Having been a problem teen himself, St. George's businessman Kenneth (Kid Brock) Bascome can identify with the challenges facing young people in Bermuda today.

Through the mentoring programme in the prisons and his involvement with the St. David's football team, Mr. Bascome comes into regular contact with young people and hears of their concerns.

In fact, engage him in conversation and before long he will begin talking about the topic closest to his heart...the Island's social ills.

He believes many of the issues with young people are created by the adults who don't always say and do the same things.

"Adults create, children imitate," he is famous for saying.

"It's not the young people's fault. Today the culture of our society is violence, sex and drugs.

"The young people didn't invent guns, they didn't manufacture the drugs, they didn't produce the pornography, so how can you blame all the social ills of society on young people?"

Even so he challenges the youth to be accountable for their own actions and to make the right decisions.

"I'm working with one young man at the Co-ed facility and I'm trying to get him to accept the responsibility for his own actions," said Mr. Bascome.

"That's where I believe a lot of young people go wrong, they are always looking to blame someone else when they find themselves on the wrong side of the law."

The Island has changed drastically from the one he grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. And not for the better, as there has been a decline in morals and values.

"I believe that modern technology has much to do with the disillusionment of a lot of young people," he says.

"We have advanced technologically but sociologically we have declined. Nowadays you can't just walk through somebody's yard. We have gotten so wound up in materialism that we have forgotten about the cultural things that made us unique.

"As the older generation, we always say that young people don't have mechanical abilities or are not mechanically inclined but if you look at the technology of today it does not cause the young person to be mechanically inclined.

"I make reference to the fact that young males in Bermuda have the ability to strip cycles, and we're well aware of that with the number of cycles that get stolen throughout the year. I have spoken to people in positions of authority in the former Government as well as the present Government, that rather than sending young people to prison they should be made to participate in an apprenticeship scheme."

He added: "We don't accept that everyone can't learn in a conventional school environment. I've made the point on numerous occasions, particularly on the talk shows, that we need to put an apprenticeship programme in place whereby these young men, in particular, can go into this programme three days a week and the other two could be involved on a job site in the trade they are learning.

"I've had the opportunity to interact with retired masons, carpenters, electricians and plumbers who have said to me they would be more than willing to participate in something of that nature. I can speak from my personal experience, and I try my best when dealing with young people who are exhibiting anti-social behaviour patters to use myself as an example."

Mr. Bascome grew up in Wellington Hill in St. George's and doesn't hide the fact that he got in trouble with the law and ended up serving a spell in prison. He sees a lot of himself in some of the young people he comes into contact with, but also likes to think the way he has turned his life around could serve to inspire those same young people to do the same.

"That's one of the reasons why I have a higher degree of tolerance than a lot of other people," he says.

"I give a lot of credit to my mother, because when I was having my trials and tribulations my mom always used to say to me `you're not a bad person'.

"I constantly state that we as a society have become locked in the mode of punitive measures and that's one of the reasons why this society finds itself in the predicament that we're in."

He also credits his grandfather Leonard Bascome, a former labour leader, for being a positive early influence.

"My grandparents virtually brought me up but my grandfather passed when I was 12," he explained.

"When my grandfather passed I just went totally haywire for a period of time and took on the persona of my Uncle Wesley, who was known to be rough and tough. I found that got me into a lot of trouble with the authorities.

"A lot of males, in particular, only need for someone to show them some attention, to show some interest in them as individuals. I know children who have come from two-parent homes and they have gone astray also, but I still believe there should be a male figure in a young male's upbringing."

Today's youngsters are growing up in an age of advanced technology, whereas youngsters generations ago were forced to be creative when it came to entertaining themselves. Mr Bascome remembers riding up and down the hills around his neighbourhood on carts made from wood and baby carriage wheels.

"I remember when we sat off one night a week as a family just to watch a particular televison programme, bu totday there is a TV in each bedroom, a TV in the living room and a TV in the kitchen," Mr. Bascome stated.

"What really irritates me more than anything about Bermuda is that we believe that every time we have a problem we need to go to North America to seek input. We believe that is the answer to healing our social ills."

Mr. Bascome, who is chairman of the St. George's Corporation's Street Committee and a member of the Eastern Police Consultancy Group, recognises the challenges facing the town of St. George's in regards to bad behaviour amongst it youth.

"I know a few of the young men who are a little boisterous, but I have no direct problems with the individuals who are known to be troublemakers," he said.

"Whenever, I am in the area of those individuals I have never seen them act in a manner that I would say has been disrespectful to persons walking by.

"As a member of the Corporation and chairman of the Street Committee, my committee, with the town manager, are planning to do a walkabout in different neighbourhoods once a month to get a handle on some of the problems that people are highlighting."

For 23 years he ran Tobacco Bay Beach concession and now runs his current business, Kippie's Bar on Water Street. He neither ashamed nor proud of the fact he got into trouble as a young man.

"I tell people that maybe if I hadn't gone through that I wouldn't be the individual that I am today," he says with conviction.

"I have no regrets in my life. My life was supposed to go that way.

"When I was at Tobacco Bay I never had any problems with the young people. The ones I knew who would possibly become a nuisance I would give them something to do to make them feel a part of the process."

He added: "I don't want to say there is not a problem in St. George's, and I believe the concerns are legit, but I believe with the proper consultation these things can be brought under control.

"It's a minority, but just the way society is, if there are nine young people over there doing progressive things and one in the other corner doing something negative, do you know who everyone will focus on?

"I have a lot of faith in our young people and it is up to us as adults to work to put them on the right track. Children only mimic what they see going on around them."

He believes the citizens themselves have the power to take back their neighbourhoods.

"The element everyone is so afraid of has been allowed to manifest itself because we allow it to manifest itself," he pointed out.

"I believe the community has to learn to police itself and become responsible. You can't expect the Police to be any and everything to all people."