Thai editorial: Of children and the promise of the future

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EDITORIAL
Of children and the promise of the future
The Nation

The One Young World Summit currently underway in Bangkok sparkles with optimism and opportunity

BANGKOK: -- Bob Geldof, Manny Pacquiao and other celebrities who've inspired millions around the world are in Bangkok this week to speak at the One Young World Summit, which has brought together 1,300 youths from 190 countries and territories.

The One Young World organisation, founded in 2009, says its aim is to "empower the brightest [youngsters] to make lasting connections to create positive change". It's a grand ambition, a challenge laid before these eager, goal-oriented kids at previous summits in London, Zurich, Pittsburgh in the US, Johannesburg and

Dublin and now presented anew

for the first gathering held in Asia, which continues through Saturday.

The One Young World Summit is a stage for youths with demonstrated leadership abilities to share ideas and innovations for handling some of the planet's most pressing issues, notes Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra.

"It will also be a place where world leaders can share their ideas with the youth leaders and become their inspiration," he adds.

Along with musician-activist Geldof and Filipino boxing champ Pacquiao, the speakers include former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus and photographer-environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

One Young World is hailed as a global forum for youths "passionate about social change". This year's summit features discussions on education, ecology, human rights, and peace and security, as well as leadership and government.

The Bangkok meeting is an excellent opportunity for the youngsters representing Thailand to learn from their peers from around the world and exchange views about how to make it a better world. It's also a good opportunity for Thai authorities and the public to instil positive impressions of the Kingdom and its capital in the foreign attendees.

Young people should of course be given every encouragement to consider the issues facing the globe and present their own solutions. The naivety of youth - and their sincerity, their bold fearlessness - invariably produce novel approaches, from which brilliant gems might emerge. Their good intentions are offered free of the taint of prejudice, vested interest or selfishness.

The vast majority of youngsters have difficulty understanding why people of different races and beliefs have problems coexisting peacefully in the "adult world". It's to be hoped that they maintain that view as they mature, gradually weaning the

planet from its diet of armed conflict and the slaying of innocents.

In place of unquestioning goodwill, adults tend to labour through lives soiled by grudges and intolerance, the optimism of their youth abandoned in an avalanche of genuine hardship, perceived slights and a shared sense that existence is devoid of justice.

Perhaps the highest hope of all for the One Young World summits is that they help nurture a generation that will not forgo its original beliefs, that the kids might be carry on into adulthood shielded from the negative influences and mindsets that foster apathy and despair. Perhaps some of these youngsters will indeed become heads of state or international celebrities capable of shaping public opinion and lifting spirits.

To achieve this, the summits must forge a will of iron in their participants so that they can mature amid life's setbacks and yet never lose sight of the hopes and dreams that were so concrete in childhood.

Life can seem at times like a battering ram. Once knocked down, it's not easy getting back up again. Resignation can easily result. Young people have to be encouraged to stand firm against the blows. A generation thus toughened and prepared, invulnerable to creeping pessimism, emboldened to try new approaches, is society's best hope.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Of-children-and-the-promise-of-the-future-30273244.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-19

[fred Kubasa]

Most of their speech content, maybe all, will be subjected to Thai

translators so much content will be missing or distorted and, their

programs require government participation and this is a definite No-No !

Okay for places like Singapore, Japan, S. Korea but not Thailand.

[bangon04]

"The Bangkok meeting is an excellent opportunity for the youngsters representing Thailand to learn from their peers from around the world and exchange views about how to make it a better world. It's also a good opportunity for Thai authorities and the public to instil positive impressions of the Kingdom and its capital in the foreign attendees."

I wonder which of these 2 opportunities will be more intensively supported by the Thai authorities......

[wabothai]

What are "Of children"?

[Krataiboy]

What utter twaddle. If we really want to change the world for the better, we first need to ditch an educational system which churns out the equivalent of human cattle for state/corporate oligarchy that runs the world economy and our lives.

Schools are there to prepare kids for absorption into a malevolent matrix which thrives on inequality, endless war and the unfettered rape of resources currently driving our planet prematurely to the edge of extinction.

Far from being "inspired" by world leaders, as the Governor of Bangkok suggests, today's youth would be better advised to ask how they got us into such a dreadful mess - and how they plan to get out of it.

This won't happen, of course, because none of the youthful innocents carefully harvested and hand-picked to speak at the summit is chosen for his or her ability to rock the boat. This celeb-spangled event is just another talking shop, the latest bit of window-dressing by the establsihment to kid the restive proletariat that change is in the air..

It isn't, of course. Come tomorrow and it will be the same old story. Our luckless offspring will file obediently into the same stultifying classrooms,to learn by rote and ruler-slap the most important lesson of all - that the best way to get on in life is to do as you are told, keep your head down, and never, never show dissent.

In Thailand, the crushing boredom of the school routine is enlivened by some preparatory flag wagging, nationalistic singing and a recitation of twelve "core values" handed down by the leader of a military junta who has written a smash-hit single in support of his mission to bring happiness to the people.

Eventually, the school bell will mark the end of another mind-numbingly-boring academic day and my little daughter will come home for some education about the real world.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Krataiboy

[waldroj]

Good for Thailand that this is the first time that the One Young World gathering had been held in Asia.

Also good for those Thai kids that attend. But, if it's only the kids of the elite, then it's just another crass exercise of elitism.

That said, I'm confident that the foreign kids will benefit from it.

Edited November 19, 2015 by waldroj

[connda]

Feel-good talk creates nothing. Planning, action, and addressing reality creates positive change. But lets all hold hands and sing Kumbaya and all the children in the world with have a rosy bright future. Well, except for the 500 tillion dollars of debt they'll inherit.

Well never mind that..."Kumbaya my lord...kumbayaaaa."