NJAC: Young people paying down on coffins

LIVE fast, die young. National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) servant political leader Kwasi Mutema said this is the sentiment of some young people in this country who have already paid down money on their coffins.

He was speaking with the media on Ash Wednesday following a commemorative service in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the TT black power revolution held at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port of Spain.

He said NJAC had commented and provided solutions for so many issues that prevailed in TT including the issue of crime.

"We have said the solution for crime does not lie in an increase in militarisation. We see the State continuing in the same effort feeling that if you give more guns, more equipment, more authority to the police it will solve crime. And we disagree with that. You have to target the fundamental reasons for it."

Mutema said one of the reasons is the areas of underdevelopment.

"You are dealing with people out there who feel totally disenfranchised. A lot of our young men have lost hope."

He explained a lot of young men and women had come to terms with the fact that they had grown up through cycles of underdevelopment and seen four generations gone through poverty.

"And they are saying what sense it makes living for 50, 60 years in that state of poverty. And they have come to the conclusion that it is better I live for 20, 25 years (and) enjoy myself how I like.

"We live in a very materialistic society so, therefore, their perception of happiness and enjoyment is limited to materialism. So they go after this materialism at whatever cost. And they say, 'Look, if we live for 20, 25 years and then die well that's it.' So many of these young people are even paying down on their funerals and their coffin. Because they have made up their mind they are not living beyond a certain age. To them it doesn't make sense."