 Hello, and good evening, viewers and listeners. Thank you for being here with us. Today, we are going to have a panel discussion. And this panel discussion is brought to you by the Caribbean Youth Environment Network. And the theme for this incommemoration of international youth day is peace, youth building peace. And so what are we going to do right now is to introduce our panelists for tonight. And to my far right, we have the NYC president, National Youth Council president, Joshua Andrew. We also have the representative for CYE and Snalia Mahal. And we have on my immediate right, Jay Ja, who is a lawyer by profession. We have other panelists sitting within our midst. They are not on stage. And we will recognize them right now. We have Bennett Charles, representing United and Strong. We have Zander Daisy, who is also representing Saipan. That's the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador's network. And we have Sian Phil Phil, representing the Sinushan Agricultural Forum for Youth. What we're going to do here this evening is to get an appreciation of knowing the relevance of peace in our country. And we have a very good core of persons, young persons at that, who would share with us their views as it relates to peace building in our country. And we will go straight way into just hearing a little bit about them and what their social impact is within this country as it relates to peace building and youth. So without further ado, I'd like to just give the opportunity from you, the panelists, to just indicate where you stand as it relates to your organization and the fight for peace building in our country. Anyone would begin? Justin Andrew, president of the Sinushan National Youth Council. Peace building in Sinusha is something that is of utmost importance at this point in time. Many of our young people seem to be involved in activities which contradict more or less the whole concept of peace. And it is evident in recent times we can see that there is an increase in crime. Our murder rate is going up. Some persons have related anti-peace even with our suicide rate, which is under rise as well. I think that many of our young persons need to understand more or less the importance. And for some of us who are encouraged in peace, also I think we need to look at preventative measures and more or less that angle rather than the corrective measures or how to deal with something that has already started. And so sometimes I think we need to look at the science behind a lot of our functions as a human being. And you would be aware of the fact that the brain functions in such a way that we have part of the brain called a amygdala. And it receives external responses from the outside. And it chooses whether to send information to the logic part of the brain or to the flight part of the brain. And that part of the brain goes based on emotional response. And when the emotional response triggers it rather than sending the information to the logic side of the brain, it sends it to the emotional side, fight or flight side of the brain. And so we become aware of that. And we realize a deeper importance for emotional intelligence and encouraging our young people to be emotionally intelligent. And understanding how to take control of many of these situations. And we have persons like Ms. Daisy who also speaks about self-awareness. And it's very important that we reach out to our young people and encourage them to explore these options in terms of preventing situations which could lead to you having to put measures in place to look for peace building. As the NYC, based on our structure, we hope to work with several organizations, for how it's initial like we have here tonight, to effectively reach out to our young persons and get a lot of this peace building ongoing. Very much so. Thank you very much. Snali Mahal, national coordinator of the Caribbean Youth Environment Network. We generally focus on environmental issues, but the organization itself was created not only to focus on environmental issues, but on other issues facing young persons in terms of education, HIV prevention and education, and all other aspects of your development. What we've realized is that we cannot separate issues from what makes the life of youth either good or bad. And we must be able to find ways to reach our young persons. And reaching young persons, I think this event that CYN has put together, this panel discussion, is an attempt to reach young persons from all different sectors. That is why we have the NYC, we have Jade Hair presenting, the Law of Fraternity, and we have United and Strong, Slaffy, and Saipan Hair. So we believe that a collaborative effort is needed to speak to the issue of peace in St. Lucia, not only for young persons, but the whole country, the country as a whole. I will disagree slightly with Joshua. He said that a lot of our young persons, I do not believe it is a lot. I think a lot of it is highlighted in our media, but the positive things that our young persons are doing, those who are actually advocating peace, they're not being highlighted. And I think that is one of the major issues that we have. The fact that we dwell a lot on the negative and forget that there are positive developments happening in our country, both among the young persons and our general public. Very good points and we will elaborate on that as we continue, but we will hear from Jade right now. Jade, Attorney at Law by profession. Still fairly new to the profession itself because I spent some time in the private sector before my studies, but I can safely say I've always been interested in the legal aspect of things, and although I don't think I am able to speak for the entire fraternity, I think it's safe to say that one of the aims of the legal system as a whole is definitely to promote peace. Because if you think about it, even at its core, if you can separate the law into, I guess what most people would see that would be the civil side, which deals with issues between private persons, entities and whatnot. And the criminal side, which essentially you see the state dealing with issues of a criminal nature. Both of these actually at their core represent peace because from a criminal standpoint, you have different aims of that side of the law, whether it be to let's say deter persons from further committing crimes or deter persons who may jump into that life to rehabilitate persons who may find themselves going down certain paths and whatnot. And you look at the civil aspect of it where you have disputes between persons of varying natures, whether it be a land this or contract gone bad or whatnot. And the aim of the court, I think, the aim of the justice system as a whole should be recognized as one that is there for a specific purpose. And that is to bring the two sides together and essentially have everyone walking away as happy and as safe and as fulfilled as possible. Because if you think about it, any situation can escalate into one that I think can be said to be the opposite of peace. Because now you find persons have various types of disputes, sometimes over small amounts of money that ends up turning into something very serious. And I think the aim or I guess the purpose of the law and everyone who works within that part of society needs to be recognized as one that's not essentially trying to impose on people but to work with people to ensure that the aim of at least as peaceful as society as possible is actually met. And I think that can generally be applied across the board when it comes to how the law itself applies and those who work within the law enforcement and justice administrations and things. So I'm hoping to bring my perspective to this. Although I do not present myself as speaking for the entire fraternity because that is a very wide one. But I hope to at least bring something to the table. Very much so. And with the discussions that we're gonna be having, it's obvious that we do want to have a legal standpoint on the matters that affect youth and as it relates to peace building as well. We'll hear a little more from the offstage panelists in a little while during the session of questions. But what we do here too is to continue on the points that you guys made. Joshua made some points as it relates to emotional intelligence and how our young people go about thinking through fight or flight, how the response to situations. Snalia recognized the fact that there should be a collaborative effort with all stakeholders involved in actually reaching peace. And we have you talking about the recognition of the justice system and how it helps within the cases of peace building in our country. We know that as Joshua mentioned that our country is plagued with violence. There is an unprecedented number of homicides in this nation. We stand now at 33. And this is something that needs to, that should be a worry for everyone, all stakeholders involved. And we also note that there are some issues as it relates to unemployment, especially as it relates to youth young persons in our country. And many say that that may be a direct result of the issues that exist in our country. What say you as it relates to peace? What do you recognize peace to be in your own way of thinking? What you call peace. Many persons contribute, say that peace may be the up-center of war. And everybody has a different view of what peace is really. What are your views as it relates to peace? I think for me, and I will take it from both professional and personal side. I don't think it's reasonable or possible to take conflict of any kind totally out of the equation, because conflict will arise. I think the way I see peace is that you look at the types of conflicts that you have. So for example, if you have an upsurge of a lot of violent type of conflict, which involves persons getting physical and use of weapons and whatnot. I think that compared to persons who have conflict type situations, but are able to deal with them differently, deal with them with words and with ideas and with non-physical, non-violent, non-abrasive types of measures. If you can have that type of society where a conflict will arise, but we can both walk away alive and not totally discontented of each other, I think that in my opinion is what a peaceful society could be in the real world at least. Okay. For me, I think peace is, you cannot have peace without having conflict. There's nothing to work for. You can't work for peace if there's not a disagreement, if there's not conflict. So for me, peace is basically the, it's not the absence of conflict, but the ability for it to work towards a balance where there is understanding. That you understand that yes, I may not necessarily agree with your point of view, but I can live with it, or I can make, how do you say, certain decisions based on my point of view and yours and that we can live in a certain space if it's a small space, a large space, whatever space it is, but that we are able to tolerate each other in that space. So our space is St. Lucia. And for me, peace would be us being able to live in harmony with each other, knowing that there will always be differences. There are always going to be differences, but knowing that we need to accept each other at a certain level, knowing that we are not all perfect, but that we can work towards something that we know we want St. Lucia to be an example maybe to the Caribbean or to the world, and so we work towards that. And that, for me, that's what the whole idea of peace or peace building is about, that's it. Okay. Before we go to Gershwin, we will take our first break. When we come back, we will have from the president of the NYC on what he thinks peace is, and we will delve into a little more of what peace building is all about in our country. Travelers should at all times proceed at a safe speed, that the captain can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stuck within a distance appropriate to condition and circumstances. Even at slow speeds, your boat will create a wake. Look behind at your wake and be aware of the impact this can have on other boats, people in the water or the shore. Traveling at the speed shown on the speed restriction sign does not guarantee you are not creating excessive wash. When navigating yet in or through a mooring area, drive slowly and keep the wake to a minimum and keep a lookout for people in the water, small dinghies and trailing ropes. To determine a safe speed, take the following factors into account. Visibility, traffic density, how easy or difficult it is to move the vessel, including stopping distance and turning ability, state of the wind, current, navigational hazards and draft. It is also important to always keep a lookout to monitor landmarks, navigational hazards and the captain's blindside. For more information on obtaining a license to fish, contact the Department of Fisheries at 468-4143. Welcome back as we continue to discuss peace building in our country. Before the break, we spoke with our two panelists and they mentioned what they think peace is to them and we will go straight to Joshua on that topic. Well, for me, peace is the way in which you manage conflict so that you do not cause emotional, psychological or physical harm to those with whom you interact on a daily basis. And I think it also involves the fostering of an environment that is anti-conflict. So you always conduct yourself in a manner that does not lead to the causing of conflict. But also, like I was saying, when there is conflict, that you find ways to manage it like Snaglia was saying, where you do not cause any harm to those around you. OK, great. So moving on to the question on how your organizations have put together programs to help fight the issue of criminal and violent extremisms, what would you think would be the easiest way of reaching our young persons? Those who may be considered problematic to society are at risk and so forth. How do you think you would be able to bring forth those programs to them? How easy or how difficult you have found it to be? Whether it is a case of those young persons being open to receiving these programs and seeing that there is need for peace building, how have you gone through dealing with situations like this with the programs that you have under your organizations? Well, I could speak for CYA and we do not have a long history. Well, not in a time that I've been a member of, what would you say, working towards peace in a sense, if you're looking at it in terms of crime and whatnot. But we do encourage young persons to volunteer their time doing good works, doing positive things. And we have certainly focused a lot on environment and on climate change and sustainable development. So a lot of our work has concentrated on things that would benefit the general population, everybody. And so I think one of the things that we may need to focus on as a nation is not, yes, you mentioned in the beginning that one of the things that have been associated with the rising crime is the issue of unemployment. But I think that unemployment is not necessarily the problem, but that our youth are not engaged in other activities than just staying at home. And we do not encourage them to go out and do other things than staying at home watching television, playing games, or just being idle. They're doing nothing else, nothing else. So they're not spending their time and energy on doing anything that would uplift them or make them feel better about themselves while they are unemployed. They're unemployed, getting depressed, feeling alone, and not doing anything that would get them active, get them socializing, getting them away from the computers because they're not meeting people or learning how to deal with people. And with the age of technology, you have cases where young persons are glued to their phones, glued to the social media, and all of these things. Do you think that the absence of the young persons doing more positive things challenges them to go out there and just do criminal offenses? Because they're just out there doing nothing, there is this term where it says idle hands is the devil's workshop, that they would find other things to do because they're idle. Do you think that it contributes to that? I think to some extent that the unemployment has a part to play because some of the unemployed youth who actually don't want to sit around what they do, they get involved in drugs, the selling of drugs. And that environment uses crime and conflict situations to solve the issues. And so in that way, I see the unemployment actually contributing directly to the lack of peace for some of our young persons I stand corrected. Also, I think that conflict resolution is something that is learned. So over time, we as adults, we as parents, we have a part to play in the young ones coming up. And they're observing us. They're observing our interactions. They observe our methods of conflict resolution. And whatever we show them has to fight against whatever they see on the media, whatever they see on the telephones, on the social media, as known as the way to resolve situations. And so I think the parents of our nation have a really huge part to play in terms of teaching our young persons, or letting them understand the methods what can be done in terms of conflict resolution. So when you have a young person who has a situation at school and the school decides to discipline the child in whatever way, and the child goes home for a report, the parent goes back to the school, not with an open mind to find out what's going on. But the mother or the father goes to the school, and the child observes the way in which the parent there deals with the situation, deals with the conflict, and the child learns from it. And so our children are learning a lot of these habits from us, the older folks. In addition, I can say that currently we have the juvenile justice reform project that is going on, whereby young offenders rather than keeping them in the system, you find ways to actually rehabilitate those young persons and help them rejoin, get back into society rather than sending them to jail, for example, and staying in the repetition and keeping them in the system. So those things, in addition to Snalia's point in that, we engage those young persons into volunteerism activities, into sports, into things that will, like you said, take up the time and not keep them idle. I think we'll all work together in building peace. And I'm happy that you made mention of the parents playing that role. That is a significant impact, especially the intergenerational issues that exist right now. The cultures that exist with the adult ways, the archaic ways of handling issues in the past that delving into the future. And parents not having a hand on dealing with the 21st century child. These are with the age of technology and how to handle the issues that exist now with the child of today. The parents, young parents at that too, having children, they do not really know how to deal with the issues that exist now. Do you think that the way in which our parents of the past dealt with situations are the cause and effects of what's happening now? Or is it that what used to happen in the past needs to happen now, and it's not happening? What are the issues that exist there? Well, with regards to that question, I'm pretty much tying in everything that was just mentioned. I think to some extent, you might find parents, some parents out there who don't see parenting as being somewhat of an obligation. I use the word obligation, why? Because being a parent comes with that many things, including legal obligations. So for example, you have a situation where a young man of, let's say, 15 years old would have vandalized the vehicle. And you take that situation to the parent. And the parent's approach is, well, yeah, well, OK. He did that. That's terrible. You should call the police. Because, of course, he did a bad thing, and now he has to pay for it. So then you look at the parent, and you ask them, OK, so who's going to pay for the damage to the vehicle? And you find this person totally unaware of the fact that it's very much a legal obligation on their part that if, for example, you have a minor child who causes damage to someone else's property, and they have to recover that, then, of course, they can't. If they're not working, which they probably do well, they shouldn't be. Who else is next in line to take care of that? That is you, the parent. And you'd think that at least that notion would probably sink in with certain parents. So for example, at least even if you don't take it from a moral standpoint where I must morally take care of my children, at least from that standpoint on a legal basis, knowing that you have brought someone into this world, and you are obligated to them until they reach a certain age. And then you find that it seems this person is literally just sitting there waiting for that certain age to come so that they could totally wash their hands of the child. And I think these types of situations are some of those that you look at and reinforce the point that's almost become cliche, that it starts at home. You need it to start at home. And if it doesn't, then where is the hope after that? So as much as you can't put this home, which is one of the things you wish you could do down to the very core point, you actually want it to be a case where people understand the obligations that come with certain things, including parenting. Yeah, and it's very important. Look here, we have situations where the kids spend most of their time at school. The parents would consider that dealing with the issues of their kids should be handled by the teachers, whereas the teachers are saying they're only obligated to teach their academic goals towards their academic goals. And the lessons of life has to come from the home. What see you as it relates to that? Because you find that the kids are caught up in a bind. They do not know where to learn the importance of life, the life skills, the soft skills. They don't get that from school. They don't get it from home. So where do they go? The streets, they learn it from their peers through peer pressure. They get to deal with these situations out of the blue. And they don't really get to appreciate how to deal with complex issues, deal with conflict, the way that they should. And that's an issue that exists presently. We could get feedback from those on the outside that are the panelists that are offstage to give their view as it relates to this as well. I just want to mention, touch on the point that you just mentioned. You're saying that the teacher feels like it's the parent's role to parents. And the parents feel that the teachers should teach. But not because your child goes to school. You don't ask them if they have homework or help them with their schoolwork. You teach them at home. Well, you should. And then the teacher should. I'm not saying that they're obligated to. They're not obligated to. But there has to be a give and take somewhere in the middle there as well. Yeah. Thank you very much, Bennett Charles, Communications Officer United and Strong Inc. I sort of saw or listened to you. And I think that the discussion was heading too much in terms of young people and the issue of unemployment as one of the biggest factors of the issues of conflict and the absence of peace. And I really want to disagree with this. Because I think too often we use certain social ills as the reason why certain things are happening in itself. And I think a lot of the time unemployment seems to be the biggest factor in itself. Let me be realistic here. Too often I think that we escape the other issues. One, I mean the theme for this year is looking at two things. Basically, the issue of inclusion, which you know there's a big problem in that. A lot of programs are not targeted at some of the kids or young people who actually need it. And even the President of the National Youth Council here, we know that our programs are usually targeted at persons who are within organizations. So it's up to the responsibility of the clubs themselves to include young people who tend not to want to be part of organizations. But somehow we forget that. So the inclusion already, we're already excluding young people who are themselves vulnerable. The other issue is I think too often we tend to think, yes, peace. If a man stabbed me or whatever happens to a young person on the road, I'm not worried about peace. I'm worried about justice. And I think too often we forget that in itself. That, and one of the aspects of the theme is social justice. And this is one of the biggest issues that we have. So imagine somebody who's my daughter. I have a 14-year-old daughter and she's ripped. As a parent, my instinct, as a male parent, my instinct is to really take this person who has violated my daughter and do whatever I can to them for my own level of justice. Because I believe that the system really and truly won't do anything for them. And so I may have ways of dealing with it in terms of the prescribed way of, as a parent, you wait for the justice system to deal with it. But the justice system has failed our young people predominantly. So why should I rely on a system that is failing? So you find young persons themselves who are employed. Suicide is a daily issue about suicide. We have to be honest. Unemployment is not necessarily the main factor of young persons committing suicide. People themselves, persons who have committed suicide sometimes are very much employed. In itself. So we have to sort of look at the deeper issues. The way we are socialized as people, generally not one of the biggest factors. I work with an organization that deals with LGBT young persons. One of the worst things you can be in this country is to be young and be gay. That's the worst thing. You can be young. Everybody say you're young, you're invincible. But say that you're young and gay, that's already an issue at the end of the day. So we have to start broadening the issue. When we talk about peace, young people don't want to hear about peace. They want to know if somebody slaps me or somebody violates me, what happens at the end of the day? And I think this is sometimes what we need to look at. I heard the honorable president for the NYC spoke about the juvenile justice program. These are for young persons who are predominantly, we've seen them at the bad seeds. And a lot of them, they're branded at bad seeds. But you're going to send them to the Boys Trading Center, which already has them right off the shoes. Optongle Center, let me be realistic. So I think we need to look at the social justice systems that are feeding our young people and generally adults themselves. Because if a man is, for example, violated by a woman, the justice system really and truly laughs at that. Which man goes towards, you know? So we need to focus on the social justice system and how it's really impacting young people. And the whole issue of inclusion have truly been inclusive when it comes to people in this country. Yeah, and you made a very valid point talking about that it doesn't necessarily mean that unemployment is the cause for the issues that exist in our country. There are many other instances where even to the powers that be, those persons who should be setting up the example, those persons who are supposed to show the young persons that these are the ways that things should be done. Sometimes too, the young persons don't even know which way is the right way anymore. Because you have white collar crime, you have blue collar crime, and everybody is doing it. And if it's okay on top there, then it's okay with me and then you'd want to bash me at the end of the day as a young person doing that same thing that you did and nothing happened. You know, so these are the issues that we have presently that our young people face and they're wondering why is it that they've been picked on? Because I'm young, I made that error. This guy is older than me, he is in a position where he can do better and he made that same error and he went scot-free and I'm left to pay. So we need to find out how we could deal with situations like that, how young people could deal with these situations like that. I want to hear your perspective on that when we come back though. We're taking a break right now and we will meet to discuss much more that matter and we will speak as well with Xander who is off stage when we come back. I'm with my 14-year-old child. She's driving me crazy. I just don't know what to do. All our child needs is some good leaks to wake up. Alice, ignore the counseling pants he's given. Government employees have free access to professional counseling services under the Employee Assistance Program known as EAP. EAP? EAP? What's that? Not me that telling people my business. Listen to me, Alice. I was struggling with my child. I made an appointment to see an EAP counselor and I was very satisfied with the service that I received. And you know what? Up to a day like today, my information remains confidential. Cox, how come nobody in the office knew anything about your counseling? Ah, that's because EAP counselors, they work on the strict clauses of confidentiality. I know you know what confidential means. EAP providing professional counseling services? How much is it? Girl, the counseling is free. Free for you, free for your child. And you know what? Your information remains confidential. Call the EAP unit at the Ministry of the Public Service. Telephone number 4682269 for more information. EAP Works, let it work for you. Welcome back. As we continue to celebrate International Youth Day, we continue on the theme of youth building peace. We had a very interesting contribution from Bennett Charles, making it, bringing the points to you, considering other aspects rather than employment for the cases or the issues that we're dealing with. We will continue with Xander with her contribution on that aspect. All right, good night, everybody. I will begin with speaking a little bit about the UNSCR, Security Council Resubmission 2250, which will be the basis of everything else I am going to say. Right now, the council, you know, they said that, they give five pillars of peace building that their members should follow, being protection, partnership, which Ms. Mahal spoke of, participation, disintegration and reintegration, and there's another one, and prevention. Right, now this is supposed to be done or led by youth through the governments, right? The governments of these different countries are supposed to say, okay, youth, I am giving youth a battle to lead peace building efforts, peace building activities, right? Now, I am going to be real about it. Here in St. Lucia, how much investment is placed on social development? Yes, USAID gives something, you know, but you don't really get the passion and the priority being placed on youth and social activities, because as Bennett mentioned, and I think there was another panelist who also mentioned it, unemployment is not the big problem. A lot of problems or other problems lead to unemployment. Right, now, again, I'm going to be as real as it gets. We are looking for a lot of investments that are going to bring jobs to our young people. But if we have no social development programs or our social work systems are very, very weak, how are people supposed to be in their right mind or have that strong sense of self to be able to take up the very jobs that are being created for them? So I am calling on, I'm not going to say the powers that be, the government and the private sectors that members of the private sector that holds a very, very strong, they have a very strong influence on the economy. So do your part, because at the end of the day, conflict is inevitable, but violence isn't. And we have to really look at empowering those who are willing to help those who are in not, I should say, other best situations. I don't really like to use them with marginalized or what. But those who are a little less advantaged, thank you. Correct. And if you really look at how things have spanned out, a lot of the programs, those programs that are placed on for young persons in dealing with these issues, we tend to exclude them in those programs because we marginalize, as you said, we call them your fat risk and we don't include them in how to dealing with these issues, conflict resolution, what programs, what situations they put themselves into, how they would be able to deal with these issues. A lot of the times these programs are done haphazardly and those persons that are supposed to benefit from these programs are usually not the ones getting into these programs. You always get the ones that are well able that don't face these issues of poverty, those issues of criminal offenses. Those persons are not introduced to these programs most of the time and you have that issue. But speaking of before the break, where we made mention of the law, how law looks at young persons against vis-a-vis those persons of influence, those persons who know better, how we could deal with that situation as young persons and your view on it, Jayden. Okay, what I'll try to do, I'll try to piggyback off the contribution by fellow panelists, Mr. Charles. In some ways I feel the need to, I'll use the word defend the justice system for many reasons and one of the first things I want to point out is the fact that I guess in the ideal world the best justice system is the one that you don't need because obviously everyone sees the courts as this thing that you jump into and there's problems. If there's no problems you won't need them but we know that's not how it works. The next best one is the most efficient and effective one. Now, even the most ineffective court has or the most ineffective justice system has some effect and that's one of the things I want to point out, why because I'm not going to say that the system is perfect because we know that it isn't but if you look at it, I think it might be more accurate to describe our justice system as it is, especially from being on different, from a different perspective I would say, it's not necessarily a broken system, it's a strain system. It is a very strained system. And with that, if you picture a machine, a broken machine can't do anything but a strained machine is having some kind of effect whether it's to your satisfaction or to your liking, that's something else. But the fact of the matter is, if you approach it in an inappropriate way, you're going to have one of two things happening. Either you're going to have a lot of less either matters that we have within the system and I guess that all ties back to the backlog that everyone keeps hearing about. The backlog is very real. If you look at it from one perspective where okay, the aim is to get rid of this backlog. If that's your entire aim, then all you're going to do is you're going to fly things through the system, it's gonna come out from one end, going from one end, come out on the next and what's most likely going to happen is quite a few of the persons who are actually affected will not be satisfied because you essentially rush the brush and then now there's no turning back because what's done is done. On the other end, if you have what I think is probably accurately describing what we have now, a system that seems too slow for its own good that to actually fix that problem is not necessarily going to just be a matter of, let's say, get more judges, build more courts and whatnot. It goes a lot deeper than that but I won't get into that from a detailed standpoint. What I will say is that one of the first things I believe from a personal standpoint that we need in St. Lucia amongst young people, all the persons, everyone is an understanding and appreciation and most importantly, a respect for the aspect of what law is supposed to represent. Not necessarily respect the law but respect what law represents because the law comes in at the point where you stab someone, for example. Respect the fact that that is the law's role and its purpose there is to ensure that at least you tell yourself, okay, I'm not going to stab someone and I know that sounds ridiculous but the point of that is to say that we look at the justice system as sort of a product of some of the ills and we tend to forget that it is one of those things that is a necessity due to the ills. If you take it out completely like some people believe it is totally non-existent in society, if that were to happen then we would really know what a non-existent justice system is. So just going back to that general point I do understand and I understand the frustrations of most people because if you just, let's say, sit within one of our magistrates' courts, it's one of the more disappointing types of experiences because you sit there and it's one young person after another, it's one drug this or stabbing that or robbery with a weapon after another and if you sit in that environment every single day for, let's say, an extended period of time you will believe that St. Lucia is totally broken but it isn't and I think what we first need to do is to come together and one of the points from the fellow panelists that I really forward is that of inclusion and inclusion on all friends to understand that whatever you represent whether it be this friend, that friend, this profession, that sector it's not all about you, inclusion of everyone so understand and respect everything moving forward and I think that would be a nice way to start. Very good, very much so. Indeed we would like to take any questions or comments from our audience as well to participate in this panel discussion. You could place your comments or questions to any of our panelists both on and off the stage. We will continue on taking a look at how our young people we speak a lot of our young people both those at risk of those that are unattached more or less you call them unattached youth. We want to recognize the fact that in peace building efforts whether it's efforts, programs of inclusion programs where our young people get the opportunity to build positive scenarios, life scenarios and so forth. How do you think the youth of today take on these initiatives? Do you think that it's easy to go on the block let's say and go to those individuals let's say in a community where it's high risk problematic as you would say to just go on the block and say, hey we want to develop some sort of mediation some sort of program to help deal with the cases that exist within that locale. How easy you think it is for an organization like a CYE and like a Saipan to go in there and to do just that and the importance of the results of that program. Well I'm from St. Louisian Agricultural Forum for Youth and what we attempt to do is typically I know we don't like to add risk youth but just for categorization I'll use it. We have several projects that go on that we basically include people in those areas and get them to kind of try to empower themselves. A lot of them know the situation around them and they want to work with it but improve it. So also they would come with their ideas and different avenues that we can get to to improve the community. We know the address communities, we know them. So the empowerment is where we try to come in and work with them because they have their business ideas they have their strengths. So that's what we try to do as well. Just to follow up on it I think one of the most important things Mr. Moririta would you ask about you know how do you get inclusion from those young people? I think 2000, 2001 the formulation of the first youth policy in San Wichita. You had persons from the Ministry of Youth and Sports from the National Youth Council going into communities where in the past they were like boy we are going into them ghettos, they are not first. But when it came to developing a youth policy for this country, I mean even guys like Ernest Hill ever and Nika Snack was sitting down in ghettos while we were smoking weed and asking them questions. But sooner the policy was developed and it was handed over somehow we forgot when we got the information and all of a sudden it became you know this group and that group and us and the separation happened again. We revisited this policy again was it 2015 last year, 2016? Right, we did it again. Went back into those very same spots again maybe the very same persons again and after it was done we stepped back again and said it's them and it's us kind of thing. So we know when to go. We know how to go, elections in this country. Every political party in this country has a machinery that works on the ground in the ghettos. I don't like the term ghettos but we understand what I mean. There are machinery that work for these areas when it's necessary. So I think when it comes to now putting the money out and getting the work done somehow it becomes difficult to do because we want to be that they're unreachable. These groups are not unreachable. I think we just choose when we want to reach that in itself. So the structures that we've utilized during elections, they work. But we choose to do it when election comes in itself. When we want policy statements from those young people the structures work. After we get what we want we tend to step back. So we need to use the structures that work and the person, sometimes it's not using gesture and that we make it work but somebody directly from the community at the end of the day. So we need to look at those structures that are being used and use them the time that they need to be used. Very much a very, very good effective point. If you do have a contribution to make you just raise your hand, you'd get the mic and you'd make that contribution. You could target any one of our panelists. They have a wealth of knowledge and they would be able to answer your questions as it comes along. So we speak, going back to the cases that we have with our new homicide rates majority of those are young persons. Do you think that we have society in itself failed as young people in that regard? And what is it that you think can be done to begin? It's not something that be able to be done overnight but to begin to turn around the situation as it exists right now. I know it's a bit maybe repetitive or cliched or whatever you want to call it but I think we honestly need to think have this conversation of ourselves on an individual level and I think that for me personally that I believe a national dialogue needs to be had on how we move forward. I used to teach and the issues that some of our students face they should not be facing them. We expect them to go to school to learn to get something out of it. So at the end of five years they have something to show and say well I can move on from there, go to Sir Arthur or I could start my own business or do whatever but some of these children can't even focus on that because before they come to school or even while they are at school they have so many issues dealing with. Who is living alone? Who doesn't see the mother or father for hours on end or end of? And then they're basically having to deal with things that children should not have to deal with. And so you're in a school, you have a classroom at 30 by the end of the year you have a classroom with 22 or something like that. So you have to get your children to drop out. Where are these children? And then the system is not able to deal with them. They're left on their own, they're not even 16 and they're walking the streets or they're home doing nothing. And then you wonder where are these children? So people tend to blame young people for a lot of things before they get to a point where they could make decisions for themselves as adults. They have to be making decisions for themselves like adults but their children. Yeah and that is very important. Speaking of the stakeholders and their contribution to helping making the situation that we are in presently how best they can do and how the turnaround would come about those persons, those stakeholders you have the community policing, you have the various social groups. How can they come together to make that turnaround? When we come back we'll continue that discussion. We're gonna take a break right now. When the authority of the heads of government of the OECS and its other ministerial councils meet and adopt policies for the organization they rely on the OECS commission to transform these into action. The OECS commission is the secretariat of the organization. A grouping of officials headed by a director general mandated to implement the decisions of the government but also empowered to make recommendations on the strategic directions of the organization. The OECS commission organizes meetings, prepares budgets, conducts research, undertakes projects, negotiates for and represents the OECS member states. It is organized along several corners. There are the commissioners from each member state who along with the director general form the commission that oversees the work programs. There are also technical divisions with specialized units between them as well as diplomatic missions in Brussels and Geneva. All these complement each other to make the OECS commission the engine of regional integration in the eastern Caribbean. The OECS has a proud past and together we are working towards a brighter future for all our citizens. For more information visit www.oecs.org. Welcome back as we continue with this panel discussion hosted by the Caribbean Youth Environment Network. Before the break we were speaking on the contribution of our stakeholders and their effects as it relates to the turnaround of the situation that exists presently. We have our audience who has the opportunity to ask questions to the panelists as well and so we have our first question. During the discussion there was a lot of talk about education and what happens, what result we get from unemployment. I would like to ask any of the panelists what is the church doing about making peace? What do they think that the church is doing for peace to exist and what effect does it have? What percentage of the youth is it reaching out to? You know how effective it is and if the church can do better or play a bigger role in bringing out peace in the youth. Thank you very much. Zander? We appreciate this question. Nyangman because this has been something that I have been questioning myself. I see the church as one of the most influential institutions in the world and what the church says, and Sinusha is predominantly Christian country, what the church says trickles down to the rest of the population. So I am going to go on to your turf for a little bit Mr. Charles. When we talk about LGBT and how they're treated in Sinusha, Sinusha is probably one of the better islands to be honest, but you continue to see LGBT individuals being persecuted on the daily by individuals that are supposed to be protecting minorities and how are they supposed to feel? Now when the church would preach okay, you love and respect because all of this, I'm referring to Christianity, all of this is in the Bible. Love, respect, love your neighbor and we're all different. When they probably go along these lines, probably we'll get more tolerance and this would affect in having a more peaceful society. Just having us, it causes division, it causes conflict and violence because it's not every listening ear that's going to say, okay, I will deal with this conflict in a non-violent way. The church has to stand up and say, okay, this is the case. This has been this way for 5,000 years but we're trying to change society. We can't expect to be doing the same thing over and over again and expect to see a change for the better. The church is responsible for a lot of what goes on and I think that they should speak out not only about Carnival but about LGBT and individuals being persecuted for nothing. Thank you. Thanks. Just a bit of addition to that in terms of what the young man asked the question. I think recently the church spoke out about a certain national issue and certain political heads had an issue with it. I think sadly we must understand that the church in itself and talking about holistically any form of religious belief must start becoming more, taking up more issues nationally and strangely if the church decides to do that, the political figures may have an issue with it but the role of the church is to guide the flock of the nation. Whether you be Muslim, whether you be Catholic Christian, whether you be an LGBT person, sadly there have been lots of persecution of LGBT persons by various denominations at the end of the day but the church in itself must see itself as an organization that represents inclusion and too often we don't see that at the end. It's like you need to be saved before you enter the church which is the strangest thing sometimes. For example, you need to be converted before you can walk through the doors and recently there was a regional meeting with internally that looking at HIV and the way the church can play a better role in terms of dealing with HIV within the Caribbean region and though there was a call by pastors and bishops you know to make that, the very same Caribbean pastors and preachers were writing to the current president of the United States to sort of take a back into supporting LGBT issues in the Caribbean region. Our very own Caribbean people and churches are supposed to represent inclusion at the end of the day. So certainly I believe that the church in itself needs to play a greater role in terms of guiding the country forward be it politically, because currently we don't have an integrity commission and the church is not speaking out about that. So we need to have the church speaking out more about inclusion, getting more involved in terms of the way they're afraid to go because like they want you to come inside the church first in itself. So we need the church to sort of actually preach inclusion at the end of the day which is I think what you're also saying and hopefully what the young man in the issue of that. Sadly, we believe that you have something that do it very well. I mean, the seven day Adventists, I'm not seven day Adventists by the way, but they're very much involved in going to communities and reaching out to people at the end of the day. Some denominations do it very well. Others need to step up in terms of you do have pastors and priests who actually reach out to LGBT persons. They won't do it openly. They will do it under the podium, you know, those sort of things. But they need to step up. I wanna comment on that as well. I think the church definitely has a role to play in it. And I think at one, at some point, the church has to draw a hard line in the sand because there are things that you can do and there are things that you can't do according to church standards. And if the population or communities that the churches are in and this around in areas, the members notice something about those areas. They can offer social programs. I think if we wait on government to do everything, we'll never get anywhere fast. There's no reason why a church can't have an after-school mental program or some type of, I don't know, homework drive or some kind of love initiative because I think the main idea that you should get out of your church, your assembly where you go to worship is love. And if you don't feel love from the church, then it's a lost cause. Continue your questions from the audience. Christelis, president of Caribbean Youth Environment Network. I must applaud the audience and also the panelists this evening. I've been hearing a very fruitful discussion. But one of my questions is that many times we sit and say what the politicians or what the leaders are doing. But can we, ourselves, recommend what we want to happen? Because we face the reality of in our schools, in our different communities, at our workplace, we know the different issues. What can we, as youth, recommend because we are the one faced with the issue? What can we recommend to the politicians or what can we do to help influence that change in building peace? Okay, if I may, this one comes mostly from, I guess, from the legal standpoint. I think one of the first things St. Lucia has to start doing from that view, the legal view moving forward and how we look at governance, is that we, certain things that we may not recognize or know too much about, we either re-associate ourselves with them or educate ourselves. And one of those things that I like to promote a lot is the aspect of the role of the constitutional law in our society. And on that point, for persons who may be aware, the concept of a constitution, whether it be within your organization, all the way up to your country, St. Lucia, it is an aspect of the law that is, it's important, is one of the most important aspects because it is there to essentially guide certain things. It is where your rights are not just mentioned as we talk about rights, it's the written. It is where the rules for governance actually lay. And one of the things that we have, I think, happening a little bit more now, at least from my perspective, is we're losing respect for that aspect. The constitution is one of those things that if we're not careful, in a few years, it will mean absolutely nothing. It will just be this thing that was written for no reason and because so and so whether it be, you know, your favorite politician or your favorite political supporter tells you that it's not important, it's not important anymore. And being someone who's, I think, I've even before going into the aspect of legal studies, it's one of those things where if you pick it up and you read it, you will understand that it is not an accidental thing. It is like in the world of the law, and I don't want to collect any kind of negativity for saying this, it is essentially God in the world of the law because nothing is above it, nothing that your politician says or whomever it is that you consider to be driving the nation. Wherever the constitution says it's A, then it's E, regardless of what someone else says. And what I would like to challenge persons to do is to find a copy, read it, spend a little time and you'd be surprised as to some of the things that you'd find actually written in there, set in stone, existing since St. Lucia was born an independent nation that we're now losing respect for on a legal sense. And that's because we have no respect for it on a social sense. And then if we let that go too far, then you're going to find yourself in a place where if you think of nations that no longer respect the constitution, you think of nations where I won't say no longer respect, but for example, if we use Venezuela, Venezuela being on the brink, I think most people can agree is essentially on the brink of collapse. If you look at things from a political approach, you now find a man that may be one of the most hated leaders in this country is now trying to rewrite the constitution and you must ask yourself why? Because he's essentially in power and he probably figures that everything is good because he's an authority. Why is he now trying to change a document? And if you think about that, that is because he understands the power of that document. And we as a nation need to understand the power of ours. So that's one thing that I can definitely say I would encourage everyone to do. Get a copy, it's online, it's everywhere. Read your constitution. And that is all I'll say on that point. And I have a comment based on what you said about the constitution. I think we in St. Lucia, we don't have an appreciation of it. We do not know of it. We are not taught anything about it. And it became clear to me when I studied and lived in Mexico, it is mandatory or you have to know the constitution, at least the basic tenets of the constitution as into your rights and your responsibilities. And I am not Mexican, but I can tell you. And I know my rights and responsibilities as somebody living in Mexico, I knew it. But here, when I was there, that is when I learned about my constitution. Because I'm like, okay, I'm in a foreign country, I'm learning all of this. I know what to do if I find myself, my rights being violated, I know where to go. And I'm sitting here like, where do I go if I'm in St. Lucia? I have no idea. And that is when I went online, I downloaded a copy of the constitution and I printed one, I have a copy. But St. Lucian's don't have that. You're not taught any of that. In Mexico as a child, you learn one to 10, these are yours. Thank you very much. We will take our final break when we continue. We will continue with our questions to the audience and we'll wrap up from there. Swimming, yeah, I like swimming. Dancing, yeah, I love dancing. I love hanging out with my girls. I really miss them, my home. And football too, I like football. I'm too good, but I have some skills. At the same time, I'm scared. What if they don't miss me or care about me? Oh, yeah, and Papo, he's the first person I want to help when I get home. But he don't come and see me, I guess he has shame. I'm lost, but if... Offenders, not knowing if we still love them, is more than punishment. Give them hope beyond bars. Again, thank you for tuning in and listening on to our panel discussion as we discuss peace-building, Monta youth in this nation. Before the break, we were discussing the framework of constitution and how it affects our daily lives and really actually contributes to how we as a people move forward. We will continue with questions from the audience. Hi, good evening, everyone. Jessica Central, Secretary-United and strong. Ms. Mahal, I must commend you for your comment on rights, because this was my question to you. You spoke about children having to deal with issues and things that children not supposed to be dealing with at homes. And but how would you, what or how would you propose to assist with dealing with children who are bullied in school as LGBT students? Do you recommend or would you recommend all inclusive human rights education system in our schools? And I must add that United and strong has been proposing for this for a very long time now, but our education system, I believe, I don't know if we're not ready for this or if we are afraid of doing it because we have parents who say, oh, I don't want anyone to teach my child about gay rights in school. And this is something I think that is needed in our education system to assist with the bullying. And like you said, she went and taught one to ten how to count, but they are not taught the fundamental rights of a human being. So what do you think about this? Thanks. I think it's not specifically to teach children about LGBT rights. I think it's rights, human rights in general, because we live in a society that is very, I don't know how you want to call it, not touchy with hypocritical, okay? It's not touchy, we're very hypocritical. And if, like I mentioned before, the issue of dialogue, we need to have the dialogue. If we don't have it, then dealing with the human rights issue, LGBT issue, children being non-inclusion of persons, then we're not going to go anywhere. So we need to have that dialogue so that we can move on how do we address those issues that are plaguing our society. So the dialogue needs to come and then you're going to have yes, human rights, yes, inclusion of persons, yes, our disabled folks, yes, our elderly folks, all of these. So we need to have that dialogue. And just to add just 10 seconds to what you've said, I think education reform, our system on a whole in St. Lucia needs to be reformed. You have teachers who actually tell you that they've been advocating for that for quite a few years and they've been unable to achieve it. So I think collectively it is something that we need to take a serious look at in St. Lucia. Very much so. Good evening everyone. Bringing back on what Charles said earlier about the bring up of students in their social life and in terms that it should be done by the parents only and leave the teaching to the teachers. But I know there are some teachers in which they like to bring the social of life in their teaching, trying to show students their way and guide them through life. So my question is, is that should students leave the guidance of life to the parents alone or should they also see teachers as a potential role model? Well I don't think I'm qualified in that regard, but what I will say is that there's something that you hear or you used to hear. I don't know if it's still a thing where you know it takes a community to raise a child or something to that effect. And I think that is one of the things we need to look at because put it all on the teachers even if someone comes and says, okay is the teacher's role. Is it fair to put it all on the teachers? Of course not because they have the children from this time to that time. Then you have the parents who have them from that time to this time and depending on how they work it's more like this time to this time. And then the sense of community that I think I could at least speak from is one of the things I'm not sure if it's still an existing thing because now I've fallen outside of being the child in the community to being just one of you know I guess one of the adults who gets up and goes to work and does that and come back. But the aspect of being a child observing certain things in the community. So like for example, most communities would have an alcoholic and whether it be a case where the lesson from that alcoholic is don't become an alcoholic so that you don't become like this person. If that is a case where you inadvertently learn these lessons from the connection that you had to your community then maybe you should try to find a way to go back to that because I think that's where you actually learn. You don't learn in one corner of it, you learn in it as a whole. And the aspect of respecting everyone within the community especially once that person has not necessarily stepped on your toes. Why is it a case where we're now looking at each other from an adversarial standpoint for absolutely no reason? Maybe your parent had a feud with someone 10 years ago over a fence or something and that carries into you and you're still you know taking that along and I think that's one of the things that we need to look back towards, community being involved in the lives of children. Very much so. We'll take our final question from the audience and we'll have our final thoughts. Hi, yes, pleasant evening. Nixon Barry. We do understand that peace is a very subjective and relevant term and there's different levels of it but I'm happy that we're having a discussion about community and children because we tend to raise children with a lot of physical abuse, the beating and the couple punishment in school. My question is how are these things, the couple punishment, the beating, how are these things affecting the level of peace and or peacelessness that we're experiencing in San Lucia? Thank you. I believe that corporal punishment should be abolished at all levels, whether it may be parent to child or teacher to child and why I will say it is this. This is an introduction to violence. Hitting a child because they've done something wrong is an introduction to saying that one way to deal with conflict is to hit somebody, right? When a child grows older and he grows into a man and he has his wife or yeah, man or woman, because it goes both ways, stand corrected. And the partner does something that he or she does not like. They hit them because when you do something wrong, you get bitten, that's what it is. So it is an early introduction to violence. I think that people should get creative in the technological age, how to punish children, how to explain to them why what they're doing is wrong. And we also find that parents will say, do as I say, not as I do. And the children will emulate what they see, whether it may be from parents or from teachers. So corporal punishment is a very serious issue to me personally because it causes psychological issues also throughout the life of an individual. And I think that, you know, governments should really look into having it abolished. Thank you. Final thoughts from our panelists? For me, just generally wrapping up, definitely I think conversations like this, we need to take it to white matters. I think a lot of us here are converted already. Correct. Yes, so we need to take it to white matters. I know there were strings of community intervention. I think our political leaders and our youth organizations are an honorable member from the National Youth Council. These are some structures that need to be taken to the communities. The United and Strong, like we always say, we shall not tire, we shall never stop advocating for young persons, medium LGBT. Once you're different, the United and Strong will be a voice for you as young people and we do hope to continue the work and certainly take it to white matters, not just the GIS studios, but deep down to the communities where the problems really are. Okay, final thoughts. I think this was a good discussion to have, especially with the day. I'm glad that people participated and people see the value in creating peace within their networks. This has definitely caused me to take a greater look at the peace that I try to create in my organization, whether it's through empowerment or otherwise. And I just think it's a good step going forward for us as an organization. Yeah. Final thoughts, quickly, 10 seconds. I think what I'll say is, on the same point as Mr. Charles, we need to take it where it matters. We need to remember that it's not gonna be a one person thing, it's everyone. From me, I'm saying to all our young persons here, do not give up the fight. It is a long, tiring journey at times, but it is rewarding and that whatever that you're doing, that you believe it's contributing, having a positive impact on the young persons around you, take the extra step to extend the hand to somebody you think is on the outside. Because we, like Bennett said, we are all the converted ones, so the unconverted, we need to bring them in and you know, have that discussion and get the ball rolling for us to see some level of change here Thank you. Yeah, this has been quite a fruitful discussion. I'm happy that we had representatives here from the students council as well, the students body. And I employ them and the rest of us to go out into our communities and reach out to those young persons who actually are in need of such empowerment and such works then. And I would like everybody to remember that collaboration is the most effective way forward. We need to collaborate our efforts and together this is how we're gonna achieve this. Thank you very much, panelists. Thank you very much, the audience. We had a very fruitful conversation as it relates to peace building in our local space. And we appreciate the contributions that each and every one of you guys made heritage this evening. We thank you, the viewing public, for taking in on the panel discussion hosted by the Caribbean Youth Environment Network. We will continue to celebrate international youth day with a number of various activities hosted again through the Commonwealth Youth, the Caribbean Youth Environment Network and all the other stakeholders that exist. Thank you very much.