The recent articles in The Royal Gazette focused around the occurrences of anti-social behaviour in Bermuda have been both timely and informative.

The comments by family campaigner Ms. Sheelagh Cooper should be considered deeply and reflected on as we attempt as a community to understand and find solutions to this challenge. Her attempt to not only identify the symptoms of the anti-social behaviour but also to identify the root causes is the essential process that will lead us to tackling the challenge head on, effectively and with appropriate, indigenous measures.

Ms Cooper's identification of the dysfunctional family unit and economic poverty as root causes in the anti-social behaviour we are increasingly being faced with in the Bermuda society point to the reality that the problem emanates from within and so must be addressed from within. By within I refer to not only "within our community" and "within our families" but also, more importantly, to "within the Self" of the individuals who are perpetuating these negative behaviours. This can be better understood when we look at the healing work of a wise physician. When any wise physician treats a disease, after first observing the symptoms, he or she then moves to identify the cause of the disease. If only the symptoms are treated, the physican knows the disease will remain, only to fester again.

It is in this light that I have to agree with some of the discontent expressed recently towards comments by Mr. Michael Stowe regarding technical education, at least on the basis of the context in which they were published in The Royal Gazette. There is the well known and often quoted old adage that states: "You can lead a horse to water but you can not make him drink!" Indeed, the horse in this adage could be allegorically equated with the term "opportunity". Technical education, academic education or for that matter, any other opportunity provision, are not panaceas to the challenges at hand. Indeed, Bermuda has a plethora of opportunities for both young and old and it is only up to the individual to make an effort to grasp them and grow. If the simple provision of opportunity, in this case technical education, was the solution to the problem, when the Tech School and the Churchill Academy existed, two bastions of technical education in Bermuda historically, there would have been no anti-social behaviour to speak of. Of course, we know this was not the case.

As Mr. Stowe readily admits in the follow up article in The Royal Gazette: "A lot of people assume a technical education does not involve academics and that is not so. A trained technician must master mathematics, such as trigonometry, and physics."

Agreed, and it has to be said that these areas are available for young and old in Bermuda today. Right now. Not having access to technical training is no excuse for any of the behaviours we see blighting our communities today as the opportunity exists and has always existed, whether it is taken through the high school path, home school, distance learning, abroad at university or college, internships both volunteer or paid or at the Bermuda College.

Essentially, what Mr. Stowe is pointing out above is that the technical education path, like any other endeavour someone puts their mind to, is a "path of effort". It is this quality, the dualities of personal responsibility and effort and the cultivation of these virtues, that I feel deserves our most concentrative attention as we, as our own personal wise physicians, seek to address the disease that resides within.

As The Royal Gazette printed in their interview with young "gang" members in the early part of August, most sought to blame some external force or entity for the anti-social behaviour in the Island, rather than themselves or the perpetrators of the activities. Cited were factors such as lack of entertainment, lack of employment, lack of recognition and lack of support, mostly from the government. Clearly, there is a misplaced blame as one has only oneself to blame for a negative act committed by oneself". In characterisation of this, Polivy and Herman (2000) found that "the decision to make a change offers wonderful feelings of control and optimism, but those are short lived if the change is not accomplished. Repeated efforts at self change, characterised by an expectation of an unrealistically high payoff in an unrealistically short time, actually reduce satisfication with our lives by 40 percent."

Could it be that an essential quality that must be imparted to our youth is that of steadfastness, even in adversity? It is no excuse to say "just because I can not do the things I would like to do, I am going to go and sell poison or commit murder on my brother or sister".

To support this, the research of Gribble (2000) found that "for most people studied, the first step toward improving their job performance had nothing to do with the job itself but instead with improving how they felt about themselves" – it is the image of Self that needs to be cultivated and from this develops the personal valuation of one's self and the relationship towards others. Clearly Black's (1999) research supports this statement and he affirms so much when he writes: "An event may be crucial in the short term, but researchers find that people's enduring self-concept – their view of who they are and what they are capable of – is not tied to any single positive or negative event. Instead, a self-concept is composed of a combination of beliefs and feelings based on long-term experiences both at home and at work."

Finally, using the lesson of Barto (1998) – "Even as people experience different phases of their lives, including career and family changes, their underlying personality remains constant after about the age of 16." From this statement, we are able to clearly recognise where and when this work must be done. We must embark upon a movement starting with our Self and emanating to our families that affirms what we have always known to be true – its only through hard work and effort that progress can be made.

Psalms 14:23 states: "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." We need less excuse making for the anti-social behaviour, name and blame culture and lack of work effort exhibited by some of our community, young and old, and more celebration and recognition of those who are achieving despite adversity, including that of a financial, familial or physical nature.