Friday 26 October 2012

Youth !


I am sitting in a conference on Youth and Union which is held now (October 27-28, 2012) in Battambog province. There are about 100 youth attending in this conference. My session will be in about an hour talking about general social issues in Cambodia. Sitting in the corner of the conference room listening to a panel of speakers who are talking now about youth’s issues, reminded me of 10 years ago when I am sitting as one of the participant in such an event.

Sitting opposite to me now are two young man and woman who are listening very carefully on what the speakers are talking about and writing down important points in to their notebooks. On the panel tables are four speakers. Those included three men (age more than 30 years old) and one female who looks like around 20 years old.

The way the conference room is set up is very typical youth capacity building event which I have attended since the last 10 years. There is nothing bad about this; yet, it is very old fashion type which might not be so effective anymore. One of the reasons I think so is the facts that older people are talking about youth issues in quite a formal way which, to me, is not youth friendly. The female speaker whom I just talked about earlier is a good example. She is in her early 20 and she is just a volunteer in one of the youth organization. Her speech wasn’t very well delivered as public speaking isn’t her ability yet but I think she is better related to youth participants who are facing the same challenges in employment. I enjoyed her speech much more than the other three.

I am not saying that older generation is taking our seats but youth are not capable enough to sit there as speaker. Lack of confidence, the fear of public speaking and the lack of experiences are the reason behind this lack representation of youth.

I end here and you can make your own conclusion! Thanks.      

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