IN A country where the rot of poverty and the rotten rich often coexist cheek and jowl, sometimes separated only by a high wall and a medium-height security guard, we have long become accustomed to the contradictions that make us simultaneously the (supposedly) second happiest and one of the most dangerous countries on the planet.

Still, we gloss over new contradictions, relegating them to the category of 'same old' without analysing them for the possibilities they may indicate, to our own detriment.

And we have a striking one in the concurrent (at least, for now) athletic prowess on display in Berlin where the World Championships are on, and the heart-rending tales being told at the Armadale enquiry.

Let us consider that there is at least one physical commonality; yesterday's Gleaner describes how a 14-year-old who was giving testimony, "unlike some of her other colleagues who wept while giving their testimony ... burst into a short fit of laughter as she spoke about the bathroom dorm. She said it had two toilets but they did not work properly".

And we have seen the infectious, unfettered celebrations of Melaine Walker, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Brigitte Foster-Hylton, as they reacted to winning gold medals in their respective events.

Of course, the cause and effect of the laughter before the judges handling the enquiry and the thousands witnessing spectacular accomplishments on the blue track in Berlin are totally different, and that is the gap that we, as a nation, have to bridge.

We refuse to believe that there is a fundamental, unchangeable difference between the girls once housed at Armadale, as well as those juveniles now reportedly giving correctional officers at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre hell, and the young women in green and gold whose athletic feats we celebrate day after day.

And that is the point from which we must begin, that both sets of persons are equal human beings and must be treated humanely.

We are well aware of the difference in behaviour but feel constrained to point out the obvious, that the brute-force approach is not working with the wayward juveniles and may have, long before May 22, contributed to the horrible outcome we are now as a nation attempting to investigate thoroughly.

So as we rejoice in the Berlin track successes, as evidence that as a nation we are doing something right, let us acknowledge that at Armadale we were party to something wrong, that the juveniles housed there are not monsters created in some other world.

And let us take a serious look at the programmes we have in place to address the maladies which obviously afflict them. Just as the Government has undertaken a massive programme to place deans of discipline in secondary-level institutions across the island, let us also consider what resources we need to mobilise in order to rehabilitate the youngsters, male and female, who find themselves in facilities like Armadale.

For even as we will celebrate the triumphant athletes when they return home, we will, whether we like it or not, have to deal with the juveniles, reformed or not, when they are reintegrated into the society. Whether we have cause to welcome or fear them is, we believe, largely up to us.