By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

ASSISTANT Commissioner of Police Samuel Butler told students of the Genesis Academy that life is a journey and they must get back on the right bus that will take them in the right direction to becoming good citizens.

“You might have had some infractions in school before, but this is your opportunity to turn it around,” he said. “Life is a journey and you have to ask yourself what bus am I catching; am I catching the bus with the wrong crowd?”

Mr Butler, the newly appointed police chief for the Grand Bahama District, was the invited guest speaker at the launch of an Aquaponics programme this week at the Genesis Academy – an institution for troubled high school students kicked out of the normal school system.

He told the students that life is not always going to be easy and that there are going to be struggles and difficult times. Overcoming obstacles will make them stronger, he said.

“Keep focused and keep moving,” ACP Butler said.

The senior police official emphasised that Aquaponics is a new innovation in terms of food production, and urged students to take the programme seriously.

He stressed that food is critical to human existence and some seven million people worldwide must eat daily.

“The knowledge you are gaining here, imagine what you could be – there are some 400,000 persons existing here in The Bahamas. What if you were a tomato specialist and supplied each person with one tomato – you would have plenty money. There is great wealth in the knowledge you are gaining,” said ACP Butler.

He also stressed that life is not about wealth and shared with them his humble beginnings as a young boy in the Carmichael village. He and Ricardo Major, the school’s principal, were childhood friends who attended the same primary school.

“We have been friends for 50 years; we spent many wonderful days connecting as little boys. We enjoyed walking together in the rain because we didn’t have cars…and look for guana berries because they did not have candy. We did not come from wealth, we did not live in the biggest house in the community. We were not wealthy, and our parents taught us about life,” he said.

He told the students that they are special and unique.

“The problem is quite often we do not take sufficient time to examine ourselves. Most of you have seen a diamond in a ring or chain, but do you know that the diamond was just a dirty nugget in the ground. Sometimes we find ourselves just like that nugget, and we do not take five minutes to polish ourselves by taking our education serious,” he said.

Mr Butler said that in The Bahamas education is free, but in Haiti only a select few are privileged to get an education.

He said that children in Haiti walk miles up in the mountains to stand under the streetlights to do their homework.

“We have computers, lights, air-conditioned - everything in our homes and we don’t do our work; and here are a group of students walking miles from the valley in the mountain to sit and do their homework under the streetlight,” he said.

“Education is free here for us - everyone has an opportunity to develop their mind. Don’t allow the nugget that God placed in you to remain dirty. We want it to be refined; we want you to embrace the opportunity for an education,” he said.

Mr Butler warned that getting on the wrong bus and hanging out with the wrong crowd will lead them into trouble.

“Examine yourselves. God has made you special to be a diamond, not to remain as a nugget. You are here for a purpose, and you are special. I want you to rise and be great citizens of the Bahamas. There is a place for you, get on the right bus; connect with the right friends and connect yourself to God and you will go to your very best,” he said.