OUR future rests in the hands of our youth, and we’re thankful that young Guyanese take such an avid interest in the socio-economic and political well-being of our nation.In the ruling party’s List of Representatives, we see an abundance of young people, with close to fifty percent under the age of 45. The choice of Clinton Urling, whose work with young people across this nation is admirable, to partner with President Donald Ramotar, comes as we look to young leaders to make the difference as we roll up our sleeves to take Guyana to the next level as a 21st century society.We laud Urling for his tremendous leadership in networking bright, ambitious young people in his Blue Caps organisation, and for such leadership initiatives as the clean-up campaign in Georgetown and rallying for local government elections.
As an entrepreneur, he’s already led the Chamber of Commerce, and he’s set his mark to play an ambitious, mediating and sensible role in our society.
We want emerging leaders and voices like his to come forward, for us to join hands and hearts in the vision of creating the Guyana we want and dream of, the nation that stands out on the world stage.
With President Ramotar’s leadership as father figure, stable, humble, and ready to collaborate and cooperate with our young emerging leaders, we’re set on the road to achieving our potential.
Our nation today houses mostly young folks, and in fact 15 -24-year-olds make up a whopping 60+ percent of our population. We’re now a full-fledged society of the Millennial Generation. This creates a social space that is absolutely different from five, ten years ago.
For one, the memory map of this young generation excludes the socio-economic horror their parents and grandparents experienced when Guyana was a dictatorship from 1964 – 1992. These young people know life only under the Governments of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). And they see development happening, a transformation of our skyline, a remaking of our communities and social landscape.
They also know a Guyana that is global in reach, with their family and friends and relatives scattered across the world, every household having some connection with the Diaspora.
The majority of our population today is wired and connected to the global village, through smartphones and laptops and Internet access.
In fact, our young now speak well, and in urban centres Guyanese young people today rival anyone anywhere in the world for worldliness, sophisticated taste, fashion sense, and personal style. These young people hardly watch TV, never read the national newspapers, ignore radio, and generally shun traditional mass media. They seek personal connection, and, like everywhere else in the world in this Knowledge Age of technology and high-tech living, they live constantly focused on smartscreen tablets and smartphones.
Yet, they are savvy, articulate, intelligent and ready to take on the world.
The Guyanese nation today seeks not those primary concerns of bare survival with which we were occupied for several decades. We seek new cars and to build a house on our own land and to cultivate a career.
Take Annalisa Beharry, for example. Yet a teenager, she already drives a car, and is studying through an overseas college, plays music in her church, and is quietly playing a role in shaping the future of Berbice. Born and raised in New Amsterdam, Berbice, she epitomises the new Guyana, where young people see a new horizon. She’s young, ambitious, hard working, and as articulate, stylish and personable as any 19-year old anywhere in the world. Such are the youth of Berbice today.
With Government’s new focus on skills development and literacy, we’ll see our young people across the nation use the digital platform at their fingertips to achieve their dreams and aspirations right here in their homeland. Now they go for holiday overseas, and Beharry already experienced New York and Toronto on vacation. They come right back home to live.
Countless are our young today who travel abroad and come back home. Countless are our young people with friends online from all over the world. Open digital access opens up the minds and imagination of our people, and the reservoir of imaginative power in our young people like Beharry and the tens of thousands of young Guyanese who look to settle and live in their empowered Guyanese society, promises a great future.
While we face some pressing social issues in certain communities, with misguided young people hooked on illegal drugs, in urban depressed areas, especially around Georgetown, we take note of the positive social space we’ve cultivated for our young people.
We want to reach out to those suffering from broken homes, from drug addiction, from mental health issues, and to assist them to find their way in life.
Guyana today offers the young person a fantastic opportunity to self-develop, to cultivate a love for reading good books, to go online and become skilled at whatever he or she loves and is passionate about, to ditch the excuses of our past generations and rise up to be counted.
Ours is a nation that is free, open, and ready. We’ve created a national social space that offers the individual who’s willing to dream big and aspire for a great life, who wants to live with powerful performance rather than mediocre ordinariness, who wants to rise in the world, to cultivate a love for life-long learning, ever growing and evolving in mental, psychological and emotional development.
Such is our Guyana today.
Our young people require mentors, life-coaches, teachers, caring souls, to reach out to them, to show them that we’re now firmly a meritocracy, a society where anybody could achieve his or her dreams and aspirations.
While we should be careful not to promise utopia and life without challenges and overcoming of problems and obstacles, for such things build stamina and inner strength and courage, we want our young Guyanese citizens to know that anything’s possible for those willing to play the game, to participate in life, to tackle human nature with gusto and zeal and confidence.
Folks like Urling and countless others who take on the responsibility for shaping our future would do well to create a national culture of life-coaching, mentoring and teaching, whereby our young people don’t feel adrift, but could learn the stories and life experiences that would enlighten their minds and hearts.
In fact, this is one role our Parliamentarians could play with great impact, rather than just sit around complaining and searching for excuses for their own failures. Our Parliamentarians should fan out into communities across the country after elections, and mentor and life-coach and teach the young to dream the Guyanese Dream, to aspire to the Guyanese potential, to imagine a society of Guyanese as a great people upon the global 21st century stage.