Jackass seh de worl' no level. Jackass seh dem always a seh yute deh pon road igle, but nuff time wen yute go work dem get some dutty dag hangling.

Every day Jackass, like everybody else in this country, passes some youths on the street corner seemingly very happy to be going nowhere in a hurry. They drink, they smoke, they talk, they check out girls, they drift away, they come back again.

Potential and idleness

And they seem very happy to be doing all this, with the people in their cars hustling to and from work frowning as they observe all this wasted potential and idle-ness.

But Jackass wants the people who are 'frownsing' to stop and think for just one moment about the work options many of these young men face and the chall-enges that come with it. Not the challenges of the job (most of them are qualified to use their brawn and not their brain), but the challenges of how they are treated.

Treated with disrespect

The world is not level at all, because while we complain about the youths who do not go to work we do not consider that when they do look a work they are often treated with disrespect by those who boss it over them.

Jackass first thought about it when he went to a garage and heard one of the bosses putting on a 'bwayhandling' on a big man, who seemed to be about 45 to 50 years old. Apparently he had said something to the man, who had not responded quickly enough. The boss said loudly, in the presence of everyone, "if a man no waan answer him name him fi go a him ... yard!". And the big man, who is most likely a father with authority in his home, had to just sit in a corner and take it while the boss raged.

Dependency and crime

This is a big man, but chances are he had been exposed to this 'bwayhandling' all his life, sticking with it just so he could avoid a life of dependency and crime, sending his children to school and putting food on the table. So what about the young men, full of fire and having a strong sense of their own manhood? Would they take it? Most times not.

Jackass is not justifying street corner idleness, stout sipping morning and evening and spliff rolling in between. But he can understand how a young man would prefer to be unemployed rather than go through humiliation every single day for a very low salary.

At least on the corner he is a man among men and if he is 'dissed' he can defend it.

We cannot dis them

If we want the youths to work we cannot dis them, especially in jobs where they are easily replaced. Sure, we know that there are many more people willing to lift blocks on a con-struction site than there are blocks to be lifted, but that does not mean that curses should be hurled at those who are working. We know that there are many more gardeners than there are gardens, but that does not mean a person should treat the person tending to his lawn like fertiliser.

Jackass seh de worl' no level. Jackass seh nuff time man an man respeck wut more dan money.