Youth around the world are embrassing a gang culture that stems from the inner cities of the United States, it is romantasized in modern media; this is a culture steeped in violence and confuses violence and fear for respect.  In the process these youth are losing their own culture and identity, the result is a lost generation alienated from their own communities.  There is a saying that the "Grass is green on the other side of the fence", more often than not those who jump the fence realize to late that they left the greener pasture. 

Operation Future is pleased to be given permission to publish Ms. Jonelle Irish's poem "A Missing Cultural Identity". Ms Irish is a 5th Form (Grade 11) student in the Federation of St Kitts & Nevis and her poem shows wisdom well beyond her years.  We hope you appreciate her poem as much as we do. 

                   We always search for a place to call our own

         But rarely do we know that our paradise has been hidden in plain

                                                            sight

                                                       We wander

                                                       We are lost

                              Thinking: Whenever am I going to find home?

                                                       It is ironic

                         We always try to escape the limitless boundaries

                To confine ourselves to spaces that were never our own

                      In a place where we were never meant to be

                      We bend and twist and melt and remold ourselves

               Only to become less than nothing and be confident in our

                                                     ignorance  
 
                  It has been said that pride is the downfall of man
 
                                           A losing of his culture

              But the only downfall I see is man not having any pride in colours

                                                  of their heart
 
                         “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s property”

                            A commandment long forgotten

                          Are we like the lonely traveler in the desert

                                Whose brain continuously fools him

                                   And he thinks an oasis is near?

                         Are we alien to our own traditions?

                      Or yearn after the distant foreign culture?

                    Or are we like the early adventurers out at sea

                           Claiming every new found land as our own?
 
            We venture from our paradise to find the beauty that we have

                                                   trapped within

             This beauty cannot be attained until there is contentment and

                                                     acceptance

                       And finally realization sets in as the inner eye opens

                                       There is no oasis in the desert

                            And little did the adventurers know-

                             Their paradise was not next door

                                  But embedded in their genetic code.

              All they needed to do was knock a little harder on their heart. 

             But more than often, we feel the need to flee home to find out

                                                         where home is

                     For we deem ourselves not fit for what is ours.

                                                            But I hope

                                                   And I can only hope

                 It is my hope we can fly south for this winter into our hearts