Dominican porn saga...

Dear Friends:

I said I was just going to ignore the videos and the posts and maybe it would all go away before I got the urge to give my two cents, I was wrong.

I understand that everyone has an opinion and rightly so, what kind of society would we be if this incident didn't generate some discourse. 

I would have been more worried then. But as we famously do as a people when things like this happens, we point a finger, playing the blame game. Instead, as a society we should be looking at ways to curb this behaviour, identify warning signs and create help-desks for people who have been victims or even perpetrators of such crimes. 

It is clear that these young people were taken advantage of, victims of their own naivety or eagerness to please. But just how do we ensure that these incidents don't arise again.

Is enough being done in terms of sex education and protection (I didn't see any condoms in the videos) and in terms of teaching moral and ethical values to our children. It is one thing to engage in sex (even making a video), it is a totally different ball game when you distribute the videos. It then becomes pornography (child porn in this case) and a cyber crime of international proportions. Once these things hit the internet then it is no longer a local issue. The ramifications are endless. 

I say all this to conclude that we as a society need to address sex and sexuality in more palatable ways so that the message in driven and form part of the knowledge, attitudes and practice of our people. It is one thing to know about the dangers of something and a totally different thing to put what you've learned into practice.

Where do we start? At schools? At Churches? At Clubs? No, we start within the homes. Parents should be willing enough and open enough to "discuss" sex and sexuality with their children. And I put discuss in inverted commas because a lot of what we think is discussion in Caribbean families is actually a shouting, blaming game. 

I can say more and I hope I get the opportunity to say a lot more and even help out if the need arises but our young people, our future deserve more than what we are giving them.

Thank You
Delroy N. Williams
Youth Activist

There are news stories of the incident here:
Dominica News Online
Dominica Vibes 

I'm sorry Mr. Jackson... you are so wrong...

Response to Commentary by Ian Jackson

I read with great eagerness the article penned by Ian Jackson in the Sun Newspaper of August 22^nd, 2011 titled “Our youth simply do not care” only to be disappointed in the facts as stated and in the rash conclusions drawn from a poorly researched commentary. It felt more like Mr. Jackson was venting his disappointment than being objectionable in his criticism (I was expecting them to be more of a constructive nature). Maybe, I too, had too high of an expectation and for that I apologize to the writer.

Mr. Jackson goes on to use the example of the attendance and polling results at the National Youth Council of Dominica’s (NYCD) General Assembly as a primary example that the results “confirm the youth’s denial of themselves and their inability to organize and certainly a lack of motivation and direction as a unit.”

I would like to honestly ask Mr. Jackson: how does one (1) National Youth Council’s General Assembly election confirms that youths do not care? I see this as more of a social issue than a mere youth issue. If we look at the other elections, i.e. village council or by-elections, what is the voting trend? Is there a massive turnout of voters? The greater issue at hand is the fact that the youth get pigeonholed to a social (general) issue to give it significance, using young people as scapegoats, something that this writer has also done in his “Internet Children” calypso.

What troubles me about the writer’s assumption is that the he uses one instance to generalize about the entire youthful population. Every objectionable writer knows that generalizations are made based on trends as observed through data analysis usually other a significant period of time and not on one instance, especially when it pertains to human behavior and attitudes. This gut feeling analysis holds no water, like straw baskets.

To sit idly by and generalize on the state of youth affairs and their behaviors from second hand accounts (Mr. Jackson wasn’t present or hasn’t been present at a General Assembly of the National Youth Council in over five (5) years) is misleading and a rash judgment.

It feels like the judge has tried the defendant even before viewing the evidence at hand, a clear case or irrational analysis of the matter at hand.

I feel this article is disrespectful to those who worked tirelessly at the National Youth Council, often with little or no support from the “adult” population. This article also belittles the achievement of Miss Fenella Wenham (not Miss Jonella Williams) in becoming the first female President of the National Youth Council.

The article goes on to say that “one can’t say that we hear the voices of the youth on issues of national relevance such as Voters versus National ID cards or debates and discussions on integrity in public office… have they organized marches to sensitize their peers on AIDS or are they waiting for adults to do it for them?

These statements clearly come from someone who isn’t in touch with the realities especially as it relates to youth involvement in national and social issues. The National HIV/AIDS Response Unit will attest that the NYCD and other youth organization, groups and clubs have been key partners, stakeholders and participants in a number of their activities and have themselves of the past five (5) years organized numerous debates, discussions, marches, paraphernalia distribution and the likes with regards to HIV/AIDS awareness.

I can also point to more than one occasion where the NYCD openly and freely discussed the issues of National verses Voter ID, unemployment, crime and violence and various other societal ills on state and private media. Young people do discuss these issues and many others too but Mr. Jackson must also be aware that there are more avenues for discussion now than before and simply because the radio/television sources are not the chosen sources for youth doesn’t mean the absence of meaningful discussion.

I honestly think that the article should have given as much focus and credence to the other “school of thought” and should have even explored the influence of the behavior and attitudes of the “adult” generation on the “sewo” generation. Again it shows that adults are quick to judge youth without realizing that they are as much to blame for their attitudes and behaviors.

The outcomes and conclusions from a more concrete analysis would have been more fruitful and would have garnered more respect from me.

Clearly the author of “Internet Children” didn’t want to wait for it, or work hard to build his conclusion, he wanted his judgments now and he didn’t want to work for it!

There is more to be concerned about in this article but I think these points are enough, at least for now.

Delroy N. Williams

Concerned youth

Recent Newspaper Article

The following is a recent newspaper article abour yours truly. It was written by Miss Edona Jno. Baptiste, a reporter with the New Chronicle Newspaper, just a few days after i was elected new President of the National Youth Council of Dominica. I replaced Kelver Darroux under strange circumstances and I must add that i had nothing to do with it, because everyone kept asking me what role i played in his resignation.

Anyways, the truth shall be revealed and the article is as follows:

Delroy Williams said he is focused on advancing the office of the National Youth Council (NYC) as the new President.

Williams has been involved in youth work since his high school days. He was dubbed ‘member of the month’ just a couple months after joining the Kiwanis Educating Youth Club at 13 years whilst attending the Dominica Grammar School.

Subsequently, he began partaking in more groups. He is a former President of the Bath Estate Youth group and was one of the volunteers for the Camp Rescue Londonderry Programme.

Williams who is presently the President of the Dominica Youth Environment Organisation (DYEO) Inc and the National Association of Youth in Agriculture (NAYA) said “I also love the environment so I try to tie the two of them. So right now a lot of my focus is on the environment, agriculture and youth work.”

Asked whether his two Presidential roles would be a conflict with his new position, he replied “I don’t see it as a conflict.”

“I see it as an opportunity to get the work done. These three agencies look at totally different things. The Youth Council is general; NAYA is more agriculture and DYEO is environment. DYEO and NAYA have more opportunities to collaborate [and] I have been trying that during my mandate, and my role in the NYC is to get those organisations even more active... If there’s conflict then conflict only brings about resolution and it is within my power and my grasp to ensure that everything goes well and that the organisations continue to develop as needs be,” he told The Chronicle in an exclusive interview.

Even so, Williams recognised it would be a challenge. But he is optimistic since he has dedicated persons supporting him on each of those organisations. “They have pledged their support,” he noted.

The NYC executive is not daunted by former President Kelver Darroux’s resignation, although Williams realised it has caused some instability amongst members. However, they are advancing with the planned agenda for the year.

“I am still a little in the dark although he told me that it was personal reasons. I’m awaiting his press conference as to his exact personal reason or reasons as to his departure from the NYC. We met [last Thursday) at the office of the Council and we had a nice discussion as to his reasons and [he said] now was the opportune time and he was not really stepping away but allowing somebody else to step up within the Council... he ruled that he will be giving as much support in his new line of work or line of focus... and of course the Council will be calling on Mr. Darroux because he’s still a person of a lot of contacts and a lot of resources,” the new NYC President stated.

Darroux sent his letter of resignation via e-mail last week to the Administrative Coordinator of the NYC.

According to Williams, the job of the President is to stabilise discouraged and de-motivated youths to strive for a universal goal. Within the NYC, that goal is youth development, according to him.

“My thing is that you should align yourself with positive activities as a young person. We all see what the negative can do and what it is doing to our nation. So as much as possible you align yourself with positive movements [and] ensure that you do not only develop in terms of education but in social development,” he said.

Williams called for support from Dominican youths as he endeavours to make NYC a positive agent for youth development.

His personal plan on the cards is the set up of a National Youth Credit Union. The NYC will also continue to revive the district youth councils and establish student councils since a number of them are dormant.