This video is making the social media rounds today. It is a confrontation between a school boy and a police officer. We don’t know what happened prior to the footage being taken, but it does not appear that the amount of force and aggression used by the officer is warranted. In any case, check it out and enjoy your Sunday.
At the age of just 25, Randy McLaren has styled himself as a “Kriativ Aktivis”, a persona meant to encourage social change and empower young people. McLaren has already brought his passionate dub poetry performances all over Jamaica and is branching out internationally, from Zimbabwe to the U.K.
“I view my creative talents as a way of activism, a creative way of empowering, inspiring, educating, motivating,” he says of his rapid, lyrical and dramatic delivery style. “Young people don’t have the greatest attention span.”
So McLaren, who graduated from the University of the West Indies with a degree in sociology, reads all the time, mostly current affairs. He is most passionate about rectifying what he calls “reverse urbanization” or rural neglect, which he explains as the phenomenon of people migrating from the country to Kingston and back to the country again. “A lot of people are going back home and taking their inner city values. It’s almost as if the rural communities are being turned into ghettos,” he says.
McLaren grew up in the tiny rural community of Gardenfield in the parish of St. Thomas, where it took an hour to walk to school every day. He has three brothers and a sister, and as the middle child, assumed a busy life, becoming involved in academics and track and field, cricket and football. The best day, he remembers, was the day he came third in the spelling bee and then scored two goals for his football team to take the win.
However, the family struggled to support McLaren and his brothers and sister. “Things were always rough, challenging financially.”
So the community stepped in, recognizing McLaren’s talents. As a result, the concept of community and family were engrained in McLaren at an early age. “The concept of family was not just biological, and the concept of mentorship started to form.”
McLaren excelled academically and was the only boy in his rural community to qualify to attend a city school, which is a big deal. He was accepted at Excelsior College, where he was exposed to Youth Opportunities Unlimited, which was running peer counselling programs in the school. YOU is the largest mentoring agency in the region, having been founded in 1991.
It has since touched the lives of tens of thousands of youth and by extension, their communities. Thanks to YOU, which provides a range of programming, from parenting courses to employability and social skills training to peer counseling, McLaren was able to develop the ability to listen to his peers.
“The program gave me a strong platform to help people, to help others and share with others,” he says of YOU.
“I learned that we can make suggestions, but to this day, I never tell anyone what to do. It always boils down to the individual.”
McLaren is sensitive to the challenges youth face and has found that his peers look up to him and rely on him. As a result, he is always available to them and his phone is always buzzing with someone seeking advice or help.
McLaren will always remain accessible, but he has his sights set on larger goals. He continues to write new dub poetry pieces and recently completed a heart-wrenchingly beautiful piece for Unicef Jamaica on the victims of a horrific fire at the Armadale Correctional Facility. Seven girls were burned to death there, in state care.
“To me, talent must be used for good. The underlying principle is that you present it in a way that people want to take it to the highest level,” he says of inspiring his peers to be socially aware and active.
One of my new favourite songs. I need to not worry today. Just one of those days. Hope it is going better for you:)
We are putting together my story today on children in adult lock-ups in Jamaica. This story is for new outfit 18 Degrees North. Check this link to watch the first two episodes. My story is slated to air on Sept. 9. Please share, Tweet and Facebook the link below. Have a great day!
http://www.18degreesnorth.tv/the-jamaican-lottery-scam-still-going-strong-full-episode/
http://www.televisionjamaica.com/Programmes/WeekendSmile.aspx/Videos/28763
On Saturday, Youth Opportunities Unlimited’s Deputy Executive Director Cush Lewis appeared on TVJ (one of the main local broadcasters) for its morning show. Cush did a great job selling YOU and its mentoring services. He is a natural! Check out the interview here, he gives a great summary of what YOU does.
Some days, there is an excess of depressing news here. Too many killings, too much poverty, too many people in need. It can get to you, depending what you choose to focus on. So here is a positive story on a Monday morning for you:
Randy McLaren, otherwise known as the Kriativ Aktivis, was a Youth Opportunities Unlimited mentee when he was in high school. Here is what he said about how the experience benefited him:
“I was a mentee. Received all the training in things a peer counsellor should know. I developed sound life skills, became a better listener and was better able to assist my peers as a student leader. I also expressed the new knowledge via my creative talents. I was able to hone my skills as a positive change agent. Empowerment is key.”
Randy is now forging a successful path in the performance/entertainment industry. Check him out in this video performing at a recent YOU function.
I know from firsthand experience the benefits of the mentor/mentee relationship, having mentored several young people over the years. The cliche is true, I think, that it enriches the mentor more than the mentee. So it is nice to hear about the benefits from the other side of the equation, too. Have a great day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkdF85e6hc8
Check the promo for the new news magazine I am working with, 18 Degrees North. It is launching next week and my story will air soon. 18 Degrees North intends to be a 60 Minutes-type investigative show that will be aired on Jamaica’s TVJ channel and eventually elsewhere in the Caribbean. Its anchor, Zahra Burton is a former Bloomberg Television (and former Miss Jamaica) reporter who worked out of New York City.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Op8d1je1K0
This 60 Minutes story aired a few months ago and again tonight. It got me thinking then and now. The story outlines the experiences of an American Green Beret soldier who served in Iraq. This soldier drew up a plan to tackle drug and gang violence in Springfield, MA that is based on counter-insurgency principles.
I don’t know enough about counter-insurgency to comment on its merits, but I do know that it has had mixed results in the Middle East. Basically, it involves creating a heavy and visible police presence in neighbourhoods. What also stood out to me was the weekly elder meetings, which invited people from civil service organizations, schools, residents, business-owners, or anyone with an interest in safety, to meet every week to discuss whatever needed to be addressed.
I wonder if this would work in Jamaica. Certainly, gang violence is a major issue. It takes lives and creates fear, which has countless ripple effects in the community.
In general, dialogue usually eases conflict, but I wonder if the dons and drug dealers in Jamaica would be open to such a program. First, however, the police would have to regain the trust of the communities.
In any case, this is worth a watch as it is thought-provoking and an interesting thought experiment to apply to communities affected by gang and drug violence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcIb82q_yUE&list=UUdPmbLflqNtiAzOd-Cxtffg
“I just pray that people will open themselves to learning, talking and living in community with one another.”
This quote is from the Reverend Howard Williams, who lives in the U.S. now but is from the Caribbean.
Isn’t that a nice way of putting it? In other words, while we do not immediately have to agree with one another, could we at least try to listen to one another’s points of view? Could we try to circle around, jump, as best we can, into someone else’s mind, and adopt our neighbour’s perspective?
That would be a starting point, a fertile place to grow a common ground, where people can come to respect one another.
This is perhaps part of the aim of J-Flag’s We are Jamaicans campaign. Last night, J-Flag launched its latest round of Youtube videos. The advocacy group is expected to release dozens of videos over the next few weeks. It is timely, as the nation’s Emancipation Day is looming. While a great deal has been achieved in terms of human rights, in a relatively short time (Jamaica will be 51 years old this year), there is still much work to be done.
Sadly, a young Jamaican named Dwayne Jones was killed last week because people objected to the choices he made about how he lived his life. Let this campaign lead the way to abolishing murders of promising young men like Dwayne Jones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wIceAz0xI8
On Friday morning, a group of us headed down to the National Stadium for J’ouvert. This is an annual event involving road marches, costumes, soca music and paint or powder. We arrived at about 230am, ate some soup, chatted and waited. The parade started at about 4am. It was a blast, especially because we ended up getting pulled onto the float/truck of someone we had previously met.
The road march is a procession of thousands of people dancing alongside huge trucks (which carry gigantic speakers) upon which people dance and eat and drink.
A bit of history about J’ouvert- it is a Trinidadian tradition. The word means ‘day break’ and is a contraction of jour ouvert. It was introduced to Trinidad by French settlers in the 1780s and was cultivated by emancipated slaves. People would traditionally cover themselves with mud but this practice now includes paint and powder and even chocolate. The idea, I’ve heard, is that everyone lets loose and discards for a few hours the trappings of their social class. “Doesn’t matter if you are uptown or downtown, everybody is just having a good time,” someone told me yesterday.
Check out this song by Trinidadian artist Bunji Garlin. It seemed to be blasting 24/7 this carnival season. I got home about 6am, the time I am usually just about to go for a run. The sun was rising and the party winding down. Have a great Sunday!
Jamaican Journal 