09 July, 2011

THE VOICES OF A GENERATION IN CRISIS

For a change I saw something different on TV. SABC schedule is filled with many entertainment shows from Monday to Sunday, and less programmes that are informative. And then there was One Day Leader. This was a reality show on SABC 1, where a group of six young people were engaging in a debate about issues and give solutions on how they would tackle those issues if they were to become world leaders. The show gave me an insight of how intelligent and creative young people can be, and their thought about the country and government decisions.
“Young people are more hopeful and have more great expectations about the future “, said Gerard Boyce from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He was addressing the audience at the Blue Lecture Theatre at Eden Groove this morning. He gave emphasis on a misperception that a majority of people have about young people, that the youth are a generation in crisis. Gerard produced research results about youth attitude related to perception of life satisfaction, South African Identity, differences between young and old people and differences between youth in race. There is a need for more programmes such as One Day Leader which will allow the youth to get a chance to express themselves so that the world can see what young people think, and that can act as one of the possible solutions to get rid of the misperceptions the world have about the youth.
By Sindisiwe Mthembu.

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