In the light of the not so palatable position taken by our very opinionated uncle, father and grandfather KT Hammond,I have taken a step back to consider what the word youth really means. Hasn’t this word been continuously misused and misunderstood? Or has there been a semantic progression in the meaning of the word?
English is widely known to be a living language and keeps evolving. What then is this “youth” word that has been rolling down the tongue of politicians and their kind for decades? To some, it is being young at heart and living so. May I probe? Does it mean at 90 years, one may be tagged as youthful because of avant-gardism or being in vogue or conversant with everything modern? That is an objection for me.
What then is the age range that defines a youth? The definition by the UN for me,stands out by far. It states the ‘youth’ are those person’s between the ages of 15-24 years.That means a shade from adolescence to early adulthood.
We may have equally heard countlessly “life begins at 40”. Whatever that means is still unclear to me. But from my stand, life at this part of the world, Africa, Ghana, begins with the first glimpse of light and the warm breathe of “man-made” poverty in the air.
Most of us are yet to wake up to the reality that we have long spent our youth without even noticing it. Because per the definition anyone above 25 years is no longer a youth. Is that not interesting?
It is laughable that we belong to a system that does not even know what our youthful age range is, to even consider preparing the young to be productive to themselves and country at such an important and sensitive stage in life. Mostly,the useful and productive years are spent in an educational system that mostly prepares most to be unemployable. Should unemployment unfortunately give you a tight embrace and squeeze,before you step away,you may have been robbed of your youth and may left unempowered.
This may not be South Africa’s Bantu Education Act of 1953, but this is a good enough blueprint left behind by the colonialist and instituted by their aides in Ghana and yes bringing the same results or more.
Few weeks ago,one of the largest passenger aircrafts in the world, British Airways A380 touched down in Ghana. As usual,there were many foreigners in town, willfully to do business.The present economic dislocation may be causing a lot of the Ghanaian youth to take to their heels. Some may rather leave the nation than get burnt out in a system that that isn’t working and a future so uncertain.
For some of the opportunistic foreigners,they may have surely heard the word on the street that Ghana is an “easy” place to do business.Perhaps it is easy to evade taxes, manoeuvre and integrate among people with a nature of hating themselves and doting on foreigners. I am not a prophet of doom but by the next 4 decades,these foreigners may become “More Ghanaian Than A lot of Ghanaians”. It is very likely many may even lose their “spot” as Ghanaians.
Lastly, if a politician comes talking about empowering the youth,please find out what age range he is referring to.May God bless our homeland Ghana.
Author: Dumenu Charles Selorm
Source: The Independent Ghana
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