from a friend....

Well I just finished reading this report. I am not going to atempt to summarise it, there is just too much there.

But a few observations occur to me.

When I started reading it I was somewhat cynical. Belize is full of reports mostly full of "NGO ese" which is a language spoken only by NGOs and certain government departments. Usually these reports don't get widely read or reported as they should be, and end up on a dusty shelf somewhere.

I soon discovered however that this report is different. It is written in good English and is pretty clear, given the complexity of the subject.

In fact I warmed to Dr Gayle as the pages turned. I commend people to brave the 400 odd pages (you can skip chapter 1 and also the last 40 or so pages which are bibliography)

So to a couple of points.

Violence in children comes from the home environment. Not earthshaking, true. But the link with disfunctional families, violence within the family,is clearly shown.

The significant and perhaps lead role that hunger plays in children going astray is also shown very clearly.

Bear in mind that there is a ton of evidence given from the mouths of the children themselves to demonstrate these points.

The almost secondary issue of education is raised. It is clear that education is fighting a rearguard action in trying to help todays urban children. I did not get the impression that education was part of the problem, but part (hopefully) of the solution.

The report centres on urban children and how they are drawn into gangs through neglect, hunger,peer pressure etc. However the report does look at the big problem, the one I personally regard as the #1 issue. The violence on our streets, which is gang related. The point being that the children are peripheral to that.

There are hard hitting comments about the police and judiciary too.

Then we come to the recommendations. I was very impressed. There were solid recommendations for the educators, the social services, the police, the judiciary and most importantly, for our Government.

But will they listen? The final report has been out only a few days, so will it join all the other reports on that dusty shelf? . Dr Gayles report deserves much better.