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Like the first death-dealing cancer cell that first invades a body, fact and information often comes in small, sometimes almost invisible, and seemingly insignificant bits. One little such cell of information was secreted in a page one Royal Gazette story on Berkeley Institute's graduation of 100 students.

This first innocuous looking cell appeared in line 75 of this story. "There were 65 girls and 35 boys in this year's graduating class." Put that cell under the microscope. Why only 35 boys? Boys and girls come out of the womb at about the same rate. Maybe one year there are 52 percent boys and 48 percent girls. The next year 48 percent boys and 52 percent girls. Over time, wombs produce about 50:50. So why, after eighteen years, do we suddenly get 65 percent girls and 35 percentboys.

Any scientist or other seeker of fact would ask why? Given that there is a roughly equal number of boys and girls at the outset, this suggests there would have been about 65 boys (same number as the girls). So why have 30 boys disappeared? What happened to them?

What happened?

In cave-man days we could say that sabre-tooth tigers got them. But sabre-tooths died off thousands of years ago. Did these boys die in war? Unlike America, Bermuda doesn't send its young men to be killed. Traffic accidents? We've lost a mere eleven people so far this year, and only one or two were males under eighteen. So - what happened?

Maybe the answer lies in something that Dr Eva Hodgson and I may actually agree on. These 30 'missing boys' have probably been gobbled up by what Dr Hodgson called a 'gombey culture'.

Donning my white lab coat, and unleashing my scientist's thinking pattern, I offer this analysis. "Culturus Gombeyus" is the disease that's ravaging this land. "Culturus Gombeyus", or CG for short, is a disease that appears to be heavily prevalent amongst young black males - YBM's.

CG seems to strike most YBMs when they are between the ages 11 and 16. CG's symptoms are a growing disinterest in school and the pursuit of academic excellence. This symptom results in a graduation rate significantly lower than might be anticipated, especially when compared to other benchmarks and other educating facilities in Bermuda.

CG seems site specific. It is particularly prevalent amongst YBMs schooled in the geographic area encompassed by Berkeley Road, North Shore Road, West Park Lane, and St John's Road. It is known that CG similarly affects YBMs who are schooled in the area encompassed by Frog Lane, Montpelier Road, Middle Road, Orange Valley Road, Parsons Lane, and Palmetto Road.

CG does not appear to affect YBMs who are schooled at other locations, two of which are actually quite near the two high-danger sites just identified.

Existing antidotes

Laboratory research and analysis finds that there are existing antidotes. The first antidote is to remove all YBMs from the two danger sites and school them at known-to-be safer sites. For best results however, this removal must be done before the YBM is eleven. This simple remedy is likely to prove less successful if the YBM is moved after he turns fourteen.

Second antidote? Change the dysfunctional family backgrounds of these YBMs. However, it is a fact that it is far harder -nearly impossible - to change dysfunctional adult parents in sufficient time to allow these changed adults to then begin interacting differently with their children. This antidote usually does not work within a useful timeframe.

Third response? Send in teams of specialized 'disease eradicators' [DEs]. These should be classroom teachers who are able to interact with these YBMs, inoculate them against CG, and turn them on to the pursuit of academic excellence.

However, this effort requires that the DEs must have sufficient freedom to apply their professional skills. The twenty year record is that bumbling over-management and damaging mis-management by an excessively large and aloof bureaucracy has prevented good DEs from functioning efficiently and effectively. So this response, though likely to be successful, is also likely to be prevented by the existing cabal of bumblers and damagers.

If none of these viable responses is applied, there will still have to be a response-in-lieu. The response-in-lieu requires the expansion of aftercare systems for YBMs. This aftercare expansion has to consist of an increase in programmes such as the 'Mirrors' programme; and additions to the YBM hostelry at Westgate, so as to house the victims of CG.

Looks like we'll need the response-in-lieu.[[In-content Ad]]

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