Actually, in the old PNC days, it's the cadet corp that some Indians went through and into the GDF.  I knew a few.

Question, why would it only attract Blacks?  Why don't all those struggling canecuttahs encourage their kid to take this path rather than a harsh life of a dying low pay industry?  Cane cutting in a tough lifestyle for durable men, I doubt the military is that much harder.  Push the system hard and make inroads and in 5 or so years, Indians will be notable represented.

It did not enhance squat.  It was disbanded at QC. Granger living in a lost world.  The cadet corp is a military experience where you learned to march and shoot, nothing else.

I know the QC Cadet Corps was disbanded. Does that prove that it was no good? You were too much of a lampy pampy at school so you couldn't hack the Cadet Corps and it would not have done you any good. However, it did
provide valuable life lessons for many who were enlisted in the Corps. It was not just about marching and shooting. That's just a simplistic view for anyone trying to assess the true benefits of the Corps. It was very similar to the JROTC right here in American high schools where it is very successful. Corps members were able to travel to various parts of Guyana, learn survival skills, toughen up their body with strength and endurance exercises and learn discipline within a military environment. It was also a good training ground for those who were interested in pursuing a military career as it offered an avenue to join the GDF officer cadet training program.

Kari was in the QC Cadet Corps. Would like to hear his opinion.

A good idea.  Program design must be well planned within a 21st century context, so video games and technology can be a part of it, or whatever appeals to poor youths.

this will be good for idle youths 

All 18-20 years old MALE should join the joint services unless they have a disability exclusion certificate.

 LIKE ISRAEL.

We got a neighbour name Venezuela who covet our OIL.

I agree, for a small nation facing Venez, military training for all males should be mandatory.  Like in Switzerland, all males between 18 and 45 should be part of the "active military" with a mandatory 2 wk a year training.

Really?  Tell that to the Swiss, to the Israelis to the many Indian Corporation who send their staff and management off to ex-military run discipline, problem solving and team building camps.

I actually was in QC Cadet Corp so you should hear my opinion.  This was an after school program where you marched most of the time. The only highlight was travel to Tacuma to do some real shooting. Most people went in and out.

Yes, you got physical training, but lifting weights could also give you physical training.  Only a few relatively went over to Gdf, and even fewer went to Sandhurst etc. to study real military leadership.  I'm not knocking QC Cadet corp, but that's the reality.

Go ask Kari

Sorry, I forgot you are from a different era at QC when the Cadet Corps was probably a glorified scout troop. In the 70's and 80's, it evolved and was a much more vibrant organization than you describe.

Not my fault! Granger was there in the 60's also

 What the heck am I missing?  Why is this cadet corps business top priority? 

I agree that a National Cadet Corp, National Service, call it what you may, is a good thing to instill some discipline, sense of National pride and skills etc, if we had the resources to implement properly. We simply do not. You might as well prescribe it to Haiti for problems and money they have, similar to us.  

There simply is not enough money, especially with all the other changes and programs the gov't says it is going to implement. Unless of course, the US is going to be generous to us in order to gain a foothold close enough to the Venezuelan oil fields in order to drain them.  I do wish the gov't and the people of Guyana well, but I am afraid that they are in for a rude awakening when very little real change happens. This is so reminiscent of the Barack Obama win in the US, when he promised to be all things to everyone, only to disappoint all of those who looked to his administration for real change when reality hit.  And America is the wealthiest country in the world. Guyana is in the neighbourhood of Haiti; destitute poor and in need of real economic change, not meaningless rhetoric. People talk about compulsory service in Israel, Switzerland and a few other countries. Those are wealthy countries in comparison, and do not have the elephant of racial divide that we are still facing. And even if we had the money, the racial divide is a real problem that we have not conquered. I wish that was not the case, but it is. What bothers me is the highfalutin ideas that are being thrown around, including the National Cadet Corp etc. As I said, a nice thing, if you have the money, but an empty gesture if you know it is low on the economic priority ladder. Whether you want to believe it or not, the electorate is usually not patient nor forgiving of what they perceive are empty promises. Ask Barack Obama. This makes me suspect as to whether this gov't has a grasp on reality and whether Granger is not in fact, as one poster noted, a dinosaur stuck in some time warp of his old glory days in the GDF. Note the nexus between him, his deputy Harmon, their days in the GDF, and this National Cadet Corp. True discipline is needed., but more than that, we need ,in the near future, security and economic growth. We simply cannot divert already scarce resources for a national cadet corp. . I suspect that the president brought it up it is his military instincts at play; not Guyana's immediate needs. I sincerely hope he is not big on grandiose form and short on real substance. Remember, military men have been trained to like and do like ceremony. Just saying !!

Fair enough.  How do you propose dealing with the hordes of semi-literate, unskilled young males who are trapped in meager slave condition jobs some of whom are manipulated into a life of crime as an exit from this miserable and pointless life?

In Israel FEMALES also join and in fact some of their most ferocious soldiers are women.  This is an era of gender equality.  The days of the sheltered woman is over.  Aside from lacking upper body strength (actually some "men" like cobra also have this issue, hence his fear of the super cyat PNC women) they are every where equal to men.

We have a youth population which;

1.  has the HIGHEST rates of unemployment in the English speaking Caribbean.

2.  has the HIGHEST rates of involvement of unproductive child labor, like selling newspapers, instead of attending school. The result being that a huge swath are functionally illiterate and lack the skills to function in the modern world.

3.  The performance of Guyana in the CXC is a disgrace with our performance in math and English being in the basement.  And that is among those youth who stay in school long enough to even reach the CXC level.

So what do you plan to do with these people.  We have a large army of people at the ready to become part of any private militia which any unscrupulous criminal can concoct.  In fact many were already in private militias.

Guyana better find the money to deal with this problem.

We don't need a cadet corp for the elites.  We need something for the poor and unattached.  A more elite cohort, coming from our better schools can assist to administer this organization.

He will wait until the drug gangs, which permeate every large city in Brazil and Venezuela, catch root in Guyana.