Rhon­dor Dowlat

Arch­bish­op Joseph Har­ris yes­ter­day urged the peo­ple of Laven­tille to turn away from vi­o­lence. He said it would on­ly ex­ac­er­bate and deep­en the cir­cle of vi­o­lence. He al­so called on the Gov­ern­ment to take se­ri­ous­ly the re­form of the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem in this coun­try, in a bid to turn around the wors­en­ing crime sit­u­a­tion, not on­ly in Laven­tille but oth­er ar­eas of T&T.

The Arch­bish­op was speak­ing at the fu­ner­al ser­vice of mur­dered school­boy, De-Neil­son Smith, who was gunned down along with his friend, Mark Richards, while they were on their way home last week Thurs­day.

"Our re­sponse to this atroc­i­ty is that par­ents must be­gin to bring up chil­dren well. Hard work nev­er killed any­body. Send your chil­dren to school and en­sure that they go. De­mand that they do home­work, en­sure that they learn to do some­thing. They are all very gift­ed. Help them to dis­cov­er their gifts, which they can make a con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety," Har­ris said.

There was a large turnout of mourn­ers at Smith's fu­ner­al. His school­mates were seen hug­ging each oth­er and cry­ing un­con­trol­lably. One boy was seen hold­ing on to the prin­ci­pal of Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary School, Hami­da Baksh. He was in­con­solable. Smith was de­scribed as a men­tor, cap­tain, friend, col­league and broth­er by some of the mem­bers of the school's crick­et team.

"When­ev­er we were go­ing wrong, De-Neil cor­rect­ed us. He would al­ways cheer us up. He will be missed tremen­dous­ly," a young school crick­eter said.

As Smith's cof­fin was be­ing car­ried down the steps of the Our La­dy of Laven­tille Fa­ti­ma Shrine, Smith's team­mates bid him farewell by form­ing a Guard of Ho­n­our.

Mil­i­tary pa­trols not enough

Har­ris had strong words for the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, say­ing that po­lice and army pa­trols were not enough.

He said they had to im­ple­ment pro­grammes that would in­stil dis­ci­pline among young men and women.

Arch­bish­op Har­ris asked whether the po­lice and army couldn't in­stead run scout troops and the cadet corps to teach dis­ci­pline, give a sense of self-worth and nur­ture the sense and in­cli­na­tion to do good that our young peo­ple have with­in them.

"Those in charge should take se­ri­ous­ly the need to pro­vide for dif­fer­ent learn­ing styles and at­ti­tudes be­cause we will con­tin­ue to pro­duce young men and women who are func­tion­al il­lit­er­ates and have noth­ing to do be­cause the sys­tem does not pre­pare them to make a con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety," Har­ris said.

He added that he be­lieves that this deep­ens an in­fe­ri­or­i­ty com­plex.

"They would have noth­ing to show that they are men. They mis­take fear for re­spect so they car­ry guns half their size be­cause they be­lieve that car­ry­ing guns and fright­en­ing peo­ple makes them men," he added.

Har­ris said there was dire need to have lead­ers in Laven­tille who will be peace­mak­ers and help nur­ture and en­cour­age har­mo­ny to flow once more in Laven­tille, which was re­ferred to as the Holy Hill long ago be­cause of the Our La­dy of Laven­tille shrine that stands in the church's yard.

"Mary, moth­er of God, would have seen the un­just and the sense­less killing of De-Neil and Mark at the foot of the shrine of Our La­dy of Laven­tille.

"How Mary must have wept to see so many of her chil­dren die sense­less­ly in this place ded­i­cat­ed in her mem­o­ry," Har­ris said.