2/3 of Southside fathers missing; murder conviction less than 10%
Alarming details were revealed today from a survey on Male Social Participation in Violence in Urban Belize. The research discloses that mothers have replaced fathers as heads of households, that the education system is lacking and that the conviction rate in Belize is lower than most countries. Dr. Herbert Gayle, a well known anthropologist in social issues, is the author of the research.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Two thousand, two hundred and ten persons were interviewed for the Male Social Participation and Violence in Urban Belize research. In Urban Belize it seems that gangs and at risk youths are created in homes which lack a proper family structure.
Raymond Mossiah, Researcher
raymond mossiah
“Families with households over six persons in urban spaces are at a major risk of fracturing. The extended family—we found quite a bit of this in our study—becomes the rescue form. So you’ll find, for example in our study, aunts play an increasingly importing role in assisting mom, in assisting dad, in assisting the family in coming together and holding the family together. In nuclear families we found that there is high financial stability and inversely low levels of conflict and therefore, the nuclear families provide good emotional support for most children and we emphasize for most children, not all.”
According to Raymond Mossiah, one of the researchers, young boys seek street role models because there are few fathers in the crime hot spots.
Raymond Mossiah
“Mothers have, however, aggressively replaced many of the biological fathers with stepfathers and we see in cases where it’s stepfather after stepfather after stepfather. And those are not necessarily good relationships either. So they’ve replaced many of the biological fathers with stepfathers and these families carry a new problem set for boys. Southside has the weakest ecological footprint or the most problematic environment. Two-thirds of the fathers are missing and eighty-three percent of the adolescents are aggressive or moderately aggressive with no comparison anywhere else in Belize.”
Nelma Mortis of the Ministry of Education gave a startling view about the lack of the education system from primary to the tertiary level.
nelma morris
Nelma Mortis, Researcher
“First, the school resources are not enough to address the needs of the nation’s children and hence it is leaving a mass of children behind. Second, the education system is outdated and structurally flawed, set on a colonial from that no longer exists in the region, one that operates to produce only a few elite students, like a fancy basket that needs to be changed to at least a cheap bucket that can hold water. Belize is far behind the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America, which in 2007 had only seven point two percent of its children ages six to twelve out of school and that was the UNESCO report, 2008. The problem becomes alarming at the secondary level. We can expect to find choking statistics about tertiary education in Belize. Data from UNESCO (2008) suggest that at a four percent tertiary enrollment and we had to go over it over and over again to… Belize might have one of the worse rates in the region. On what foundations will a government build a country if the tertiary enrolment is unmentionable?”
But the man at the center of the research team, Herbert Gayle mentioned that the murder conviction rate is unmentionable and the police as well as the judiciary need to stop fighting.
Herbert Gayle, Anthropologist
herbert gayle
“The entire Caribbean has poor conviction rate. But Belize’s own is on the poorer side of the poor. That is something that has to be addressed. It’s sub ten and there are very few countries in the world with conviction rates that low. And bear in mind that part of conviction rates includes people who commit crimes of passion and say ‘yes I did it.’ So if you take those out it gets even worse. No conviction at this time. Why? Why no conviction at this time? Because the judiciary is extremely learned—you are at this point yes?—working with a police department that really is struggling. The gap between these two groups is absolutely too much of a gulf and a chasm for them to even work together. For as long as we don’t train the police department and we have things about six month training going to be cut down to four. A lot of experiments are going you know. We are going to be widening a gap and people can’t communicate. So CIB have a thing against the judiciary and the judiciary… and it’s just seesaw rather than a lock in.”
But concentration on the youth is paramount and should be a primary focus of the government.
Herbert Gayle
“You have horizon, you have a target, you have millennium goals, you have all of these things but the central political authority has not put the ministries around this program. So if you have a program that says by 2015 all our children will be in school, it means Ministry of Education is going to be driver for that because it’s education. It means there has to be something called a Ministry of Youth. Let me just take you have because you didn’t hear it. There has to be something called a Ministry of Youth; not an attachment. The Ministry of Youth is like Red Bull, it has wings. Anywhere something is going on it goes and it just do the boogie and get there. Caribbean countries need to have a Ministry of Youth. It’s as simple as that. With a seventy percent of people under the age of thirty-five, you must have a ministry that represents seventy percent of your people.”
The research team hopes that the data will be used to guide policy and reduce violence to a manageable level by 2020. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
An executive summary of the report with be presented to the government in the days to come. Click here to view a copy of the that summary.
Can anyone take Mr. Herbert Gayle’s opinions seriously? He sounds incoherent, foolish. We need some serious, straight talk THAT MEANS SOMETHING to fix things here.
The other two opinions — family problems and educational problems — I understand, respect, and agree with.
The education system if it is based on a colonial system is reflective of many countries, including the US. The Chinese are not more advanced, they just have a lot more people,work 7 days a week from dawn to dusk, target their enrichment programs to a chosen few & like Belize, the poor stay that way.. We should not get colonialism & the caste system we have in Belize mixed up, that has contributed more to the disparity in education & opportunity than anything else. Under colonial rule; primary education was free, we also had truant officers who picked up any school aged children they saw in the street. We now require parents to contribute & the children whose parents cannot do so have fallen & will continue to fall through the cracks. The people with money have the power & the powerful need to keep the rest ignorant or content in order to maintain the status quo.
A youth ministry is a great idea but until we are willing or able to fund programs that will lift everyone up, we will continue to swim in our own blood.
No one addressed the level of misogyny we are now seeing in Belize, parents have to teach their sons to not only respect women but to stand by their side until whatever children they created are grown, regardless of whatever status they think they are in life. Marriage would curb the serial stepfather problem & paternity issues. I do not believe that 83% of the homes on the south side are headed by women. Is it possible that t someone made the assumption that because the children did not share the same surname as the “man” of the house that they were not his children?. Teddy Murillo, the Felix brothers, the Brannon brothers, Usher, Smith, Galvez & several of the young men killed on the south side had fathers at home & while absentee fathers are a problem, no one addressed the drugs & corruption that has rendered our fathers, police & government impotent .
The comment about bring it on, that’s bravado, our children are killing each other, the only policeman killed as far as I know was killed by another officer & no one has been charged
At first I wanted to throw these opinions aside and say rubbish, especially when we I hear what comes off as pretentious sophistry like the “fancy basket” example. But when I think about it the researchers make excellent points. Nelma’s point about the education system producing a few elites is good, but I disagree somewhat. Indeed, there are elite students but it’s not their elite performance that determines the degree of education, its the resources they have available. Too often have I seen the best students quit their education at an associates degree because they can’t afford to study further. In contrast, it is the non-elite richer students who are able to further their education. It’s more of a have versus have-not situation. Indeed, it must be mentioned that the educational elite and the rich are not mutually exclusive. But, the point of the education system needing change is spot on. It needs to facilitate the elite, more scholarships is what it comes down to. But where will the money for scholarships come from? Well, THE CAR THE HEALTH MINISTER DRIVES AROUND IS ENOUGH TO GIVE A STUDENT TWO YEARS OF EDUCATION AT A PRESTIGIOUS AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. So, I believe the money is available.
Belizean have to take Dr. Herbert Gayle finding seriously. For too long we have been putting our head in the sand and saying that this thing is not happening in Belize. We need to begin by taking on one of our male youth under our wing and nuture them. only so we can begin the process.
WHATEVER “THEY SAY” ………. WE HAVE TO KEEP HOPE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! we have no choice.
Obviously I haven’t seen any data (methodology etc) from this study. However I am delighted to hear about this study, hopefully these findings will provide empirical evidence which is so needed to address many of our social problems. I really hope that our government sit up and take notice.
Belize is no where near the targets of the MDG(S) for 2015. A recent report from the ministry of education stated that a significant proportion of our children under the age of 15years were not in full time education, there is also a lack of opportunities for our youths in terms of their employment. I am unsure of the figures of child/maternal health. I really hate to be pessimistic but I fear that isn’t great.
I really hope that the issues highlighted in the research are addressed, and the recommendations do serve to influence some of the government policies (particularly concerning youths and violence) in the near future.
About time someone told the no good fathers that they need to step up , and stop making babies that they don’t support. I heard someone on the news said that the mothers need to step up. But I guess that they don’t know that ‘immaculate conception” happened once and none of these mother sat on a tiolet bowl and got pregant. I high time that fathers /sperm donars take up their responsibility. When they start doing we will see less young girls and boys looking for a father figure int he street and being lead astray by these vagabons on the street of BELIZE, Not only Belize City, Belize.
A man that does not take care of his children is worst than an infidel. Men these days want sex and when u tell them you pregnant de gone. No real man left da belize. Come own men, STEP IT UP AND WOMEN stop sell uno self cheap think bout the future of your kids
gaylod mossiah and herbert gaylord look like two them just smoke some herbs before this interview cause them di report lone …. and they look high on hgh
sabuski willing fi engage in a debate with anybody live on radio but it has to be syndicated cause i want everybody in belize to hear thier voices heard cause i speak for the voiceless and innocent ones who are just like drifywood riding the waves because there vioce are so weak noone listens to them this aint just and urban problems so u bze city people stop crying this issue is affecting all of belize
reporting live from skeleton town sabuski nemaje
Political corruption and poverty with its accompanying ills go hand in hand. The example of MORAL RESPONSIBILITY needs to start at the top. Men need to stop fornicating without using condoms and women need to be educated in and birth control made available. For those in doubt, using birth control is less of an evil than having unlimited children who cannot be clothed, housed, fed, educated and loved because of the consequential misery of irresponsible moral behaviour. Looking at the misplaced political spending priorities, there is undoubtedly money available for better and more education. Political corruption does not want to change the status quo.
I think anyone who critisises Dr. Gayle’s report should really get out from under the rock they’ve been living under. As per usual we Belizeans find the truth to be an extremely pill to swallow – especially if it comes from an outsider. Does anyone remember the “Gangs of Belize” documentary and the tantrum we threw about that?
The problems and challenges we face today stem from longstanding socio-economic woes. Whenever such a problem is to be tackled the first thing to do is accept that there even IS a problem. As a nation we need to accept that the ugly image in the mirror is us, and then start working from there.
Yes our educational system is antiquated and colonialistic in its nature and outputs. It teaches us to be servile, self-loathing, complacent sheep that hate themselves for who they are and think that the only solution to our problems is run away to somewhere else instead of staying and solving the problem. We only bleat when our masters at home and abroad inconvenience us in some way, then we remain silent and ruminate over how our brothers are being slaughtered. The road to a better country is long and hard, but not impossible. Turning our backs or ignoring reality is not the solution … it’s the path to a speedier death.