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"Are some expressions of Caribbean culture, including passa passa and Buju Banton type music contributing to the decline in morals among the region's youth?
While Grenada's Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, didn't answer the question with an emphatic yes, he seems to think they are, at the very least, playing a negative role.
At the same time, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Dr. Nigel Harris, believes a mix of music and foreign cultural influences, including television, may be accelerating the slide in the interest of young West Indian men in being trained for productive jobs.
Small wonder, then, that Dr. Mitchell believes it's such a troubling matter that Caricom leaders may soon take it up, if not at their next summit, at another meeting.
"We have a lot of problems in the society that are facing us," he told the Carib News in New York. "I don't know if the influences facing us, for example, the culture, are playing a role. We see the Buju Bantons and some of the other things that don't seem to be things that lift the society but bring them down more than anything else. Our Minister (of Education, Claris Charles) recently commented on the passa passa, the thing that is going around where our young people seem to have little or no respect for themselves. There just seems to be a lot of things that are confronting our society where young boys are concerned."
What's particularly disturbing, says Dr. Mitchell, is that far too many young men are failing to take advantage of employment opportunities or to continue their education while young women are jumping at every chance to be trained, employed or otherwise move ahead.
"I don't know the sources of the problem but we have to confront it urgently," he said.
That was why he predicted Caricom's Prime Ministers and Presidents may soon place the issue formally on their agenda for discussion.
"It may not be for the next meeting of the Heads of government but I can tell you that it was discussed at the last Heads meeting informally and I think that very soon you will someone placing it on the agenda," was the way Dr. Mitchell put it.
But the Grenada leader isn't alone.
The UWI new Vice Chancellor told this paper a few days ago in New York that he too was deeply worried about a troubling phenomenon in the Caribbean, the decline in the number of young men entering the UWI's campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados but the apparent rise in the incidence of crime involving young males in different parts of the region."If the Prime Minister of Grenada means some of the messages that are being conveyed in some of the music, such as rap music, the television images, I feel those indeed may be contributing factors" to the problems with Caribbean youth, asserted Dr. Harris.
As the Vice Chancellor saw it, "there weren't any easy answers" to the troubling question but from where he sits the crucial problem was the drift away from the pursuit of educational goals by young Black West Indian men
"There is no one underlying problem, said Dr. Harris. "We can say there is the influx of drugs, small arms sales and so on. But what is it that leads people to do exactly that sort of thing.
Let me put it to you this way, males are overwhelmingly involved in crime and criminal behavior. It is said in Jamaica that increasingly women are getting involved but the truth is that it is a male thing.
While the male is increasing in this area their representation in university circles is decreasing fast and furious.
One thing one needs to do, for instance, is to understand what are the dynamics of the young male that make them in larger quantities not want to pursue some academics, not want them to pursue some form of training and education and actually dropping out of the system."
"Are some expressions of Caribbean culture, including passa passa and Buju Banton type music contributing to the decline in morals among the region's youth?
While Grenada's Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, didn't answer the question with an emphatic yes, he seems to think they are, at the very least, playing a negative role.
At the same time, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Dr. Nigel Harris, believes a mix of music and foreign cultural influences, including television, may be accelerating the slide in the interest of young West Indian men in being trained for productive jobs.
Small wonder, then, that Dr. Mitchell believes it's such a troubling matter that Caricom leaders may soon take it up, if not at their next summit, at another meeting.
"We have a lot of problems in the society that are facing us," he told the Carib News in New York. "I don't know if the influences facing us, for example, the culture, are playing a role. We see the Buju Bantons and some of the other things that don't seem to be things that lift the society but bring them down more than anything else. Our Minister (of Education, Claris Charles) recently commented on the passa passa, the thing that is going around where our young people seem to have little or no respect for themselves. There just seems to be a lot of things that are confronting our society where young boys are concerned."
What's particularly disturbing, says Dr. Mitchell, is that far too many young men are failing to take advantage of employment opportunities or to continue their education while young women are jumping at every chance to be trained, employed or otherwise move ahead.
"I don't know the sources of the problem but we have to confront it urgently," he said.
That was why he predicted Caricom's Prime Ministers and Presidents may soon place the issue formally on their agenda for discussion.
"It may not be for the next meeting of the Heads of government but I can tell you that it was discussed at the last Heads meeting informally and I think that very soon you will someone placing it on the agenda," was the way Dr. Mitchell put it.
But the Grenada leader isn't alone.
The UWI new Vice Chancellor told this paper a few days ago in New York that he too was deeply worried about a troubling phenomenon in the Caribbean, the decline in the number of young men entering the UWI's campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados but the apparent rise in the incidence of crime involving young males in different parts of the region."If the Prime Minister of Grenada means some of the messages that are being conveyed in some of the music, such as rap music, the television images, I feel those indeed may be contributing factors" to the problems with Caribbean youth, asserted Dr. Harris.
As the Vice Chancellor saw it, "there weren't any easy answers" to the troubling question but from where he sits the crucial problem was the drift away from the pursuit of educational goals by young Black West Indian men
"There is no one underlying problem, said Dr. Harris. "We can say there is the influx of drugs, small arms sales and so on. But what is it that leads people to do exactly that sort of thing.
Let me put it to you this way, males are overwhelmingly involved in crime and criminal behavior. It is said in Jamaica that increasingly women are getting involved but the truth is that it is a male thing.
While the male is increasing in this area their representation in university circles is decreasing fast and furious.
One thing one needs to do, for instance, is to understand what are the dynamics of the young male that make them in larger quantities not want to pursue some academics, not want them to pursue some form of training and education and actually dropping out of the system."
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