'YOUTH DEMAGOGUE'

They have been used as a political tool for hooliganism, mass action, demonstrations and other forms of civil disobedience. A good number of them lack substantial economic, political or religious agenda whereas a section of them lack the discipline and common knowledge to differentiate between good and bad. This is a phase of self realization and foundation building for an individual towards his/her future. There is nothing much that brings together and defines the youth much more than age. However, this group has several demographic dispositions that make them different from each other in more than one way. Basically the youth are classified into five cadres

The Educated Youth:

They have University education and always keep abreast with the socio-political and economic discourse of their country in various capacities. They are very well informed, successful individuals and productive in the corporate sector. A good number of them are excellent communicators and use logic and rational thought in solving problems. The village envies them and sees them as arrogant and boisterous people. They have independent minds and have a thirst for knowledge. They always disassociate themselves from the unlearned and this is evident in their drinking partners and even invitees in their weddings. They are passionate about constructive debates and are hardly intimidated. They do not receive anonymous calls and have very few names in their phonebooks. In most cases, they consume media products selectively and critically-watching documentaries, news, talk shows and parliamentary sessions. They concentrate so much on their jobs at the expense of their families.

The Spanner ‘boys’

These are boys and girls with very humble academic backgrounds and selective exposure. Most of them are those who were referred to as escorting others during their school days. They are very aggressive, violent, gullible and rarely visionary. They focus too much on current survival at the expense of the future. They have a fetish for freebies and quick money without necessarily working hard for it and blame the government for all their predicaments. They can even undress, howl, and wail as a show of solidarity to their politician who has had a brush with the law. They are physically abundant and always present in political rallies assuming the role of body guards even when the security of the politician is not threatened. They hardly reason and resort to physical confrontation whenever the refree in the field does not award a penalty to their favorite team. Generally, their sycophantic nature enders them to the politician during campaigns only to be damped after winning or loosing. He/ she has the phone number of waheshimiwas but ironically is jobless and sleeps in the popular slums.

The Eternal Job Hunter

These are individuals with average academic exposure but with little lack in job attainment. They are very humble, introverted but very emotional. They attempt to reason in congruence with the modern day challenges albeit in futility as they marry at an early age even with little or zero financial security. They know very little about the political discourse and would take up any odd job irrespective of their academic qualifications. They are always apathetic to the current systems and rarely vote during elections.

The’Blingie’

They are obsessed with the showbiz industry in a bid to get attention and self realization. They have attended 90% plus of all the Jamaican concerts and have downed almost all the alcoholic brands. They have the flashiest china handsets, the heaviest neck chains and piercings to their navels. They are wholly obsessed with oversized clothes trying to match up with the hip hop trends. They buy and sell phones and other gadgets in a bid to raise money to release their first album, their talent or lack of it notwithstanding. They have little or literally no time for the national issues. They are always smart and broke as a result of spending so much of their little pocket money on facebooking and tooth grilling. They flaunt their many girlfriends and boyfriends during the day only to lose them at night to pot bellied sugar daddies and obese sugar mummies’. They always dream of moving out from their parents houses without necessarily getting the means to and even if they move out, they always come back to their parents and brothers to pay their rent and electricity bills. They are not proficient in any language including their own mother tongue and compensate this damning inadequacy with ‘sheng’. They are the heaviest consumers of media products and wholly depend on media to mainstream their thought process and lifestyle. They have awkwardly void ambitions of becoming the global top model, famous rapper or producer with scarce knowledge, creativity and blank talent. They will be willing to be rained on waiting for that flashy matatu driven by the flirtatious driver. They spot an engagement ring without necessarily envisaging its meaning. Ask them who is the minister of foreign affairs and they will say something laughable.

The Entrepreneur

They have limited academic exposure if any but have vast investments. He/she is the owner of the first barber shop in the village, the first carwash in the estate, and has significantly risen to own the best restaurant in town. He is now or in the future planning to become the Member of Parliament and counts on the voters in the area for he has created employment for many people hand helped out in many funerals. He has the top of the range vehicle to compensate his/her inadequate academic exposure. However he is quite emotional sometimes crying whenever the county council demolishes stalls around the estate. He is less informed and operates on rumours, propaganda and shies away from applying wisdom (if any) during conflict. He/ she has archaic conflict resolution approaches especially in marital issues. He/ she has worked hard for it and would not like his/her children to go through what he went through thereby investing heavily on education and not necessarily moral upbringing of the children. They speak so much whenever there is so much noise and commotion but will stammer and fall short of words during moments of silence. He/ she would do everything within his powers to protect his/her property.

Every sub group of the youth has its own limitations and strengths at varying intensity levels occasioning them to have special needs different from the other. Each sub group has its own values, beliefs, attitudes, priorities and visions. They engage at different symbiotic levels. Anybody who wonders why the greatest population otherwise referred to as the youth never support their own youth in a political process has all his/her answers above. It is not only laughable but least wise to see how politicians use the ‘youth’ as a tool for self gratification in keeping with their political expediencies coated in promises for youth liberation, employment, emancipation and recognition. The sooner we realize that there is no uniqueness on the problems facing the youth, and that there is no cohesive problem shared across the youth, the better for the society.