Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
by Selwyn Cambridge
The recent display in the senate of Barbados’ parliament by independent senators to not support the constitutional amendment which would have paved the way for an 18-year-old to become the island’s youngest senator is not only astonishing but unfortunately, a wider reflection of the issue our youth continue to face.
The limitations placed on young people by those supposedly responsible for their development and ascension is indeed a youth crisis but one imposed by our leadership.
For far too long have our young people been made to wait by those trying to protect outdated customs, cultural biases and dogged self-interest. How many times have we heard, “Well when I was your age, I didn’t have that!” or “You need to earn your place and gain the experience before you can be considered!” And now in this instance, “When I was 18 I could’nt even imagine…”
The fact that your path was one which took longer is never a reason to impose limitations on opportunities for our youth to shine and demonstrate their worth. The fact that today more and more young people are clearly indicating and demonstrating their ability to do far more at a much earlier age is reason for space to be afforded them the opportunity to prove their value and contribute to the growth of their nation in tangible ways.
With all the eloquent excuses and veiled rejections, young people continue to push, continue rightfully to earn their right at being given a place only to have another elder step in their path; block their access and offer up condescending pats on the head for effort.
I have honestly lost count the amount of speeches I have endured where leaders talk about supporting our youth and giving them the opportunity to develop only to see those words rarely followed by any meaningful action.
This bill, I believed, provided Barbados’ leadership with an amazing opportunity to overwhelmingly demonstrate to all those bright eyed boys and girls that your voices matter, your opinions and contributions are valued.
It offered a perfectly laid platform to create a shining example for other youth of what was possible and that it was okay to dream big. It was okay to have your crazy aspirations because there are those in positions of influence to support your improbable cause, your lifechanging ambition.
Instead, we used this golden moment to play partisan politics, entrench the status quo and score cheap political points all poorly disguised with superfluous explanations and pontifications. We chose to be the leaders of yesterday and it was cowardly and deserves contempt.
Why must we continue to impose these limitations on this segment of society which deserves and wants to play a role in the decisions which will affect them? Why should they be sidelined in the contribution to the development of a nation? Should leaders have said to Greta Thunberg at 15 you are too young to protest for climate change?
Should the leaders have said to Mikaila Ulmer, an 11 year old building a lemonade business that she should focus on school, she is too young? Today her product is sold in over 1,500 stores across the US and received over $800,000 dollars in investment.
Should the barriers have been placed on her? We continue in many ways to place limitations on the development of our young potential and then call it a crisis much to the detriment of the very societies we proclaim to be concerned about.
Sadly, the episode in the senate by these independent senators is nothing new. In many ways it reflects what has permeated our society for ages in our dealings as leaders with the youth. From the old saying, “Children should be seen and not heard.”
To our more recent insistence on maintaining an outdated system of schooling which limits the development of our children by telling them that your value, your life is to be determined by a standardised test in two subjects. Your performance on this will determine how we view you, where we place you and the type of support we offer to you.
We continue to impose this lack of mindset by relegating our children in third form to limit their prospects by having to choose subjects in an exercise of streaming that in no way exposes them to the other possibilities or for them to embrace their interests. We enforce it by insisting that our graduates applying for jobs must have experience when they need the job to gain the experience.
We display our disinterest when formalised mentorship programmes within organisations is more an exception than a custom. And we add insult to injury by underfunding youth development in many instances. Yet, we say the youth are the leaders of tomorrow.
I would like to argue that maybe that is where we have it wrong. The youth are not the leaders of tomorrow but today. It is today when they must help lead on building the foundations needed by them for a promising future. It is today that they must be afforded the opportunities to create a better tomorrow.
This should never have been about politics. In fact, it really isn’t. This is about vision and leadership and unfortunately, we reduced it to another display of our mixed and offensive messages to our youth. We have in typical fashion dressed it up with fancy explanations. Our youth really are in crisis and leadership needs to look in the mirror for the source.
Selwyn Cambridge is Founder & Executive Director of Ten Habitat.
