Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Brigadier John Sandy and his min­istry for the ex­cel­lent ini­tia­tive of the Fa­ther's Fair at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um on June 18. It was a tremen­dous suc­cess and re­al­ly a joy to see not on­ly fa­thers but par­ents in gen­er­al com­mu­ni­cat­ing and in­ter­act­ing with their chil­dren in a big way. There was al­so the mul­ti­tude of young men brought by men­tors, like the Po­lice ASP from the Com­mu­ni­ty Polic­ing Squad who brought a num­ber of young boys from the Laven­tille Road area. My son, who ac­com­pa­nied me, al­so showed me some young­sters who he re­ferred to as "rude boys" be­ing shown around by a man from the Civil­ian Con­ser­va­tion Corps.

I can on­ly hope that the min­is­ter and his team con­tin­ue this dri­ve and not let it fade away like so many oth­er good ini­tia­tives we have seen in this coun­try. In his ad­dress, the min­is­ter said the fa­thers' role in nur­tur­ing and men­tor­ing their sons is one way of keep­ing them away from gangs and gang war­fare and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

The Pres­i­dent of the re­pub­lic was present and sup­port­ed the min­is­ter's ini­tia­tive and most of us will agree with him that this is one of the best ways to stop our young peo­ple from get­ting in­to crime.

The Fa­ther's Pledge, read to the Pres­i­dent by the sev­en-year-old Ju­nior Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch, was one of the high­lights of the pro­gramme. Sad­ly, how­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter and the se­nior mem­bers of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship were not there. Are they re­al­ly se­ri­ous about solv­ing the crime prob­lem? How­ev­er, I ask Min­is­ter Sandy not to let that dis­cour­age him.All I ask is that they con­tin­ue with these pro­grammes and do not let them fall by the way­side.

El­ton Strak­er

Bel­mont, PoS