A generation lost
Woman's-eye View
Today's column was first presented as part of a panel discussion held on June 16, 2000, entitled "Guyana: 20 years after Walter Rodney". The presenter, Malaika Scott was asked to speak from the perspective of youth/young adults. Malaika coordinated the week's activities to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Rodney's assassination and she is Rodney's niece. It is only fair to add that her presentation was challenged by another young woman in the audience. No one else at the event, of any age, seriously took the presentation up, for or against - and that silence made its own comment. Andaiye by Malaika Scott - Muds, give me a twents, nuh? - Sweetie, what you want for Christmas/your birthday this year? - a Nike Air Max sneakers (never mind that it's the bogus Max Air); a Nintendo Playstation (never mind that it's the fraudulent Polystation); a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans (never mind that it's a pair of Hilfinger instead, which even Mr Hilfiger might have missed). - I'm going to a Walter Rodney memorial lecture at the university tomorrow... the response is either 'who's Walter Rodney?' accompanied by a blank and glazed stare, or the classic one which I can predict 9 out of 10 times - oh, OK. - I'm going to a meeting about Beal Aerospace. We're going to be discussing the implications of the deal. Why don't you come? OK, see you there. (Next day) - girl, I couldn't make it, I had to cook/wash my boyfriend's clothes/clean/look at the latest episode of the Young and the Restless - you insert the chore. Remember the days when we relished receiving a book as a present? I do. I remember feeling the hard cover through the wrapping paper and abandoning the clothes (for which I had no real interest anyhow) to delve into the pages of that book. Today, it's perhaps the gift of money that will elicit that kind of response or a new wardrobe courtesy of one of our exclusive fashion houses - you insert the store. Do you see what I'm getting at? Can you see where we are? It's pretty disturbing for me to recite this litany, and it's depressing that we sit here and chuckle, but it's true. We have become a society in which our emphases, priorities and values have all changed. And for those of you for whom it has been a culture shock, it has been easier to chuckle about the 'new youth' or shake your heads wisely about their ways with like-minded friends over cocktails, knowing to yourselves that you (or your children) are not like them. It is sad for me to see young men and women not much younger than myself or even my age not have any social or political awareness whatsoever. We seem to have descended into some sort of somnambulant state, walking around with our eyes wide shut. We have become a generation with no concept of solidarity; no concept of community; no concept of better for all; no concept of no man is an island. We seem to have no concepts at all, beyond those which are selfish or material or both. We have become a rudderless generation, eddying the pool with our meaningless ripples over whose man is whose... who's driving which car... who's going home with whom... you get the picture. In other words we have become a lost generation. But who or what is to blame? Is it the previous/current administration? Is it our parents (who can themselves blame it on the previous/current administration)? Were it so simple and straightforward, then we could just as easily blame the El Nino or La Nina weather phenomenon. Or maybe it was Clinton's fault - he seems to be the popular choice these days. How about ourselves? That's always the hardest, isn't it? Take a long hard look within yourself... but how can you look within yourself if there is nothing there? If there is nothing to remember because there wasn't anything to forget? Having had my mind engaged in the vibrant environment at UWI, it's sometimes difficult finding someone with whom I can engage in 'meaningful' conversation (and by meaningful, I mean discussing more than the latest Young and the Restless episode - both local and foreign. Having been a part of the militant student body that protested against yet another tuition fee increase, it's sometimes difficult encountering persons for whom the concepts of border aggression or a state within a state are alien, and thus are not even moved to take a stand. Having seen and heard of the mobilising of the population across the board that Walter Rodney was able to achieve, it is sometimes difficult going to events to remember him and not being able to mobilise more than the small number of young people here. It's also disheartening. As a youth friend of mine said at the inter-faith service a few days ago, it's only the loyal who come, people who knew him, people who knew his legacy... in other words, the same, dwindling group of people who come every year. But these aren't the people we want, or who need to come - no offence! It's as my friend said, the people who need to come are the members of the youthful boys' choir that sang at the service, or the ones hanging out on the Seawalls or on the street corner. The ones dropping out of school, or those rushing to get married at 20 or 21 because there's nothing else to do, or because they were asked. It is the ones who are 'heroising' Blackie because there's no leader for them to do that for. At the Rodney vigil on Wednesday, yet again there was the same loyal dwindling group of persons and I couldn't help remarking to another youth friend of mine at the number of young persons who passed by and gave a passing glance at the banner, which elicited the glazed, blank stare, or the other response - oh, OK. I think the fact that the Prime Minister and his bodyguards were there got more of a response than the reason for his being there. At one point during the vigil, I could hear the voice of Bounty Killa, one of the most followed DJs in Jamaica and it struck me that that's what's wrong here. Mention the name Rodney and you will get the above-mentioned group of persons. Mention Bounty Killa and you'll get them by the thousands. Sell tickets to a panel discussion about our borders and you'll probably add a few more numbers to the above-mentioned group. Sell tickets to a Beenie Man or Square One concert and you'll be sold out in an hour or two. Can you see a pattern here - beyond the fact that we're now a people with more affinity for the 'outside other' than we are for our own interests? The youth will mobilise around those - like Beenie Man and Bounty Killa - that they see speaking to us and for us - the voice of the dispossessed, the marginalised, the oppressed, the alienated... I can go on. Maybe in your horror or revulsion at what the youth have become, you have alienated yourselves in pristine towers and so alienated even further, the very youth you despair of redeeming. But what if you took your message to them using the medium with which they feel comfortable and safe? Let me give you an example. In London, a radical environmental group called Reclaim The Streets embarked on a campaign against what they called capitalist expansion without forethought given to environmental implications. As part of their protest, they would block off streets and hold a street party. For this campaign, they needed support and for this support, they needed to mobilise. So what did they do? They used the medium with which the people felt safe and comfortable. This group of all white people went into the black neighbourhoods and used the #1 black sound system and the people came. And they got their message across - their message was not lost. So it occurred to me, standing there at the vigil, as part of the same loyal dwindling group that we need to change the medium we use. We need to realise that the times when we were able to mobilise around Walter Rodney and the resulting militant spirit that was invoked, are no longer here. We need to realise that youth don't want to hear about a state within a state, or the next door neighbour coming for the land because as they see it, we ain't doing anything with it anyhow. This is a remote concept to them. The leaders of the past 20 years have been speaking, and continue to speak, in remote terms. First of all, they don't speak across to us, they speak down to us - why should we listen? The leaders out there don't really care about a better life for me, they want a vote for themselves. The leaders today don't speak for us, they speak for themselves! "I can't get a job sir, I can't get a house sir." "Vote for we an we gon set you free" (the words of David Rudder). I speak to them of job depletion and they tell me 500 jobs in the short term, 200 in the long term. I speak to them of earning less than US$50 per month and they tell me at least you getting a tax break! I tell them my brothers and sisters are among the most illiterate in the Caribbean and they tell me statistics show we have a literacy rate of over 90 per cent. I tell them my mother is being beaten and they shoot my father. I tell them my father was killed going home from work one night and they release his killer/s. I tell them my sister died after routine childbirth and they tell me an intern was to blame. I tell them my brother was shot when he was innocent and they tell me well he was a criminal anyway. I tell them I'm the youth of today and they say you're the youth of tomorrow. They're not listening to me... why should I listen to them? And you wonder why we can't mobilise the youth? Why they aren't here tonight in greater numbers? And you wonder, what has happened to the youth 20 years after Rodney?
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