By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said last night the country must come together, unselfishly, and answer the critical question: “What are we going to do to save our young boys?”

While speaking at the University of The Bahamas’ President’s Lecture Series, Prime Minister Christie said there is direct correlation between unemployment, a lack of education and violent crime in The Bahamas.

Mr Christie’s comments came three days after two teenage boys, ages 13 and 15, were shot and killed while walking home and two days after a construction worker was gunned down on the job. The country’s murder count now stands at 37 for the first three months of the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

He said everyone must come together to save the reputation and integrity of The Bahamas.

“We have to address this issue about what we are going to do to save our young men? What are we going to do to save our young boys? It is a critical question that we all have to answer,” Mr Christie said.

“We must all advance this discussion on crime. Too much of our brain power is preoccupied with taking us not in the direction the country should be going in but in the selfishness of persons who have their own agendas. Crime, violence and unemployment are what we see too often affect young people, this did not just happen overnight. It happened because we did not pay sufficient attention to the development of youth across our nations, in our public policy and in our educational systems.

“We perhaps accepted that youth development in our society would be organic but we know today that it must be done through deliberate policies aimed at youth development.”

Mr Christie said he is “particularly concerned” with the young men in the country and the fast pace in which women are outshining men in education and other aspects of society.

“I am particularly concerned about the issue of young males and the social issues which seem to affect them greatly whether by accidents or by homicide. You ask yourself the question, why do the women continue to outshine them in school and across the economy?

“In this institution (University of The Bahamas) the ratio is as high as three females to one male. This has all sorts of implications and ramifications on the general society and its development. The question must also be asked, is there a link between the educational dysfunction of the young male and the exposure to domestic violence among young women? What has happened to our Caribbean man?”

More than 600 people have been killed since the PLP took office in May 2012, according to The Tribune’s records.

Before the 2012 general election, the PLP posted billboards throughout New Providence - in areas heavily trafficked by tourists and locals - which said there had been more than 490 killings under the five-year Ingraham administration.

The PLP, then in opposition, campaigned that it had the answer to violent crime while the Ingraham administration did not. It promised that if elected it would get crime under control.