, leaving them sad looking and dull.

The attitude of those whom offices and banks place in reception, girls, well made up and well dressed but sullen, no pleasantries in greeting customers, no real helpful involvement, monosyllabic and aloof – they are everywhere!

Gone are the days where young people were encouraged to learn a trade for dark days, when jobs might be few, and the ability to do something with one’s hands filled the gap between jobs. Herding animals, learning mechanics, dressmaking or embroidery, cooking classes, baby-sitting and childcare, among all things small island communities demand, our children learned and delivered after school.

It is these extra curricular activities which evoked the finer attitudes to life and community involvement, which are so important and now missing in our lives and the lives of our children.

Technology is great, but unless there is a foundation that feeds, clothes, and cares for its people and especially its youth, it is still pie in the sky, unattainable to most, and a crying shame!