These days the hot weather is most overbearing. I usually tell my friends, jokingly of course, that if hell is so hot, we will have to go in the sea everyday – we will have to live in the sea. Talking about sea, I am reminded about a picnic at Sandy Hill, many years ago, when one of the girls refused to go in the sea when she discovered that her bathing suit had a hole in the knee. Times have really changed. Today, if a woman’s bathing suit is not all holes, she ain’t wearing it.

Colville Petty

I got sidetracked. I was talking about the hot weather. As a rule I do not drink cold water – water from a fridge. I drink it at room temperature. In so doing I drink a lot more. But the other day, I was glad to run to the fridge because the water at room temperature was close to boiling point.

The heat is everywhere. Not only in Anguilla. People are complaining that St Martin is just as hot or hotter. Harriet was there recently and she related to a friend how the lotion with which she was creaming her legs was hot like fire.

The fire-hot weather is pushing up our electricity bills as we resort to air conditioners. On the other hand, it may well result in lower bills when it comes to the cost of heating for our showers. For the past mornings I have been able to bathe without hot water because my body was sufficiently heated to take the cold water with ease.

The weather was quite cool at the Anglican cemetery at Sandy Hill, last Saturday afternoon (10th September), where I attended Hilda Gumbs’ funeral. It was out of the blue that someone asked: “Wha Brother Pet, what happen to the Ministers of Government and our politicians? I ain’t see a single one here.” I told him that all I knew was that the Chief Minister was off island. He responded: “We all know that Hilda was poor, but if it was election time you sure bet the whole House of Assembly would have been out in full force! And Brother Kenneth Harrigan would have been shedding a tear or two.”

For sure Brother Ken would have cried. I have never seen a man who could cry easier than him. If you ask him for a couple of dollars and he can’t find it, he cries. If you ask him for a load of dirt to fix your road and he can’t find a truck to transport it, he cries. Some people feel his crying is political trick, but I believe it’s genuine he does be genuine. I know he doesn’t save a cent of his salary. Let him explain (1994): “Our salary is not ours. This is true. And if yer coming into government for a salary you better stay home. I work for a salary and every month my wife ask me: ‘Kenneth where is your salary?’ I say: ‘Girl, I spent it on the house. They plaster the house today.’ Don’t you think by now she know that the house has been stopped for a year and nothing has been done?”

Back to Hilda’s funeral. While there a young lady in her early thirties reminded Teacher Arthwin that he used to tell her, at school, that she was wasting her time and that some day time would waste her. She now understands the wisdom of his advice. I was heartened when she told him that, after cleaning toilets at Cap Juluca for the past fifteen years, she had decided to get some CXC subject passes to enable her to get a better job. By the way, the lady to whom I make reference is a single parent with four children thus all the more reason why her decision is so praiseworthy.

Also praiseworthy are this year’s CAPE and CXC results. They have been excellent and congratulations are in order for all those responsible for the good performances. I wrote a few years ago that the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School (ALHCS) had a reputation for indiscipline and for boys being high on marijuana. And that it also had a reputation for a cadre of dedicated and hard working teachers. Despite the indiscipline, and other forms of deviant behaviour, the school has been able to produce, over the years, some outstanding students. Its teachers deserve special commendation for this year’s examinations results.

I should add that the results are an indication of what happens when parents and teachers work together for the education of children. So congratulations are in order for the parents as well. By the way, nobody can hold down Princess Fleming right now. She is on top of the world following Nashara’s (her daughter’s) performance: eight ones and a two in CXC subject passes. That is what happens when parents assist schools in providing the environment in which children could learn.

The ALHCS is also providing the foundation on which the children must build. And they have to do plenty building if they are to keep their heads above water in a highly competitive world. Hubert Hughes, member of the Opposition, made a useful point when the House of Assembly had its first reading, on Tuesday 23rd August, of the Labour Code Bill 2005. He said: “The Anguilla society is no longer based on the old concept of reading, writing and arithmetic . . . We are now moving into the industrial era of providing people for the job.”

The ALHCS has recognised that. For example, one of its former graduates who is making an impact, and blazing her own trail, is Charla Connor. She has gone into the fashion business and her top of the line designs, Panache Couture, are the recipient of rave reviews. To date, she has had no tertiary education, but she left school with some entrepreneurial skills which she is using for self-advancement.

The ALHCS is fast building a reputation for producing outstanding students. And it is inspiring to hear that there are discernible improvements in discipline at its two campuses. Without doubt, there are signs that we are turning the corner towards the creation of a more productive and better disciplined youth population.

I want to make the point, though, that the social problems among the youth in our society are more to do with our young men than our young women. While our young women are progressing our young men are regressing. Our young women are excelling educationally and professionally. They are building their own homes, buying their own cars, establishing small business and holding their own. On the other hand, most of our young men survive in a culture of drugs, alcohol and various forms of anti-social behaviour.

Frankly speaking, our problem is how to integrate our young men into mainstream Anguillian society. There are many social-building activities going on in Anguilla – activities which could make a difference in the quality of life of our young people – but our young men seem to avoid any activity or organisation which could contribute to their uplifting. I will mention a few of those activities or organisations. We recently saw the completion of a successful tennis tournament which has, no doubt, contributed much to the mental and physical development of its participants. In this regard, the coming of the Anguilla Tennis Academy holds much hope for a better Anguilla. It has tremendous potential for national development.

The All Ah We Dance Theatre is harnessing the energies of its young and talented members into positive action and character-enhancing practices. Then there are the Taekwondo clubs which, in addition to the teaching of the martial arts of self-defence, provide good mental training. These clubs seek to instil discipline and to pass on critical societal values: courtesy, integrity, perseverance and self-control.
We also have the Adult Education Programme, under the auspices of the Continuing Education Unit of the Education Department, providing opportunities for the betterment of our young people. The courses offered fall into three main categories: academic, personal development and skills. The Programme is definitely a useful change agent.

Another change agent, a recent one, is the Anguilla Stingray Music Programme, founded by Triple Crown Culture Yard and Rodney House at the Dune Preserve, Rendezvous Bay. The programme’s aim is to get our youth to express themselves – their feelings – through music. Not through violence. To quote Ijahnya Christian, writing The Anguillian, the aim of Stingray is “to take on this generation of Anguillian youths and to unleash their talents on Anguillian society ensuring that when they hit us, in order to get our attention, they hit us with music.” The idea and proposed action are commendable.

It is obvious from the foregoing that Anguilla is not without institutions engaged in activities with potential for youth development. These institutions are attracting our young women in impressive numbers and impacting their lives in a significant way. But, as mentioned earlier, they are not attracting nor impacting our young men in similar fashion. And that’s a major problem.

There is no doubt that these institutions need to be strengthened and widened. Further, new ones must be created and ways found to get the marginalized youth involved in their activities. I recall the Anguilla United Front saying, during this year’s election campaign, that the focus of its new administration would be social development. It is about time we see some kind of movement in that direction. There are risks in further delay. To borrow a quote from the Parliamentary Secretary, Albert Hughes (1989): “The risk is too riskful.”

If we are to solve the many problems among our youth then the putting in place of the social infrastructure and social programmes for bringing them (particularly our young men) into mainstream Anguillian society must be given the high priority they deserve. If we are to solve these problems, we need programmes and activities to help our young men beat their swords into ploughshares, turn their guns into computers and their daggers into pens and pencils.

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