This week I attended the homegoing service for Arnold Francis. What a man. What a life well-lived. Bermuda, we have lost a giant of a man, a pillar of our community, a man who stood and fought for righteousness and fairness. But his passing reminds me that we don’t have men like Arnold Francis any more. Where are the real men? The leaders, teachers and mentors of our young men? Where are they? We need more real men. More on this later, after the Top 20.Holding at #1 is Can’t Be Friends by Trey Songz. Ke$ha’s hit pop single, We R Who We R finally advances into the #2 spot. Tumbling to #3 is Bottoms Up by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj. I got Nicki’s CD the other day from a good friend and burned it. She definitely got game. I can see why Lil Kim is hating on her. It’s all about envy and jealousy! Why can’t we just be happy for each other to succeed?Up to #4 is Like A G6 by Far*East Movement featuring Cataracs & Dev. Check this one out. It is unique and it kicks. Falling to #5 is Rihanna with her monster hit Only Girl In The World. For the past two weeks this was the only song I wanted to play in my car. It just kicks and makes you want to sing along and play it over and over again.Improving to #6 is Raise Your Glass by Pink. Up to #7 it’s What’s My Name? by Rihanna featuring Drake. Slipping to # 8 is Just A Dream by Nelly.Climbing to #9 is Firework by Katy Perry. Up to #10 is Louder (Put Your Hands Up) by Chris Willis, a huge dance hit internationally and getting a bit of play on the rock. Improving to #11 is Grenade by artist Bruno Mars.Tumbling to #12 is DJ Got Us Falling In Love by Usher featuring Pitbull. This is another track I played frequently in the whip (car for the uncool) of late.Now the new tracks. Up to #13 is Hold It Against Me by Brittney Spears. Improving to #14 is Aston Martin Music by Rick Ross featuring Drake and Chrisette Michelle.Falling to #15 is Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. Slipping to #16 is Holding You Down by Jazmine Sullivan. Down to #17 is Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars.Holding at #18 is Dirty Picture by Taio Cruz featuring Ke$ha. You simply must listen to this track and check out the clever and kicking beat, which has had me bopping my head this week.Now this week’s essential new tune. New at #19 it’s Memories by David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi. This song is a sing-along dance anthem. It gets massive airplay in South Florida, where I plan to spend the next week. I’ve heard it all over the radio stations in Florida and a few of my local DJ buddies are into it as well, with their punters ecstatically enjoying dancing and singing along whilst it is played. It has a slammin’ beat and is quite catchy.Another new track, in at #20, is Who’s that Chick? by David Guetta featuring Rihanna.Now back to this week’s word: Where are the real men? I had a very cool personal relationship with Mr Francis. We used to always greet each other in French and would continue the conversation until either of us ran out of vocabulary. Then we would laugh and carry on in English.But the thing that stands out about this larger-than-life pioneer, businessman, lawyer, politician, founding member of the PLP, Queen’s Counsel, MCP, and all the other accolades he accumulated during his 89 years, is that he looked out for me and other young men, especially young black men, during our lives.The late Richard Hector is another giant of a man who also looked out for me and many other young men. Let me explain.These two gentlemen, and there are numerous others who fall into this category, took genuine interest in me, my life, my career, my family, what I was doing. They would always stop me on the street and say, “Hello young man, how are you? What are you doing with yourself? What are you doing with your life? How’s your family? How’s that pretty girl you’re dating? Where are you working? How is that going for you? Are you working hard? Getting results?”And then they stayed and waited for my answers and would engage me in a conversation that might last five to ten minutes, but all of which showed that they genuinely and truly cared about me and my personal and professional development.There are several young men who can tell the same story about these two gentlemen and the other giants from that generation. But what those encounters did was to force a young man in his 20s or 30s to answer those questions and if you couldn’t answer them, take steps to be ready to answer them the next time you saw either of those pillars of our community. Because you could rest assured that if you didn’t have good answers, the next time you saw them they would ask you those same questions and expect better answers than the last time; answers which suggested that your life was moving in a positive, progressive, lawful and meaningful direction that would cause you to be a positive contributor to our society, rather than a direction that would cause one to be counterproductive and/or a menace to society.So my question is, “Where are the Arnold Francis’ and Richard Hectors of 2011? Where are the men who mentor young men? Black or white, it don’t matter they all need mentoring. But let’s be real. It seems to be the young black males who are at greatest risk and seem to be most in need of guidance, mentoring, love, the involvement of fathers and/or older males in their lives.The answer is I am that person now! I need to be the Arnold Francis and Richard Hector of 2011! Forty-seven years old is not too young! So I now challenge my peers every adult male to take a personal interest in the lives of as many young men as you see, and hold them accountable for living good lives. Encourage them to be better men, to reach their full potential. Ask them the questions that our mentors ask and have asked us over the years. Cause them to ‘step up their game’ and be better fathers and husbands. Encourage them to not have kids by five different women. Encourage them to work hard. Encourage them to get to know God and have a personal relationship with God, so that they may fulfill His perfect will for their lives.If we fail to do this, we will have failed both the generation before us and the one to follow us. Because it will mean that this mentoring of young men stopped with us. I don’t want that on my head. The Country needs it and the Country needs us to do it. It doesn’t take too much of your time. And above all else, we should do it simply because it’s the right thing to do. Someone else did it for us. We must now pass it on and pay it forward. Peace..….....……DJLT.