Time to become our neighbour's keeper

Is it time for us to be our brothers keeper? With all the crime going on in our country is it now time to declare a state of emergency in our own lives. When we see something going wrong in our neighborhood or community we should take steps to fix the problem regardless of the other person's pride and 'privacy'.
    Rights come with responsabilites , and if you fail the responsability you do not deserve the right.
   I'v recently heard of a drug addicted mother who abuses her 7 year old son so badly that he often runs away from home at night just by instinct. The boy has scars on his body that are easily visible, he is malnourished and weak ...
    If it were in my neighbourhood i'd have called child protective services on the mother. There are always warning signs before a tradgedy strikes and we must learn to pay attention to them.

Need for greater psychological and spiritual counselling to combat crime in Trinidad

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,163330.html

Eyewitnesses recalled how the suspect drank Corrion’s blood and threw pieces of her skull and brain at villagers when they tried to disarm him. He bashed her head several times against a concrete bannister. The suspect then went into the house and returned with several $100 bills which he tore up and began eating. Young men in the area told Sunday Newsday that they stoned him, but the suspect then pelted them with “pieces of skull and brains 
     As a religious individual i'd say that man was possessed , a psychologist or psychiatrist would say he suffered from the worst form of psychosis possible. Whether you call it mental illness or spiritual illness society needs help to overcome these issues and prevent them from reoccurring .
        Investments must be placed into counseling from the high school level to teach children to deal with depression and anger issues.  The tertiary education sector is churning out thousands of psychology graduates a year , such graduates should be encouraged to take up counseling as a profession and minister to high school students who need help.
      This is a far, far greater priority than laptops in schools  or any other ministry of education venture.

 

Funding Alternative for GATE?

http://news.barbadostoday.bb/2012/07/13/funding-alternative/

Pointing out that the committee had made slight modifications to the traditional model, Sir Hilary said it was argued that “the State should step back now from the 100 per cent participation where it had been historically … to 85 per cent, which would mean that the 15 per cent within that traditional model will have to be shared across the system by other participants.”

“So, we have come up now with a model where we are asking our student participants to make an injection of the five per cent of the cost of education,” Sir Hilary explained.
      A similar model , if applied to Trinidad and Tobago's Tertiary education model may reap enormous benefits. It has often been complained that the courses and degrees offered in university today have no real world application , or the courses that attempt to help prepare students for the world of work are woefully inadequate.
          Giving business a stake in tertiary education would give the impetus for this to change. Basically the CEO of British Gas Trinidad will be able to call the head of engineering in UWI and cuss him for having a bad syllabus. I'v often heard from my friends and family in the energy sector that UWI grads are woefully unprepared for actual work, and often do serious damage to projects with their naiveté .
         Making students pay 5% of the cost of the degree program will also help give them a sense of responsibility and ownership in what they do. The cost is minimal , 5000-10,000 or so depending on the degree program that can easily be covered by a student loan, but the psychological effect will drastically change the student attitude towards their studies and do more to boost attendance grades and discipline than any academic policy ever will.