Young people can help write the future!

Jul 27, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Sometimes in Guyana, you ask yourselves what has happened to the idealism of youth. There was a time when young people were in hand-in-hand with their adult colleagues in pursuing political and social causes. But these days, the level of social consciousness and activism appears to be lacking among our young people.

Well, appearances can be deceiving. When you speak with young people, you realize they share the aspirations of the younger generations of past who wanted to better world and a better society.

Young people are concerned about the environment. They are concerned about violence. They may be divided on political issues and may have become apathetic. But what they really lack is someone whom they can trust to follow. What they lack also is organization. They have become too disappointed with many of our leaders.

They are not alone in this predicament. But in other parts of the world, young people are not looking for adult leadership. They are organizing themselves and fighting to create the world they desire.

Particularly in Europe, young people are taking a stand on social issues including the environment. A youth-led movement known as FridaysForFuture organized a global school strike in March of this year. Yet, despite this activity being widely publicized, no young person in Guyana took up the issue and lent solidarity. It was disappointing because if there is any issue around which our young people should be galvanized, it is on the issue of the environment.

Since the announcement that next Monday, July 31st, will be a ‘Day of Standstill’ in Guyana, some young persons have been asking how they can play a role. They point to the fact that the main action being proposed for this day is for persons to stay away from work.

The young people rightly ask what about them. They claim that many of them, are not employed and therefore cannot stay away from what they do not have: jobs.

But this does not mean that young people cannot play a role in the ‘Day of Standstill’ next Monday. Young people can do 2 things. First they can refrain from making any purchases

Even if shop owners, market and pavement vendors and supermarkets opt to open next Monday, if fewer persons make purchases it will have just as powerful an effect as if these places were closed. Therefore one of the things which young people can do is to undertake the challenge of going one day without making a purchase.

But young people are also highly creative. They can design and create craetive posters and banners which they can post on their social media platforms highlighting the ‘Day of Standstill’. In the remaining days left until next Monday, young people can also use social media platforms to share informative and educational content about the issues that the Day of Standstill represents. They can encourage their friends and followers to participate in the day of rest by staying at home.

Art is powerful medium for protest. Those young people with artistic skills can use art, including graphic art, to bring greater awareness to the exploitation of the country’s resources, the need for persons to stand up and be counted and the need for Guyana to obtain a better deal for its natural resources. For those young people who consider themselves as environmentalists, they can use their skills to highlight the damage and destruction to the environment caused by natural resource exploitation.

Next Monday’s ‘Day of Standstill’ is a way of reviving youth activism. They should lend their support to the activities in the way mentioned, by spreading the word, using social media to create eye-catching banners and to use art to raise social consciousness about social causes.

The ‘Day of Standstill’ is therefore a day for young people to take a stand and let the rest of the country know that they are concerned about the manner in which the country’s resources are being plundered.

They should see next Monday as a day of youth awakening. They should use this day to as a day of awakening whereby they can let the rest of the country know that young people also have a voice and it needs to be listened to.

Young people must end their prolonged silence. They should shatter their silence and through peaceful means, as suggested above, refuse to be consigned to the shadows.

Young people should help lead the way towards a better world and a better country. They are called to help rewrite a future for Guyana that we can all believe in! Be part of next Monday’s ‘Day of Standstill’!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Peeping Tom, people, political, social, Young

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