Vincentian youths are disgruntled and feel disrespected

Vincentian youths are disgruntled, feel disrespected and when they are unemployed and have nothing to do, they sometimes turn to crime.

“People are asking how all these killings and all these things. What you want them to do? The thing is, if young people are not engaged, and a number of them went to secondary school and went to the various colleges, they have associate degrees, and yet all that is happening is that you give them a 10-day job and after the 10 days what?

“So, they would rob somebody, they would kill somebody, they would try to push drugs, they become dangerous,” says Dr Andrew Simmons.

Dr Andrew Simmons

Simmons, a Vincentian from Enhams, who has been involved in development work for the last 40 years, recently completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) in climate change and sustainable development.

He has done extensive work around the world, including in Sierra Leone, Northern Uganda, Darfur, Sri Lanka and India and says St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is not unique in relation to the issues the country is facing in relation to the youths.

In a recent interview with SEARCHLIGHT, Simmons noted that some of our issues were experienced in Sierra Leone, a country which had a long, bloody civil war. He said he helped design a program to take child soldiers off the streets in that country.

“What is happening in St Vincent, if we don’t deal with it, it will fester. We are not dealing with it from the front end and if you don’t deal with these issues in terms of looking at the core development challenge,… then what is happening in St Vincent in terms of crime and violence would be just be a smoke screen,” said Simmons.

During a recent visit home, Simmons met with several of the nation’s youth. He said he is willing to work to help address certain issues that are facing the country, among them, the rise in violence among the youths.

During his visit, he conducted focus group sessions in Georgetown, Chateaubelair, Kingstown, Barrouallie, Campden Park, Vermont, Marriaqua and Bequia among other areas, interacting with between 15 and 20 youths in each community.

The Commonwealth defines a youth as someone between the ages of 16 and 29.

Simmons said from what he gathered, many of the youths in the country are disgruntled.

“…And they felt that they are being left behind, with no one being concerned about them.

“They gave example of the 2013 disaster and other disasters where they were the ones that organised and they were the ones that went out early, cleaned and they did all types of things, but when it came to distribution, they were left out and not part of any decision-making process,” said Simmons.

He added, “people from the political governance parties came and they pushed them aside and they do what they had to do and went out back.”

Simmons said the youths of today are the men and women of tomorrow and should be shown a certain level of respect.

“They said that basically government and opposition used them for politics then discarded them so when the election come around again…whosoever capture the young vote wins the election,” Simmons said while adding that in every election, about 8 to 10 per cent of youths become eligible to vote and whoever captures that group usually wins.