To The Hon Marie Roland Alain Wong Yen Cheong
Minister of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment 

History has left some people disadvantaged but, to escape from poverty, they also need to show an interest in helping themselves. Are recent reforms really going to produce more teachers dedicated to inspiring their charges – regardless of whether they come from Sodnac or a ghetto? Poverty isn’t just a lack of finance but a lack of imagination, of thinking, of aspiration. In olden days, the attitude was to take a job, any job. Now even graduates prefer to sit at home rather than try to start a business or accept a job not worthy of their bits of paper. 

The private sector might well offer more help, especially if companies were allowed to make their own decisions and spend their own money – without bureaucratic overlords. They might even bring in some fresh ideas. More trained social workers mightn’t be a bad idea, dedicated to helping families where there’s no obvious breadwinner, motivating those who could work and ensuring support like crèches are readily available. Money would be better spent on them than in surrendering to the blackmailers demanding civil service pay rises before the next elections. Of course, for some of those who simply don’t want to work, the ideal solution is a job in the public sector but they’re rarely available to those living in neighbourhoods like Roche Bois. 

One of your intractable problems is how to deal with alcohol and drug addicts, who are often at the root of petty crime and violence, domestic or otherwise. Not that substance abuse and its side effects are limited to the poor. It’s just more noticeable. The only known way to discourage alcoholism is to make it prohibitively expensive, but Dionysos would be furious and I can’t say I’d feel too chuffed either. It might encourage business opportunities, like smuggling and home-made alcohol production, but neither might be greatly desirable. Unfortunately for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, as politicos may have noticed. The only solution may be to ban alcoholics from buying booze, with their photos displayed in all their local shops. 

It would help if drug dealers’ little helpers amongst prison, police and customs staff – and those in legal and political circles – were behind bars. Progress so far seems slow. Meanwhile, all options need to be kept open. Dealers would be out of business if drug use was decriminalised and the scourge of synthetic drugs would vanish if the real thing were legalised. Indeed, apart from helping to fill state coffers, growing bhang could encourage entrepreneurship, and even a renewed interest in agriculture. It might even take economic growth above 4%. Jails are no use –the inmates only refine their skills. In theory, state rehabilitation centres for some and boot camps for others could be the answer, but would they attract any better staff than the prisons? And the side-effects might be the same.  

To cheer us up, perhaps we need to hear more of the single mothers who dedicate themselves to ensuring that their children have a decent start in life. Everyone can make a mistake. However, when it becomes a habit, it needs tackling. Irresponsible parenting and a failed education system don’t help at all, but when you have too many teachers motivated by greed and absentee fathers and irresponsible mothers, what hope is there? Fear may be the only control that works but enforced castration and hysterectomies aren’t very politically correct. If you and others can’t come up with any better ideas, the Greeks favoured shame or banishment – but only to the lower levels of the mountainsides so as not to offend the gods by intruding on their territory. 
  
Yours sincerely
Epi Phron