Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: We have to understand the dynamics of gang violence. What is it that motivates people to belong to gangs? What role and function are gangs providing and fulfilling that our educational institutions, our cultural and societal institutions are not? And to the extent that gangs provide a sense of self-esteem, a sense of identity, a sense of belonging but in ways that are potentially damaging and violent and not productive, then we really need to see that that is not -- those, the gangs are not promoting the kinds of values that we want our children to have and yet what is picking up the vacuum in our children's lives that would promote their belonging to gangs in the first place? So this is really a societal condition, a social ill that needs to be studied and remedied and see how we can as a community provide our children with ways of enhancing their self-esteem, of empowering them in productive ways that value their lives, that enhance their lives, that gives them a sense of identity that's positive and that will ultimately nurture not only themselves but their families, communities, and the bigger global family. -- This also is not taken within the context of a void, because we also have to look at the entire economic, political, and societal structures that create these disparities of wealth and poverty, that don't allow for parents and families to be on board for their children because they have to, mothers and fathers have to work. Or to not even live with their children, to find jobs in other countries. So this is not something that takes place in isolation but is connected to a bigger picture.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: This is a question of education and possibilities in life. If every young person has the same possibilities in life like the other, possibilities in education, in work and development, they won't join gangs. They won't follow a false prophet. You follow a false prophet, if you don't have any prospects, if you are frustrated, if you are hopeless. Unfortunately, a part of the young people is still in such a situation today. They are growing up in such a situation. So it is really the job of the states to organise economy and society in such a way, that every young person has some kind of hope in their life. And if they have hope, they are not looking for something different. Naturally, there are some, you cannot educate. There are some, you cannot convince. There are some you cannot give hope, these people you have to fight with the help of the police. It seems that we'll always need police. But for most of the young people there is an alternative. Free enterprise is indispensable for economical development. But it needs to have some guidelines too. It shouldn't be like a jungle. If it really has the right guidelines, controlled by the state, without limiting the initiative of the individual, then I believe we will arrive at a point where all young people have a future und then they won't follow a false prophet any more.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: To stop gang violence in inner cities, we need to give them something to else to do. We need to provide alternatives to the streets. We need to provide alternatives to the way in which they function, and the way in which they are -- the boxes in which they are put into. We need to stop dismantling the family core. Why people turn into gangs is to feel included, is to feel inclusions within their local peer groups, to feel they have a purpose and to do something to take some action. We gave alternative to this that would turn their focus, to whatever it is that we are providing. If we work on strengthening the family bonds, that provide a good stable family support and if we give alternate models of, let’s say, growing food in the inner city. To provide for good health for these people, because if you feed someone processed foods, if you feed them garbage, and you give them not clean water, or good air to breath, you pollute their minds, you pollute themselves, they will then pollute their environment through graffiti, through killing each other. Graffiti is an art too, right? That’s how I view it. But, I’ll go back to providing good examples. If we have some good ways that they can channel all that energy, all that youthful energy into where there is growing food, or providing trainings to be economic leaders or community leader within their groups. This can have huge ripples out and to harness that youthful energy in a good positive way. Man, you can make some changes because that is really why we were all here as for this youth and for the future that we’re leaving behind. Yeah, let's grow more food in the inner city, some more healthy organic food. Education, improving the family bonds, and having good education.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: Definitely, inner city violence is a cycle of never-ending violent aspects. And it's really to - to think about it, because everyone is involved in a community. You are a part of it. And there is exactly this sense that we are part of the solution need to came up, and we need to create healthy families, families where values are really being positively given to young people, for them to really become stronger people, with a strong self-esteem, and self-determination to make the right choices, where dialogue, and space for talking, space for arguing, space for finding solution to problems and to conflict, would be the way out of the violence that we see everyday in our communities. So we have to make those steps to insure that we free our communities from this type of violence.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: I think we need better role models for the young people. The kinds of trash that we’re seeing sent through television, the images of and the misogyny and the bad behavior of some of the people in the media, those people serving as role models, the gangster violence you see in certain films, gunplay, this is perhaps cheap thrills for people who don’t have much opportunity but we need to invest in giving these people other alternatives and recognize and speak out that these people are bad role models. And show people that it’s not just about being famous or having an attitude that-- Give them role models of people that work hard, people that use their creative skills, we can make school exciting, turn off the television and unplug some of this pop culture that is not putting people on a path to success.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: First we should give the young people possibility of education, of employment, of the productive live. This means we should work on the increscent of general culture, education and social welfare. It’s sinless to tolerate intellectual garbage on TV or elsewhere and a miserable, dogmatic, restrictive education system and then expect a generation of not frustrated, sensible and pleased young people, which don’t kill the pharmacist to come to the drugs. Young people are very special people, and dominion in modern world which we should take good care of and not look upon as upon our own colony.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: It’s a difficult question, a very difficult question. Maybe it would be a good start, basically, to introduce nonviolent communication programs at school. I guess really, if you think about it, to go back to the very early periods in a child’s life. These programs need to be started very, very early before kids get into the sort of adolescent years when all that testosterone is swirling around the human system looking for a place to go. But it’s been a kind of I suppose head butting; there’s been a trend throughout history. I mean if you look at ancient cultures, often they use, particularly the male uses – often would be sent out into the wilderness to become “braves” like a right of passage where they could test their strength. Not in terms of killing each other, but by testing their strength with each other in a climate of safety and where there’s some rules. Maybe we need to reintroduce that into modern life, because it really is an amazing time to go through adolescence. Acting out these shifts that occur in our minds and bodies around that time through violence and death is really foolish and it’s not a very effective way of, again, becoming a brave. In fact, true bravery does not include inflicting pain on another person. True bravery is about, actually, helping another person release their aggression. Good martial arts training would be a great way to go. But yeah, I think it’s a right of passage and, in fact, it could be a reintroduction of those very ancient culture knowledges would [audio ends]

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Catherine David: This is also a very vague and naive question. I believe that it is not good in anyone’s opinion that young people kill each other and I think the question is more complex than this. The question is: what are young people doing in the streets? What makes that people less than 15 years old do not have other horizons, other desires, other activities than to get illegally hold of the consumer goods they desire. I believe this has something to do with economical questions, social questions and questions of urbanism. As long as these questions are not even asked or even partly answered, we do not have to be to astonish that some young people do not have other horizons than to risk their lives in order to get hold of a certain number of material and symbolic goods in a diverse and illegal way. I think that the symbolic goods exist and they have to be considered. I believe that it is not always a question of getting hold of watches, cars and branded baskets. I believe the most difficult thing to solve is the symbolic war and this will not work with two or three meaningless petitions.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: It is important question because for so many kids, they think it's cool to be a gangster or to kill. I can tell you that it's not cool to kill. I know many child soldiers. I know I was myself one from a child soldier and when you get to know the other side of life; the other side of life where there is no killing; the other side of life where there is no blood seen by your eyes. When you get to know the beauty of being down to earth and not do such things because you want to be cool, it's a beautiful life. I think we have to teach them to know, to let them know that there is a life without violence. And to teach them that everything they can achieve, what they think they can achieve with violence, they can achieve without violence. I think the most important is we have to be very concerned and put enough money, enough funding, so that you rehabilitate them; give them three years, give them two years, but make sure they are living okay so that they get to learn, to think over. And maybe if it's possible, because sometimes it could be very difficult for someone to leave the gang and still living in the same city, maybe he was afraid they would come and kill him. If we have enough resources, we could take this very person to another city, to another state, so that it’s away from his group and rebuild him as a new person.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Cornel West: Gang violence is rooted in lack of opportunities regarding quality education and lack of opportunity regarding job with a living wage, lack of love in too many other families and the lack of cohesion in too many other communities. There’s a structural and institutional dimension that is fundamental that has to do with the war priorities of a society that’s willing to spend more time and more money and resources on prisons than on education. There’s a structural and institutional dimension that has to do with refusing to create jobs with a living wage, for the lower echelons of the labor force. And, as an individual and personal dimension it has to do – it’s too much self-hatred, too much self-violations, not enough love and respect in families, not enough love and respect in neighborhoods. The structural and the institutional dimensions and the personal and individual dimensions go hand in hand; and we wipe out gang violence to a significant degree when we provide those high quality jobs, high quality education, high quality healthcare and also enable families and communities to hang together in such a way that moral love and self-respect and self-regard become available to people, especially young precious poor people.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: For me gang violence is just symptoms of a deeper problem. What I mean is there is a need to root out the cause of gang violence, and by rooting out the problem, we provide a proper intervention based on the roots - respond to the problem based on the roots. And, if the roots of the problems are in the lack of access to education by the youth, then perhaps it would be necessary to make alternative solutions by providing - encouraging the youth to go back to school. In this way, gang violence will be minimized. But, most importantly, I think we should bear in mind that gang violence is just a symptoms of a deeper problem. I think we should consider all that. And, if we know the root causes as I said of the gang problem - the deeper problem, that’s the time we can design strategies of trying to solve in such a way that gang violence may be minimized or better if it’s terminated because one of the reasons why there is gang violence is there are lots of youth who are not in school who are being attracted in the streets and maybe perhaps more efforts from the social services program of its government should be invested on those kind of problem intervention. And, that’s the only way to respond to the problems according to its needs.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Dritëro Kasapi: Hi, Stephanie. I feel that young people engaging in gang violence don’t engage in it because they don’t place importance to education. I think they never had a chance to consider education as a possibility, as an alternative because of the lack of access to education. I think it is creating education accessible to everyone is really important in fighting gang violence. But an education that actually takes each individual seriously, is aware of the background of each person, takes that into account and creates the journey in the education system. It's creating from the circumstances and possibilities and the background of each individual, rather than seeing the education as something that is just offered to collective of young people, regardless of who they are. I think that a lot of young people can’t relate to that kind of educational system. They feel that they don’t belong there. So I think, first, make it accessible and then second, a reform in how the education system is built, and the basis of this reform is not to see the education as something that is directed generally to young people but actually an education that is built and constructed around the individual, and I think that will lead to, in long term, to drastic decrease of gang violence and other kinds of delinquency.

by Dritëro Kasapi

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Eliane Potiguara: I wonder how to be happy in this confusion, this violence, hatred, this rage? How to tackle all this, how to help people to stay happy, because we only have one life to live? I keep asking myself: "Oh my creator, oh mighty cosmic power, oh my ancestors, oh my family members birds, oh my family members stone, forrest, animal. How can we stand this violence? How can we maintain our spirit, our light, our spirituality?" We have a mission on this planet, we have a road to follow, we are people who should contribute to society. So, how to maintain this tranquility, this peace, this internal harmony so that we do not become ill, even physical ill? How to spare us this feeling of hatred, of rage for nothing and nobody? Do not even hate your enemy. In my vision, as a being of light as I'm considering myself, a person that has the ability to transform society, that's how I see myself and I feel that I have to find a way to bring peace, love and light for that people who can't feel that strength and not let flow negative energy to humanity. We all have an individual social responsibility in the first place to pass on that strength and the light tothe people with whom we work. I feel myself very responsible, my creator gave me this mission on Earth to help the society, the community, to help those who don't know that feelings. I see that those countries are being discriminated, so they take their arms and they shoot, they want to dominate, we have to help this people for that they don't become terrorists, because terrorism is a very bad thing. If wars are being fought with wars, the war will remain. We cannot fight violence with violence.

by Eliane Potiguara

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Eliot Weinberger: Well, I think that you help to eliminate gang violence by, of course, by changing the causes of gang violence, which is poverty, which is the lack of decent housing in the inner cities, which is the lack of economic opportunity in the inner cities. As I am sure you know, we have the situation in the United States where a young black male is much more likely to go to prison than to go to college. So, I think that the gang violence disappears with economic prosperity. If you look at New York City in the 19th century, who were the gangs, the gangs were the Irish, there were Jewish gangs, Italian gangs and so forth. And these are no longer groups that are associated with gang violence because obviously as the wealth of these groups increased, as they moved out of the ghetto, out of poverty, then gang violence ceased to exist. So, I think that the problem is not gang violence, the problem is poverty, and we start having to have decent jobs for people and decent housing for people, and this is where the money has got to go.

by Eliot Weinberger

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Elisabet Sahtouris: This is a very interesting question, how to stop gang violence. I remember some years back when I was visiting one of the very affluent California coastal towns and a lady said to me, “I wonder if you can help with a new problem we have in our town.” And she said, “We have suddenly gangs that are violent and that are thieving and we don’t know what to do, we’ve never had this kind of a problem in our town. And we have no idea how to tackle it. Can you give us some advice?” And off the top of my head I said I think that’s a piece of cake, and really easy problem to solve. She said, “Really? How can we do it?” So I said just have one of your wealthy families invite one gang member each, have a group, as many wealthy families as there are gang members since you seem to know who they are, invite one each to dinner once a week and at the table treat them like family. Ask them what their needs are, their unmet needs. Ask them how you can help them fulfill those needs. And really be concerned in that young person’s life and actively support them in doing what they are most talented to do, what they would like to do with their lives. I think you will see the problem evaporate. And I would say basically this is the same thing. If every young person were cared for, nurtured and helped by their society to meet their real needs, I don’t believe we would have gangs, violent gangs, gang warfare, the problems of that kind. I was a criminal justice planner for juveniles in the state of Massachusetts back in the early 70s. And I outfitted Harvard students with tape recorders to go and interview juvenile delinquents on street corners to ask them how their society had failed to meet their needs. It didn’t make my colleagues very happy that I was doing this but I was convinced already at that time that the solutions lie in exactly what I’m talking about. If we meet all young people’s needs they’re not going to be attacking each other or the other parts, the other members of their society.

by Elisabet Sahtouris

Sep 9, 2006 12:45:00 PM cite

Ervin Laszlo: The answer to that is to create better conditions for young people to live in the inner cities. There is a great deal of depravation, injustice and frustration, motivating violence. Violence, gang violence is a symptom, is an effect. It’s not the cause. You have to wipe off discrimination and help to create better conditions for living and working in inner cities and better opportunities for education. At the same time, you have to make education itself more relevant and more meaningful to the people who live in the inner cities.

by Ervin Laszlo