WEBVTT

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Previously on Life… An urban
war zone is a part of the city

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that has been neglected in terms of
investments. I mean very elementary things.

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If you have half of the
population in these poor sections

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that are less than 18 years old and they cannot see a light in
the tunnel. How can you think they are not going to be violent?

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Citizenship is not universal.
It\'s like \"we\" and \"they\".

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[music]

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Eternal Father bless our

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land Guide us with thy mighty hand

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Keep us free from evil powers

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See our lives through countless hours…

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This is Bennetlands, a ghetto
community in the heart of Kingston,

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Jamaica\'s capital city and these
residents were marching for peace

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because this has been a troubled area.

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Jamaica…

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At first glance, Bennetlands looks like
any other working class neighbourhood.

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Some women work as domestics
in more affluent communities.

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Others are employed in garment factories
in Jamaica\'s Free Trade Zone.

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Some men work on construction sites, and
small businesses have sprung up here

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behind the zinc fences.

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Ned makes graters out of pieces of
left-over metal from the box factory,

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and sells them along the streets.

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Clevie buys ice cream and
peddles it at sporting events.

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Devon serves delicious peanut porridge

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on Sunday mornings.

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A few residents walk the miles to this beach
to buy fish to peddle on Kingston Streets.

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For many, this is the farthest

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they will ever venture from home.
And life goes on.

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Five thousand people live here.

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More than half are young, two
thousand are unemployed.

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But guns bark often in these dusty
streets and for most of the residents,

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Bennetlands has become
a prison without bars.

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Oh Lord… Living in Kingston Said we\'re
living in the heart of the town

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Living in Kingston City,
Sha na na na na-na.

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Some people find it hard living in the
city Life in the Ghetto was never easy

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No food to eat, no clothes to
wear Can\'t get no where to sleep,

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no money to spend And so no, I no friend

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Inna no sky-rise apartment.
So no I no big friend

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Inna big house up at Cherry Gardens. Living
in Kingston… The people of Bennetlands

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look to four beacons of hope in their
community. The primary school they see as

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providing the only avenue for their children
to escape to a life outside the area.

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The St. Peter Claver Catholic Church

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offers spiritual nourishment to its flock.

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Although we\'re not free to walk the streets, as
we\'d like we know we are freed by Jesus Christ.

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For other, cares can be eased at the
Seventh Day Adventist Church of God.

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[music]

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These seats near the door are kept free for those
who prefer to keep their back to the wall.

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[music]

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And here, at the S-Corner Clinic,

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physical needs are met and a sense
of community is being built.

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Angela Stultze Crawle is the
Director of The S-Corner Clinic.

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It is an integrated community
development initiative in which umm…

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the main emphasis, really, is to improve the
living conditions of the citizens in this area.

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And these are through programmes
of health, education,

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sanitation, outreach
programmes, and those things.

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Once, despite the poverty this was a peaceful
place. Life was nice because you could go

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anywhere you want to, you could stay on the
street anytime of night you want to stay.

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Usual community, nice good people,

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kids up and down, running about, playing,
not afraid to go out on the road.

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Some years ago violence broke out in
many parts of Jamaica. This is Carlene.

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She is 14 years old. This
is my baby Kimberly…

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The baby\'s father was shot four weeks ago

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and Carlene doesn\'t know why.
One of the time,

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one of the gunman fired a shot
through my mother housetop,

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and as it come inside, and we have to move from
where we were, and go over another yard, and live.

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Them shot two man up the road the other day

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and a young girl, 17 years old
and pregnant, shoot her. Eh.

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Violence caused many persons
to flee their homes,

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some to live in makeshift shelters, others
to seek refuge with relatives elsewhere.

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[music]

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Because when the gang wars flare up the
children are unable to come to school.

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It happened just a few weeks ago,
during lunchtime. There was gunfire

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from the bottom of the road to the top.
Fear walked the streets…

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[sil.]

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As area dons fought to defend their turf.
Basically it was… It\'s a war

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between \"corner crews\" and the \"corner
crew\" must be sharply distinguished

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from a criminal gang.

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A \"corner crew\" is there to give solidarity, and
self-respect, and identity to a group of youth.

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They don\'t have it otherwise, they don\'t have any employment,
they don\'t get any respect from the wider society,

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and their own girlfriends scorn them because
they can\'t bring in a steady income.

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So the crew provides that.

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It\'s a large family, it
provides the stability that

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a family should offer in many
respects and doesn\'t offer.

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A criminal gang is organised
to commit some form of crime.

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That\'s not to say that these corner crews do not
commit any criminal acts, they do. They have guns,

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they use them, they shoot, they maim, they
kill. But they don\'t organise for that purpose

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and they are redeemable.

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But violence erupted when a young man from one
area was knifed by persons from the rival side.

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This split the community in two.
Now rival gangs

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not only fear each other they also
fear harassment by the police.

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As soon as the police walks into a community, the
people, especially males see the police as a threat.

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They don\'t see the police as
a peacemaker, who are coming

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and trying to interact with them or, you know, to help them
or to solve their problems. They see the police as somebody

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who will come in and ready to shoot.

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Yeah? And the poor man
law, the poor man law.

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Men without work lose self-esteem

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and the task of holding a family
together rests mainly on women.

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For young men, the gun became the symbol of
male pride. Where did the guns come from?

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Both the criminal gangs and
the corner crews come out of

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the political tribalism.
Under that, in that system

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you have garrison communities, okay?
The don represents the politician

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and uh… provides leadership,
and gives guidance,

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and so on in the community, and insists
on a certain discipline and order.

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When the politics business
began to come around,

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and they would give us guns and such like to do
things, and when the guns supposed to return back,

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now it bring a problem to some people,
they don\'t want to bring it in back.

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You\'ve got a continuity in the
sense of guns, umm… local leaders,

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turf, uh… defence of turf, umm…

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But… And there is still a political element and
not all the big dons are gone by any means.

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Youths find it hard not to be a victim

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Of the political ism and schism
See them now turning to the guns

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Out of road Babylon shoot them down…

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In fact, there was one mother who had lost three sons who
came to her pastor and begged him to do something about it.

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As you know, Jamaicans really respect
the church, they respect religion,

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they respect all sorts of religions.
As Rastafarians we, we preach love,

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we can relate to poor
people and so they feel

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more comfortable in coming to use with
their problems. The S-Corner complex

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houses two schoolrooms. Early in the morning
the Grassroots College is in session.

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Some of these students that come to the school
are between the ages of 16 to 25 years.

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Who have dropped out of previous institutions because they
were pregnant, financially unable to continue school,

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or were seen as juvenile delinquents,
society wanted nothing to do with them.

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Later in the day, primary school
children come here to do their homework.

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When violence flared, many
students stayed home.

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But the S-Corner complex had won the
respect of the entire community

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including the dons and area leaders, by
providing health care for young and old.

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And the old ladies are their
mothers, are their grandparents.

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And so they really need our presence and because we
have built that relationship with them over the years,

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we were now at an advantage to say,

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\"If you do not stop shooting at
each other, then we\'ll just close.\"

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He got shot in front of the, the clinic!

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I mean the guy just ambushed him and he got
his neck, and we just really decided that

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enough was enough. It was time for action.

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A meeting was called with the pastors of the two churches,
the S-Corner Staff and the Principal of the primary school.

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We have had problems with
attendance, as they know.

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But also the individual problems of children
whose parents or family members have killed

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and then the children just disappear
sometimes we don\'t know where they are.

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Before anything could be achieved, they had
to persuade the dons to come out of hiding.

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[music]

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The first step was to talk
to the dons, one on one.

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So we want to have a meeting…

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But bonafide is still me (inaudible),
I know we start nothing, from them,

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they start it. So tell them to
start the peace. So I don\'t know…

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Well, them saying the same thing,

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you know, that you the one that start it. But I mean we don\'t
want to get into that. All I\'m asking, all we\'re asking,

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basically is, you know, just for you and
your group to meet with the Peace Committee.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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So we just want to meet with you separately… Me no trust…
It\'d be just us, us and you, then later on we meet with them.

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We want to hear your side of the story and
we want to present some points to you too.

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[non-English narration]

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It wasn\'t easy.

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It took about 15 meetings over several
months to persuade the area leaders to meet.

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The area leaders wanted peace
but they feared for their lives

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if they ventured out of their self-made
prison. So members of the committee

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offered to be their human shields.

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[music]

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Let\'s see if we can come and sit in a circle. It is
a tense moment. At last the dons are face to face.

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Can they negotiate peace or
will tempers flare again?

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Brethren, welcome,

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glad you finally reach here,
it\'s been a long road.

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You know why we\'re here. Really we\'re
trying to make a peace in the community.

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The Bible said, \"Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.\"

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Unity is strength.

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We don\'t want to get into the past. You
know, what took place or who did shoot who

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or who did say what about what. What we want to talk about is
positive things this afternoon that can help the community

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and to help yourself.

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Remember, some of the things that we
suggested, one of them was a dance.

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Yeah man, the dance! Real man.

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So I would really like to see you men

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get back on the track that you used to be.

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One love, one heart, and let unity reign.

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[music]

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Little by little, life crept back

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into the lanes and streets of Bennetlands.

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Well, you can see a lot of difference.
\'Cause even at night,

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you can sit on the road site until, on the
street side until about 10, 11 o\'clock at night

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and there\'s no one to molest us.
When Angela, and the Father,

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and their church speak to them, them hear.

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They had people from other streets and lanes that
were afraid to umm… come across to the clinic,

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and they too have started coming around.

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Yeah, I would like to see the peace.
I\'ll try me best to see the peace.

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I lean, I lean, I lean, I lean

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I\'m leaning on the Lord\'s side!
I lean, I lean, I lean, I lean

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I\'m leaning on the Lord\'s side.

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The inner city simmers
below a crown of hills.

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The women of Bennetlands, who rose before
sunup to clean other people\'s houses

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and wash other people\'s clothes,
are going home to cook dinner

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on a coal stove. Bennetlands
has achieved a cease-fire

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but there are still guns out there,
the fabric of peace is fragile.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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He would have been 19
years old the next day.

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In the past, the tragic death of a young man would
have sparked a chain reaction of revenge killings.

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And one thing I was glad
for, they didn\'t retaliate.

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They wanted to, they were talking about it but
because of the peace, the peace initiative.

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Real peace and progress cannot be
won by the community on its own.

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In Jamaica, the gap between
rich and poor is widening

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and so is the gap between rich countries
and poor countries. Here as elsewhere,

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there is need for low-cost housing,
and educational facilities,

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and unemployment figures
are dangerously high.

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The people of Bennetlands would welcome

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job creation projects inside the community.
Some found work

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on a latrine building project a few years ago. Some young
people cleared land for a community vegetable garden,

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but were ordered to leave because the land
would be needed for a housing project.

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They are still waiting for
that dream to come true.

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[music]

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Given the power of faith,

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given hope and determination, some
young men have changed their lives

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against all obstacles.
Growing up in the ghetto,

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I adopt certain principle
but not every principle.

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I believe in work. By the sweat
of your brow, you must work,

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and you will eat bread
that is what I believe.

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[music]

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Glen saw that the gun wasn\'t the answer and
he is now a highly respected Health Worker

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at the S-Corner clinic.

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Fabien was born and grew up in this
community. He finished High School

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and is moving on to University, one of the
few who have made it in this inner city.

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So what does the future hold? A Community
Development Council has been formed.

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Here problems can be discussed
and disputes resolved.

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We promised that we would find them jobs.

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We would build relations with them and the police. We would find
them a playing field that they could go and play football in,

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in the afternoon. And all of these promise that we offered
to them, I think we have to see to it they go through

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because these are the things that we said to them
we would do to help them to bring them together.

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I am very optimistic and I think
that is what keeps me here.

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It\'s not just getting guys to shake
hands for a day, it\'s an ongoing thing.

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Whose side are you dancing on?

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I\'m dancing on the Lord\'s side! Whose side are
you dancing on? I\'m dancing on the Lord\'s side.

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I dance, I dance, I dance… What\'s happening
now is that the process is moving forward,

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rock solid is some areas, up
and down in Bennetland a bit

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but still moving forward.
It\'s driven by youth

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becoming more conscious, more aware of the
foolishness of fighting among themselves,

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and of being used, and
abused by politicians.

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So it\'s a moral force that\'s driving
the peace not, not economics, really,

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which is extremely interesting.
Umm… And that\'s the positive side.

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The negative side is
that while World Trade…

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World Trade Organization is driving
some of our farmers off the lands,

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it\'s better for them, it makes a
better living out to import goods

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from the States than to grow them themselves.
And that\'s not good for the country.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
So unemployment is there still,
hardship is there still.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
But that\'s the negative,
uh… there\'s also debts,

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
external debts and internal
debt, a massive amount

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
which is preventing the state from spending
what it should on social services.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
But still, overall there is a growing
peace, it\'s reduced the crime rate

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
in the metropolitan area by
23% in the last three years.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
Crime is still too high but that\'s an important drop. We can\'t
depend on others to come And right the wrong we\'ve known,

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
oh no

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
To build a better future we\'ve got to do it

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
on our own, oh yes.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
Tomorrow holds a secret
you cannot see today

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
And I know we will find it

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
because we found the way.
We got unity, yeah.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
Unity, yeah,

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
oh yes, I know, Unity…

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:05.000
[music]