Keith wrote: "I am worried that problem,unless we get a proper handle on it in the next few years,will start to run out of control and we will live in a semi nightmare society that is a cross between 1984 and A Clockwork Orange."Unfortunately that is a pretty accurate description of some areas at the moment. I'm not usually a hip-hop fan, but The Streets, in his first album, summed up the situation aptly - "Geezerz need excitement - If their lives don't provide them this, they incite violence. Common sense! simple common sense!"Young men have always sought excitement and stimulation. In my father's and grandfather's day, this was found (probably too much so) in the wars they were conscripted to fight. My '60's generation found it in the mods & rockers conflict, or, like me, in anti-Vietnam War protests etc. I have spent most of my career as a youth worker trying to provide young people with exciting and challenging activities which will satisfy this need. Unfortunately, the massive expansion of the illegal drugs business and the importation of "gangsta" culture from the US has fed upon this need for excitement and has meant that whereas "violence" amongst young people used to mean, at worst, a serious kicking, it can now mean instantaneous death at the point of a gun or knife for the most trivial of "offence."My own view is that we need to make a two-pronged attack on the situation by (a) taking up Vanessa's point of a zero tolerance approach to knife and gun crime; and (b) inject proper funding into long-term youth work initiatives designed to divert young people away from the superficial attractiveness of the "gangsta" lifestyle.
Mick Brent ● 6448d