The Value of Youth

In July 2010 The United State Institute of Peace (USIP) organized a conference titled "Youth at War, Youth Building Peace, Youth on the Margins" discussing youth as building block for a peaceful society. A video of the event can be watch on USIP's website Although the event focus primarily on countries in war or in transition, views expressed during the conference can be applied in situation of peace. We all know how Hitler instrumentalized German youth to launch the Nazi party that led to WWII. Make sure to watch Stephanie Schwartz discussion case studies around the world form her book Youth in Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Agents of Change.


Building a responsible youth in all countries is essential for stability in the country. Signing on the doted line of this or that UN convention document does very little to improve the situation of youth in most developing countries. Unfortunately many of these signatory states do very little to improve the condition of youth in their respective countries. Youth in these countries are regularly fed annual speeches from the strong man, lauded with empty words and promises.


We are all too familiar with images of so-called "street children" featured in documentaries on our TV screens.


I was late recently and watch Children of Haiti a poignant Independent Lens documentary from PBS on youth in Haiti. This a VERY dense piece of work, beautifully filmed. I warn sensible. The documentary was produced before the January 2010 earthquake. This a country with 10 millions inhabitants, where, prior to the quake, 500,000 children lived the the street. That's 5% of the population. They are orphans also known as the "soulles" forgortten by their own families. One of the three boys in the documentary, Denick, 14, is bitten by a dog in front of the camera and nobody intervenes! He is instead accused of provoking the dog, an unbelievable scene.
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