As I listen to the news sometimes on the radio and read the news in the Compass newspaper about the many bad things that are happening to the very young people here on Cayman, once again I am prompted to write a piece about the young people on Cayman.
I know for a fact that many of you young people have your backs against the wall in these times and are not getting the proper help and support from the system here on Cayman and no one seems to really care about your needs. For when you finish school and cannot go on to further your education, it is very hard for you to get a job to help lift yourselves up.
The deck is stacked against our young people’s future here on Cayman. No one in Government is standing up for the young people except Mr. Miller, the MLA from North Side, and his hands are tied and cannot help like he would want to. For far too long our young people have been kicked to one side, even after they go away and receive a good education and come back to Cayman. They are not getting that well-needed job.
I am sick and tired of hearing this young person is dead, then another and another and we are quick to blame the parents. I know that all young people do not have good parents, but as I see it, and know it, you cannot blame all the parents.
We must also blame our system and the way it turns its back on the young people. Lately I talked to two Cayman parents of well educated children whose goal it is to be as good as they can in support of these children in sports, for they are getting no support from government.
With the news of these children who are out there making this country proud in what they do, their parents have to shoulder all the needs of these two with no help from government.
We find that when it comes to helping our Caymanian children in sports, music and many other things, that the government can help our children. Instead of helping the parents and children, they want to build bigger jails to put them in or, once in a while, invite them to chop bush on the side of the road or put their backs so hard against the wall that they turn to crime, or worse, kill themselves. It is time for this to stop.
For our young people will be the future leaders of this country and if we don’t teach them and give them the support they need now, the future of this country will be sad.
Now please young people, do not give up. Stand strong and even as I see that this is hard for you to do in these times, do not turn to crime or hurt yourselves and do not sit around waiting for the system to help you. Get out there and do what you can, even if it means selling coconuts to the tourists or doing your own lawn services or whatever you can do that is legal and makes honest money. Many of you will not get that bank job or work with government, but you can work for yourself. You must also try and learn any kind of skill from the older skilled people around you. This way, if needed, you can change from making money one way to another. We must do all we can do to help these very lost young people among us instead of just branding them as bad and putting them in jail.
There are so many young people missing out after they leave school. They are faced with so much more than some of us older folks from the past. I do hope that all on Cayman can rally around, helping each other more in the year 2012 and pay special attention to the betterment of the lives of the young people here on these Cayman Islands. The signs are all around you from them. They need all of our help or we will continue to lose more of them and our Islands will see crime run rampant on our once-upon-a-time peaceful and safe island, for the young people will not wait for the things they need if we continue to let them down. Give them no jobs and place outsiders in their positions on this Island that would earn them a good living and we will all pay the price if we do not do what is a must for our young people’s future, and that is to make sure it is better than ours was. After all, this is the real way of the Caymanian people: Not hungry, no future, no job, no skilled young Caymanians taking over this country in the future.
We all need to step up to the plate and help them now, as many have said to me, maybe it is too late.
But with the Almighty by your side, you are never too late. So young people, help to change this trend and do better this year. Your future depends on it.
Emile S. Levy
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