The Lost Generation

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]o, I am not referring to Ernest Hemingway’s attribute to young Americans. What I am referring to is the constant colloquial rhetoric of “dem young people lost.” I praying it soon will end. You may well ask why. Well, frankly, because it’s quite stupid, plain and simple. To look at a generation that postdates yours and view them as a group of bewildered animals speaks more to what you have done in your lifetime than it does theirs. The accusations of the youth being lazy, inexperienced, pampered or confused—if true— begs this question: who created and nurtured these supposedly off the rails young citizens?

This week I read some statistics that claim 88 percent of young people, globally, are not prepared for the work place. No shocker, when you have a public sector plagued with relics twiddling their thumbs until it’s time to collect a pension cheque that my tax dollar will undoubtedly pay for. Globally and more specifically right here at home, there is a large population of unemployed youth. Fact or fiction? (Let’s resist red- or yellow-tinted responses, please!) But then didn’t our dear commerce minister observe in last weekend’s STAR that “it is not the government’s responsibility to create jobs”? Perhaps he is right. But he never said what he and his colleagues were doing to create an environment for job creation. I will go out on a limb and declare that it’s the minister’s statement that suggested a lost cause!

Earlier this week on Newsspin, a member of Tim’s family of callers also declared the youth of today lost. I am not sure what would’ve prompted the caller to go off on that tangent, but it clearly shows how unfair we are when it comes to laying blame where it rightly belongs. You need to have taken a wrong turn on your way to a particular destination before you discover yourself lost. You need to be MIA before someone can legitimately declare you lost. As the generation that preceded this one, can you truly say you provided direction that was not followed? How ironic that Looshans should be making such assertions when all they do at election time is bicker and exchange insults, with never a question relative to the development of our youth? Some example. Some road to follow!

What groundwork has been done for some level of continuity? Where are the trailblazers? What will happen when such as Rick Wayne can no longer remind us of who we are and where we came from? Where are the replacements for such as George Odlum, Tim Hector, Maurice Bishop or Walter Rodney? Is it any wonder our young people appear lost? Anyone would without appropriate directions. Something tells me the problem with our youth, real and imagined, has more to do with a lack of direction than anything else.

Well, adios until next time . . .