October 2021
Two weeks ago, on Thursday 23 September 2021, I had the pleasure of hosting a virtual Caribbean youth parliament on climate justice. This was done through an initiative that I founded called the Caribbean Climate Justice Project. The virtual parliament passed an ambitious, strong resolution on climate justice, perhaps the strongest statement to come out of the Caribbean on climate change since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015. This resolution has been distributed to all major regional and international stakeholders on climate change.
What struck me, however, was the passion, energy, creativity, intelligence and persuasiveness that the 15 youth parliamentarians, who represented 11 Caribbean nations, brought to the debate. Our discussions were devoid of hidden agendas, inflated egos and excess baggage, just fact, empirical data, logic and conviction.
I like working with Caribbean youth. They give me hope. They see things through different lens. Unlike some of my peers, I am very optimistic about our youth. However, I feel a tinge of sadness that they will have the massive responsibility to try to clean up the messes my generation and the one that preceded it are leaving behind. Misplaced priorities that put power and profits before people; unrestrained borrowing for poorly implemented and in some cases unnecessary capital projects that serve as useless, expensive monuments to leaders; huge fiscal deficits caused by prime ministers who are poor money managers; corrupt and dishonest practices, coupled with blatant bias and nepotism, that have made many lose faith in the institutions of government; deeply rooted and dangerous political divisions perpetrated by politicians who seek power at all cost; and a badly damaged environment that will rob the next generation of the quality of life that we enjoyed.
We need to engage with our youth and give them a seat at the table in all discussions about the present and future development of our country and our region. We must stop the tokenistic appointments of young people to boards and the generation of new catch phrases that give the youth the fleeting illusion that we are serious about working with them. The youth are not just the future, they are the present. To the older folk who are holding tightly to the reins of power in the mistaken belief that they alone can manage and fix the mess they created – news flash! You have done a poor job of managing so far and like the old saying goes: we cannot solve problems using the same thinking that created the problems.
We need the creativity, the imagination, the passion and the energy of our young people to fix the problems of today and to create a better, safer, more sustainable tomorrow. Embrace it, embrace them, engage them!