EVERYTIME YA OPEN the newspapers nowadays, ya could see and read ’bout this thing or the next happening fuh the youth; and despite all the efforts by Government  and a number of other organisations, a lot o’ the youth still out there and ain’t tekking advantage o’ nutten.
Pon the other hand, every other week ya does see pictures dat does make ya cringe at some old person, man or woman, living under some o’ the most horrible conditions. It is really quite sad, and it looks like nutten doan be in place from these organisations tuh help these kinda people so quickly.
I come along and hear the old people saying, ‘once a man, twice a child’. You and I know dat when ya get a certain age and the old body start tuh guh down, ya does be at the mercy  of people ’cause while ya mind might be telling you dat ya could do what ya accustom doing, the body doan be able. Dat is why ya does want people tuh help ya.
Look, I could see myself years from now, living on my own and doing things fuh myself because this is the way I was living fuh as long as I know myself. I could also see myself fretting up and carrying on wid people ’round me because I am so accustom tuh my space and was always an independent individual.
Another thing ’bout me is dat I doan do much complaining, if at all; I am a very peaceful, contented person, and me and my children does get away fuh dat sort o’ thing evah suh often. But dat is just the way I am; I doan like tuh bother a soul.
And duh got a lot o’ elderly folk just like dat; duh accustom being independent and they got their pride too. Ya might even hear dem saying dat dem ain’t want tuh bother nuhbody, so they would rather suffer in silence until duh cahn help duhself and find duh self  in a sorry state.
But sometimes circumstances do put people in these helpless situations and because they might be old and ailing, this  is how they could end up.
Ya could also look at it another way. As the old people put it, ‘when ya say A ya gotta say B’, meaning ya doan know what could have happened  to bring these poor old people tuh this stage.
I would be very honest wid ya; sometimes I does wonder about the kind o’ life dat some  o’ these people would have lived, especially the men. I mean if duh had children, how many they had, where they are now, and so on and so forth.
Sometimes I does even wonder if some of dem worked and made valuable contributions tuh the society  in some way or the other.
Now, doan get me wrong, all men ain’t the same and things could happen in life dat would bring people to this kind o’ level. But the thing that would make me ask questions like these is when I see the amount o’ young men who does be loitering ’bout the place from morning till night, and aimlessly walking up and down like duh lost in space.
I got some out here by me, some o’ dem I see grow up from lil boys going tuh school and now duh outta school and just sitting around the place under a tree from morning till night doing squat. Duh hair does be plait up, two shiny earrings in duh ears, and a couple o’ tattoos pon duh hands. Dat is the extent of it.
I does have tuh ask myself, what duh went tuh school for? What they doing wid their lives? If they happen to get children, how they gine support dem and what they gine tell and/or teach dem? How duh gine end up, or even if duh gine end up like some of the old men on the streets wid nowhere tuh call home and nobody tuh look  after dem?
But it is sad tuh see these old people in such dire straights. I really hope dat the Government, organisations or agencies would put things in place quickly so dat they are protected from the elements, and at least have  a clean place tuh sleep and  a proper meal tuh eat when  the day come.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion  on everything.