The young but not so restless
With some added imaginative elasticity, Stanley Borg could still be squeezed into the youth category. Yet he still finds it difficult to understand young people today. For a start they are doing something with their lives.
When I was a youth, and a very pimply youth I was, I spent most of my time wasting it. We would gang up in angst-ridden multitudes, shuffling down pavements and generally being paranoid if people looked at us and paranoid if they did not. All our efforts would go towards trying to be atheists or at least agnostics. We would lick our upper fluffy lips; speak in dumb one-liners and try to be sarcastic while failing miserably.
Then we would be off to eat food from paper bags, gargling with half-pints (we could not afford full ones) and sharing a post-prandial fag. Until an adult walked by, and we would vent our temptations loudly about how we would shave his moustache with a rusty knife. Of course, we would not do anything about it. But then, we never did anything about anything.
Whereas in my time, the sky seemed to be falling down on us, the youth of nowadays have the sky as their limit. They all seem to be busy doing something, with column inches and airtime dedicated to young people channelling their energies and hopes in music, art, theatre and sports.
Of course, they still get their share of bad publicity. Once, we are always told, ours was a country where nuclear families reared well-mannered young people who respected their parents and would never dream of backtalking their elders. These young people would get old at 15, marry one year later and be trailing a bunch of offspring by the time they were 20. But at some point, everything went horribly wrong, and young people lost their direction and became dysfunctional, rude and obese.
In fact, we ladle them with so much blame and guilt that we have transformed them into a veritable Vicky Pollard-style negative stereotype that stands for everything that has gone belly up. Climate change? It is because the youngsters smoke too much and remove silencers from their boom boxes on wheels. Drugs? Ah, young people again. Decline of morality? It is them teenagers wearing skimpy clothes and getting pregnant.
Just look at them, the young dudes and dudettes dressed in fashion so fashionable that it will soon go out of fashion; they binge, stalk the streets and have no respect for anyone. They chew gum, sneer, sniffle, snog and frolic too much in dark corners, frisking each other with the enthusiasm of a customs officer in an ex-Soviet Union bloc country. No wonder they fail their exams, fritter away their future and waste their life happy-slapping on the internet.
In short, we treat youth like a social problem. We focus on youths behaving badly and constantly pit ourselves in an us-against-them scenario; where we stand in defence of moral order and everything that is good; and they are the social threat, firing away with their arrogance, failures and bad manners.
But this is all hype, and like all forms of hype, it is maliciously negative. We make assumptions about young people, yet these assumptions are mostly proved wrong. If we look beyond the stark raving mad headlines, we would realise that, having the courage that we lacked, most young people today are fed up with being stereotyped. They know they have potential, and they are using it to do things, go abroad, get valuable experience, know the wide world as we never knew it and go through the transition to adulthood better than we did in our time.
So we should stop demonising young people, and go back to the time when we were young and remember that young people are not always the perpetrators of crime; and that youth does have its expectations and ambitions. It is our negative hype about young people that turns them into a problem; and it is our patronising and doing things on their behalf for their own good that marginalises them and renders them invisible. Which is why they shout so much so they can be heard.
Instead of accusing young people of being little mean machines or merely trivialising their needs as the stupid wants of coming of age, what we should be doing is celebrating them for the positive contributions they can make to society, if only we let them. And we must encourage them, because as every parent and teacher knows, young people blossom with sustained encouragement, and respond to continuous support.
Of course, there are exceptions. But then, there are exceptions in every age bracket. Show me a youngster with a flash new driving licence spreading rubber on the tarmac while penning dubious philosophising on the windscreen, and I will show you an adult taxi driver swerving random and roller-coaster breathless in Wacky Races style. Show me an 18-year-old dressed in what looks like half a metre of ribbon, and I will show you a 50-year-old trying hard to follow suit. Show me someone young with no respect for their elders and I will show you an elder with no respect for the world and beyond. Show me a youngster trying to act all adult, and I will show you an adult who refuses to take responsibility, and instead tries to look and act like they were 20 years younger. You tell me which is worst.
Faith in youth Celebrating International Youth Day
The theme for this year's International Youth Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, is Be Seen, Be Heard: Youth Participation for Development.
The traditional slogan of "Youth are the Future" fails to take into account that youth are very active contributors to their societies today. In fact, the past decade has seen a growing recognition of the importance of youth participation in decision-making, as successful efforts by governments to engage youth have led to better policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Youth inclusion strengthens their commitment to and understanding of human rights and democracy. Opportunities for youth participation in home, school and community development are especially crucial in conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as in protecting the rights of girls and young women.
International Youth Day gives the world an opportunity to recognise the potential of youth, to celebrate their achievements, and plan for ways to better engage young people to successfully take action for development. It presents a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to rally together to ensure that young people are included in global, national and local affairs and decision-making.
A major focus of Youth Day is practical action to further encourage the empowerment and participation of youth in the processes and decisions that affect their lives. Youth Day recognises that the capacity for progress is based, among other elements, on our capacity to incorporate the contribution and responsibility of youth in the building and designing of the future. In addition to their intellectual contribution and their ability to mobilise support, young people bring unique perspectives that need to be taken into account.
Youth organisations are also to be considered as important forums for developing skills necessary for effective participation in society, promoting tolerance and increased cooperation and exchanges between youth organisations both on a national and international level. Youth organisations and associations have to be encouraged and promoted through financial, educational and technical support as well as promotion of their activities.
Accordingly, governments and international organisations should seek to work with a broad range of the youth population, both those organised through formal youth organisations and those who are not. Some studies indicate that there is an increasing tendency towards a change in motivation of membership in formal youth organisations: Many members have a pragmatic rather than an ideological interest in their activities. Membership is increasingly viewed as a way to forward a young person's career or other prospects rather than an opportunity to advance youth-driven ideas and policies. This may reflect the increasing competitiveness of the job market and the need for young people to expand their networks. Explicit efforts must be made to include those young people who face obstacles, such as cultural norms that favour hierarchical relationships between generations, economic circumstances that prevent them from participating in anything other than income generating activity and lack of access to information and necessary skills.
Yet, as beneficial as youth participation in decision-making is to both policy making and youth development, it is not always effectively practised. Effective youth participation requires changes in how societies perceive young people. These changes need to be reflected in appropriate funding, in innovative ways to spread information, in training to facilitate intergenerational collaboration and in organisational structures that welcome new voices.
To give young people a voice, actions need to be taken. Access to information has to be improved in order to enable young people to make better use of their opportunities to participate in decision-making. Opportunities for young people to learn their rights and responsibilities have to be strengthened, mainly by promoting their social, political, developmental and environmental participation and removing obstacles that affect their full contribution to society.
Then we would be off to eat food from paper bags, gargling with half-pints (we could not afford full ones) and sharing a post-prandial fag. Until an adult walked by, and we would vent our temptations loudly about how we would shave his moustache with a rusty knife. Of course, we would not do anything about it. But then, we never did anything about anything.
Whereas in my time, the sky seemed to be falling down on us, the youth of nowadays have the sky as their limit. They all seem to be busy doing something, with column inches and airtime dedicated to young people channelling their energies and hopes in music, art, theatre and sports.
Of course, they still get their share of bad publicity. Once, we are always told, ours was a country where nuclear families reared well-mannered young people who respected their parents and would never dream of backtalking their elders. These young people would get old at 15, marry one year later and be trailing a bunch of offspring by the time they were 20. But at some point, everything went horribly wrong, and young people lost their direction and became dysfunctional, rude and obese.
In fact, we ladle them with so much blame and guilt that we have transformed them into a veritable Vicky Pollard-style negative stereotype that stands for everything that has gone belly up. Climate change? It is because the youngsters smoke too much and remove silencers from their boom boxes on wheels. Drugs? Ah, young people again. Decline of morality? It is them teenagers wearing skimpy clothes and getting pregnant.
Just look at them, the young dudes and dudettes dressed in fashion so fashionable that it will soon go out of fashion; they binge, stalk the streets and have no respect for anyone. They chew gum, sneer, sniffle, snog and frolic too much in dark corners, frisking each other with the enthusiasm of a customs officer in an ex-Soviet Union bloc country. No wonder they fail their exams, fritter away their future and waste their life happy-slapping on the internet.
In short, we treat youth like a social problem. We focus on youths behaving badly and constantly pit ourselves in an us-against-them scenario; where we stand in defence of moral order and everything that is good; and they are the social threat, firing away with their arrogance, failures and bad manners.
But this is all hype, and like all forms of hype, it is maliciously negative. We make assumptions about young people, yet these assumptions are mostly proved wrong. If we look beyond the stark raving mad headlines, we would realise that, having the courage that we lacked, most young people today are fed up with being stereotyped. They know they have potential, and they are using it to do things, go abroad, get valuable experience, know the wide world as we never knew it and go through the transition to adulthood better than we did in our time.
So we should stop demonising young people, and go back to the time when we were young and remember that young people are not always the perpetrators of crime; and that youth does have its expectations and ambitions. It is our negative hype about young people that turns them into a problem; and it is our patronising and doing things on their behalf for their own good that marginalises them and renders them invisible. Which is why they shout so much so they can be heard.
Instead of accusing young people of being little mean machines or merely trivialising their needs as the stupid wants of coming of age, what we should be doing is celebrating them for the positive contributions they can make to society, if only we let them. And we must encourage them, because as every parent and teacher knows, young people blossom with sustained encouragement, and respond to continuous support.
Of course, there are exceptions. But then, there are exceptions in every age bracket. Show me a youngster with a flash new driving licence spreading rubber on the tarmac while penning dubious philosophising on the windscreen, and I will show you an adult taxi driver swerving random and roller-coaster breathless in Wacky Races style. Show me an 18-year-old dressed in what looks like half a metre of ribbon, and I will show you a 50-year-old trying hard to follow suit. Show me someone young with no respect for their elders and I will show you an elder with no respect for the world and beyond. Show me a youngster trying to act all adult, and I will show you an adult who refuses to take responsibility, and instead tries to look and act like they were 20 years younger. You tell me which is worst.
Faith in youth Celebrating International Youth Day
The theme for this year's International Youth Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, is Be Seen, Be Heard: Youth Participation for Development.
The traditional slogan of "Youth are the Future" fails to take into account that youth are very active contributors to their societies today. In fact, the past decade has seen a growing recognition of the importance of youth participation in decision-making, as successful efforts by governments to engage youth have led to better policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Youth inclusion strengthens their commitment to and understanding of human rights and democracy. Opportunities for youth participation in home, school and community development are especially crucial in conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as in protecting the rights of girls and young women.
International Youth Day gives the world an opportunity to recognise the potential of youth, to celebrate their achievements, and plan for ways to better engage young people to successfully take action for development. It presents a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to rally together to ensure that young people are included in global, national and local affairs and decision-making.
A major focus of Youth Day is practical action to further encourage the empowerment and participation of youth in the processes and decisions that affect their lives. Youth Day recognises that the capacity for progress is based, among other elements, on our capacity to incorporate the contribution and responsibility of youth in the building and designing of the future. In addition to their intellectual contribution and their ability to mobilise support, young people bring unique perspectives that need to be taken into account.
Youth organisations are also to be considered as important forums for developing skills necessary for effective participation in society, promoting tolerance and increased cooperation and exchanges between youth organisations both on a national and international level. Youth organisations and associations have to be encouraged and promoted through financial, educational and technical support as well as promotion of their activities.
Accordingly, governments and international organisations should seek to work with a broad range of the youth population, both those organised through formal youth organisations and those who are not. Some studies indicate that there is an increasing tendency towards a change in motivation of membership in formal youth organisations: Many members have a pragmatic rather than an ideological interest in their activities. Membership is increasingly viewed as a way to forward a young person's career or other prospects rather than an opportunity to advance youth-driven ideas and policies. This may reflect the increasing competitiveness of the job market and the need for young people to expand their networks. Explicit efforts must be made to include those young people who face obstacles, such as cultural norms that favour hierarchical relationships between generations, economic circumstances that prevent them from participating in anything other than income generating activity and lack of access to information and necessary skills.
Yet, as beneficial as youth participation in decision-making is to both policy making and youth development, it is not always effectively practised. Effective youth participation requires changes in how societies perceive young people. These changes need to be reflected in appropriate funding, in innovative ways to spread information, in training to facilitate intergenerational collaboration and in organisational structures that welcome new voices.
To give young people a voice, actions need to be taken. Access to information has to be improved in order to enable young people to make better use of their opportunities to participate in decision-making. Opportunities for young people to learn their rights and responsibilities have to be strengthened, mainly by promoting their social, political, developmental and environmental participation and removing obstacles that affect their full contribution to society.