GUEST EDITORIAL - Set goals, chart our courses

The scourge of Jamaica has been the indiscipline of parents who do not nurture their children, of politicians with fiscal irresponsibility, of the business community which circumvents taxes, of policemen who accept bribes, and many other sectors.

We have to set our goals, chart our course, and plan our future. If in Africa it took a village to raise a child, and this was destroyed by slavery in Jamaica, maybe we need mentors across the island to help in resolving conflict and counselling families.

We need discipline and paths to life taught in kindergarten, primary and preparatory schools, and we certainly need to address the problems of praedial larceny, destruction of our environment, and crime and violence.

We could start with first offenders in a number of areas by giving them suspended sentences which are added to their second offence. This warning should be applicable to fishermen who flout the law in marine parks, praedial thieves, and other minor offenders. Such a strategy may discourage a lifestyle of crime.

We should also look at hotspots in Jamaica, as very often there is a leader who corrupts a community, a gang that disrupts an area, or an attitude of the citizens in a particular community.

It is a fact that without murder being a constant headline, the positive effects on Jamaica would be dramatic. We have tried and tried, from Gun Court to special police squads, to importing foreign police experts - all to no avail.

The police will sometimes say to a person complaining of a minor problem that needs the help of a lawman that he has bigger problems to deal with. But in New York, they found that if street by street they dealt with petty offenders, crime, in general, was reduced dramatically.

There is no harm in people washing car windows, but to do it when not wanted, or to get aggressive if someone doesn't want it done, is very disturbing.

So if we could all get involved in finding ways to improve our community, to care about our neighbours, to care about our environment, and, most of all, to care about our children, we could collectively make Jamaica a paradise on earth.