Some Bahamians are shocked to hear that more than 10,000 young men belong to 54 gangs in the country. <\/P><\/p>\n
\nBut it’s not really news. In the 1960s there were neighbourhood groups like the Farmyard Boys or the Kemp Road Boys, which engaged in altercations but seldom committed serious criminal acts. <\/P><\/p>\n
\nIn the 1980s political corruption and the growth of the drug trade led to the development of new groups such as the Syndicate and the Rebellion, which often engaged in fights, assaults and vandalism. <\/P><\/p>\n
\nBy 1995 it was reported that there were 15 youth gangs at large, claiming some 8,000 members. <\/P><\/p>\n
\nIn his consultative committee’s report on youth development at that time, Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez said part of the solution was to strengthen family life and build a sense of community. Fixing the country’s educational system was also high on the agenda. And perhaps most tellingly, maintaining a level of prosperity that could keep joblessness and underemployment at a minimum. <\/P><\/p>\n
\nIf the latest statistics are real, we need a concerted effort to ensure that boys turn into men rather than gangsters. And policymakers need to be creative and do whatever is necessary to promote economic growth. That means supporting the private sector \uff96 not controlling it. It means facilitating foreign investment \uff96 not discouraging it. It means listening \uff96 not dictating.<\/P><\/p>\n
\nIt means working together. Not trying to score cheap political points. <\/P><\/p>\n
Editorial, The Nassau Guardian<\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the latest statistics are real, we need a concerted effort to ensure that boys turn into men rather than gangsters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}