I wrote recently in another place, as it were that it would be wrong to draw a straight line between gangs of yesteryear and today.

In his calypso "Badjohns", the Mighty Sparrow boasted of having beaten a number of gang leaders of the era, one of them the late "Fisheye" telling me once with a laugh that "The Bird" was not to be taken seriously-as if I didn't know-whatever the bravado he displayed in not only "Badjohns" but a number of calypsoes including the classic "Ten To One Is Murder" in which he spoke of having left his "wedger" at home, the man who was to go to be the more than self-acclaimed "Calypso King of the World" mysteriously rescued when, out of nowhere, he heard "potow-pow and the crowd start to scatter"

For Lord Melody, however, Sparrow's rescue was by no means a mystery, naughty "Mello" declaring in a calypso that didn't have the longevity of "Ten to One" that folks should "beware" since "Sparrow have a gun", the word-play between the two kaiso giants of the time in keeping with gang behaviour of that time.

It was not, mind you, that blood was not spilled from time to time but if there was a killing-and I can't remember any-it would have been a talking point for years, unlike now where daily gang killings are hardly the subject of conversation any more-except, of course, as one item in the ongoing general conversation about the state of the country.

State of the world, really, because the more I read the more I have come to realise that while gangs have long been a part of the modern world in these times they are capable of a level of viciousness out of the realm of the "Gold Teeths" and "Dr Rats" who had their badjohn time in the late 50s and early 60s, the few homemade guns that were around "jokey" when compared to the sophisticated weapons that are in the hands of young bad boys today. Armed and brazen-that's what they are and not only here but elsewhere.

Indeed, everywhere, it seems. Ah mean we know about gangs in America with that magnificent musical "West Side Story" having provided a romaticised view of the phenomenon. And we know of gangs in that plague not only the historic city that London is, but parts of the country where risks and not daffodils are ever present.

But Australia?

Well, yes, it was only recently that I read of Australian police having launched a unit "to combat an escalating turf battle between biker gangs, as the Hell's Angels buried the latest victim who was killed in a ...brawl at the country's busiest airport.

The 15-minute rampage at Sydney's domestic airport on Sunday thrust long-simmering biker violence into the public eye after a biker was bludgeoned to death with metal poles.

Authorities promised to crack down, saying the gangs had crossed a line by putting members of the public into the line of fire.

At the launch of an anti-gang task force on Friday, New South Wales state Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione acknowledged that the feuds between several gangs in Sydney were tied to those who controlled the distribution of illegal drugs in parts of the city. .. Anthony Zervas, the 29-year-old brother of a Hell's Angels leader in Sydney, was bludgeoned to death after a fight erupted between members of the gang and rival Comanchero when they got off a flight from Melbourne. ..

Gang Squad Commander Mal Lanyon on Friday played down an unnamed biker's claim on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that various gangs had begun stockpiling weapons and were bringing reinforcements from overseas and interstate in anticipation of a further escalation in violence.

Lanyon refused to confirm the report but said police were taking it seriously.

Well, to take seriously is hardly to play down, whatever the posture adopted by the "Gang Squad Commander" for police political reasons and I am reminded here of the vituperation heaped on the head of National Security Minister, Martin Joseph, when he dared suggest that the gang problem is not peculiar to Trinidad and Tobago. I guess what people read into his statement was that since it was a problem all over it was not to be taken all that seriously.

That, however, was to do Mr Joseph an injustice since he was suggesting-I think-that the fact that gangs and their devilish deeds were cause for alarm the world over was evidence of how intractable the problem could be short, I suppose, of going into the gang areas and killing everybody under 25 on sight, a move akin to the tale about the "Slaughter of the Innocents" that have come down through the Bible down all these centuries.

This could hardly be what the government is now contemplating in the new crime initiative that is due to be unveiled after this month's "Summit of the Americas", the public so disheartened by the perceived failure of previous initiatives that the lack of response makes one think that they have taken a collective decision not to be anybody's April fools.