Apparently past experience has shown that around 15% of attendees benefit from boot camps which is good if you were to be one of their victims.
Editorials attacked the National party’s resurrection of military style “boot camps” as one way of combatting ram raids and some youths’ contemptuous attitude to all norms of societal behaviour.
Currently neither the media nor the Labour Government have published any meaningful response to the out-of-control behaviour of youth who have unlikely ever experienced any kind of sanction for their –“we don’t give a dam” behaviour. Rather perversely the Government is saying that the ram raids are diminishing as police catch the offenders - so we mustn’t overreact. That’s a bit like saying the road toll dropped this week so we don’t really have a problem with road fatalities.
The need
for remedial action such as ‘boot camps’ is living testament to a failed wider education
system where alternatives such as charter schools are not tolerated by
officialdom despite offering solutions – at least in part to complex problems.
Ill-disciplined
youth (and their parents) , euphemistically called care givers, don’t give a
toss about public opinion as long as the welfare benefits keep coming, so
nothing changes. The message from Government is - what is happening is not really
ok, but then, it’s not your or our fault either.
It is
incorrect to compare the existing conscription in Switzerland with the National
party’s so-called boot camp proposal. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to draw
some comparisons.
Twice a
year the Swiss require some 8-10,000 men and women to begin a course of
instruction (see discipline). Confinement and suppression, control and conformity,
stress and punishment, bonding and the hierarchy of esteem, aggression and objectification,
field craft and fitness along with the side effect of building mutual loyalty -
are all part of the Swiss military culture.
Switzerland is a melting pot of cultures which is not unlike NZ. The
Military service helps preserve and build on a feeling of cohesion and patriotism.
In 2013, the Swiss held a referendum on whether to abolish conscription. 73%
voted in favour of retaining conscription.
By comparison,
compulsory military training was abolished in NZ in 1959 after serving our
country well for 63 years (1909-1972.) In 1962 however, a different system of
national military service was introduced. 2000 young men were annually balloted
for military training. That system lasted until 1972 when it, in turn, was
abolished. It was rare to hear of any participants condemn their time under
military authority as a waste of time. Indeed, the system was lauded as a great
experience. No doubt some found the experience uncomfortable, but it would appear
the vast majority found the experience worthwhile. For some, a career in the
armed forces became a logical step.
The
nonsense offered as a reason to “give boot camps the boot” is stated that they
would simply be a breeding ground for future criminals. For far too many, our
current education system almost encourages truancy, which in turn soon leads to
peer review of their car conversion skills (which will always need refining). The breeding ground for a life of crime is already
well developed and from a much earlier stage as the world-famous ongoing “Dunedin
Study” of children through to adults and beyond shows. The problems start to manifest themselves from
3 years of age according to this internationally lauded study. The Government
seems to believe that it’s just a case of kids being kids. If that is so -the
Government is ignoring the work of this study which shows that 20% of the
population accounts for 80% of the crime. There is no reason to cast these unfortunates
aside thereby encouraging their promotion into gang life where discipline is
unheard of as they aspire to a life of escalating crime.
Perhaps the
Government should embark on a crusade of teaching these youngish individuals to
learn to appreciate and understand that finer things of life can be earned with
an education and consistent work, which also earns respect of all their peers. And yes, it does start with the parents and
likely their grandparents as well, so when can we expect a circuit breaker as
more welfare handouts has shown to fail both the giver and the receiver.
If more
money being thrown at problems was the answer, our country would be the model
for the rest of the world to follow. We are sliding backwards in so many areas of
our life that revisiting examples of even moderate success (with so-called boot
camps) is surely better than the undeniable certainty of failure by doing
nothing.
Gerry Eckhoff is a former councillor on the Otago Regional Council and MP.
3 comments:
Comparisons with Switzwerland, Finland etc are meaningless. The make up of society in USA is more typical. Being in camp with a majority of normal citizens is very different from confinement with fellow brainwashed misfits. Military service was very beneficial to many.It introduced them to disipline, work, routine,personal and dwelling cleanliness and tidiness etc.
The services have lost staff because of the tedium of Covid guard duty. Few join up to dish discipline to brats likeley to exact tikanga/te ao utu on release, if their gang member brothers do not achieve earlier.
Instad of ankle bracelets they should try something akin to miniature stocks. Public contempt and scorn might then discourage further misbehaviour.
I'm with you. If CMT were to be re-introduced with flexibility, so that budding scientific geniuses could opt for something other than 'square bashing' as their contribution, and we called it civics or something other than boot camp, people could take a pride in their society as the Swiss do. This whole argument is just the usual silly party squabbling instead of a rational debate.
'gang life where discipline is unheard' - this is far from correct. Step out of line and discipline will be brutal, certainly far worse than any government based system could conceive of. Gangs are run on a tribal system demanding subservience, enforced through a high level of violence when required.
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