Youths are the most neglected and abused demographic

Aug 27, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
What will it take to end the apathy and complacency that shrouds this land? Is there no revolutionary zeal or fighting spirit among our youth?
What has to happen for there to be a wake up call?
Will we ever have our Tunisia moment? It is said that the Tunisian demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, and a lack of freedom of speech and other political freedoms, and poor living conditions. Sound familiar?
Labour unions and youth and student groups were said to be an integral part of the protest. This militancy spawned the Arab spring that continues to topple dictators and despots in that part of the world.
Earlier this month, 18-year old Mr. Kevin Simon was held without bail for two weeks, allegedly for making a lewd manual gesture at the Presidential motorcade.
This youth was apprehended and taken to the Sparendaam Police Station. Twice, he appeared before a magistrate who denied him bail and remanded him to jail. After spending two weeks in the Camp Street Jail, the Guyana High Court granted Mr. Simon G$5,000 bail.
Mr. Editor, I do not condone boorish behaviour, but if this young man flipped President Jagdeo ‘the bird,’ he must have been returning the compliment.
Yes, Mr. Jagdeo and his administration have been showing the middle finger and worse, not only to the youth of this nation, but to all Guyanese, by the lack of a comprehensive youth policy, to name one.
For the past 12 years this chief executive and his cabal, cronies and jesters, have been boasting of the advances they have made in the infrastructural development of Guyana.
What they are silent on is the fact that they have made no investment in human development, the most precious resource of any nation.
Where are the programs to arrest the massive drop out rates?
Where are the community centers and play grounds? Where are the rehab centers and clinics for the addicts, and the reformatory programmes for delinquent youth?
Where are the school buses, the safety nets that lift the poor and needy to self sufficiency and dignity?
Where is the support for businesses small and large so that those businesses can become employers?
Youths account for over 35 percent of our nation’s population, yet they are the most neglected and abused demographic.
President Jagdeo needs the entire 18- to 35-year old demographic in Guyana to flip him the bird, because he flipped it to them first.
Furthermore, he does so every day he governs without launching a policy to help youth become gainful citizens of our country.
Look at the state of the youths of this nation. Someone deserves to be told off or flipped off. In any other part of the world now, youths would be marching in the streets. The courthouse would be picketed, and a sea of humanity would demand justice and an end to tyranny.
But this is Guyana, and what sad irony, that the revolutionary zeal and militancy that brought this elected dictatorship to power, now lies spent and impotent, the masses downtrodden and beaten by the sheer daily struggle to survive.
I hope Mr. Simon is a registered voter, and I hope all the people of his generation are ready to go to the polls, this year, and cast their vote against the PPP/C.
The PPP/C has done nothing for the youths of this nation. They have neglected you, they have taken you for granted, and they have let you down. You owe them nothing! It is time for the youths of this nation to take their future in their own hands.
It is time that President Jagdeo, Mr. Ramotar, and their pack of cronies be sent packing. By jailing Mr. Simon they have demonstrated what they think of you.
So in the names of the hundreds of youth and other innocent Guyanese silenced forever during this President’s reign, do the right thing. You owe it to their memory to bring change to Guyana.
Mark Archer

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Youths are the most neglected and abused demographic

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