Dear Jonah, I am an Imani Trainee from the constituency of St Andrew’s North West. I must express gratitude to the former administration for the many opportunities given to us as young people. I must also salute the former Minister for Youth for the way she touched our lives. Reflecting on the past and what we had, I must confess that I am totally dissatisfied with the attitude of the new Minister for Youth, and the way we are being treated by the new Government. At our first meeting with the Minister he gave us the commitment that no one in the programme will be sent home and that the programme will be upgraded. The NDC during the campaign did promise us that they were going to increase the stipend to $1000.00 and will not send us home. They attacked the former Government for paying us $700.00 saying that with the rising cost of living it was a demonstration that the NNP did not care. Now to tell us you will reduce the amount is an act that words cannot describe. To add insult to injury, the Minister goes on national radio and television and gives the impression that we were disrespectful to him, when he also disrespected us in the way he behaved. I am not saying that we conducted ourselves as saints but it was when the Minister started to bang the table and shout at us then about 90% of the trainees started shouting at him. There was no need for this behavior. A trainee simply asked him why they lied during the campaign and he got hot. How can you be that aggressive as a Minister for Youth? What will you say to the boys who Mrs. Pierre has been working with for years, even those who went to Prison because they could not control their emotion? I am so disappointed in Mr. Simmons because I saw for myself his behavior at that meeting and another meeting he had with us. He definitely did not give a true picture to the media of how he behaved. IMANI TRAINEE Dear IMANI TRAINEE, I have listened to your account of what happened and I listened to the Minister himself explain the story. Indeed your story is not very different from his story and I must agree with you that the trainees behavior could have had a lot to do with the Minister’s response to the question. He himself admitted that he got agitated and shouted at the trainee and then the trainees at the back started shouting at him. The question can be asked, if he did not shout at the trainee would the trainees at the back start shouting at him? I know as young people you expect certain things from older people but in life those we expect to behave in certain ways do not always meet our expectations and so it is important not to cause anyone to influence our behavior in a negative way. Always aspire to conduct yourselves in such a way that you will first be proud of yourself. I will also encourage the Minister to apply better meeting management skills, anger management skills and judgment when dealing with young people. Jonah Inside Grenada News