Daily Lessons from Life 30 December 2012 - Govt concerned about youth crime rates: S Iswaran

"Govt concerned about youth crime rates: S Iswaran - CNA 30 December 2012

SINGAPORE: Second Home Affairs Minister S Iswaran said the government is concerned about crime rates involving youth.

He pointed to an increasing number of those involved in loanshark and harrassment activities, as well as drug abuse. The number of new drug abusers for example, increased by some 45 per cent last year compared to 2010.

Mr Iswaran said the government, community and family are essential in the support system to tackle the worrying trend.

He was speaking at the grand finals of the Delta League held at Jalan Besar stadium on Sunday evening. The initiative uses soccer as a platform to reach out to youths at risk and educate them about undesired consequences of crime.

The youths also participate in a series of self-improvement activities, including free tuition classes."

Lessons for me are:

1. if the trend is real, what can we seriously do about it? The usual suspects of why youth get involved with criminal activities are: broken family? mixing with the wrong people? poverty (unlikely in 1st world vibrant global Singapore. Yes?)? or just because we have the doles and they have the drugs?;

2. are the usual suspects still the driving force or the newer and difficult to comprehend ones like: I am bored, I have too much money to spend and my parents are too busy working to provide for me, etc? With each identification of the possible causes, different solutions will be needed to tackle them;

3. the ultimate solution is really: to provide the youth with the ability to independently think logically and commit strongly emotionally to doing the right things. Hopefully the 'right things' are learned from the parents, the schools, and the friends they made. This 'not enough time together as the parents are busying making a living' needs to be tackled. The 'teacching is just a job and I am not terribly interested in it in the 1st place' must be tackled - what with recent bad press about SOME bad apples among the teaching professionals.

I like the 'series of self-improvement activities' mentioned but am VERY SAD to read one of them is: 'free tuition classes'!! The SCHOOL should be doing the teaching and the weaker students be COACHED and GUIDED IN the SCHOOL too. If there is NOT enough resources, provide them. BUT please make sure the existing resources are WELL TRAINED, PROPERLY DEPLOYED and diligently HARVESTED!!