Opinion Sur Joven

We’re all annoyed at something. In fact, there are probably many things that often make us feel bothered, uncomfortable, disturbed and even drive us crazy. We may be annoyed at the alarm clock very early on Monday morning as well as at our boss complaining all the time with his irritating voice. We may be bothered about Boca losing the Sunday’s “superclassic” (or winning, if you’re a River Plate fan) as well as about Bush bombing Iraq once more and nobody being surprised about it. And given that there are different types and levels of annoyance, there are also different possible answers...

They’re mainstream young people. They’re just like you and me, they study, work, go out on weekends and enjoy a good concert, a party with friends or their mom’s meals... But something makes them different: when something bothers them in their cities, their provinces or even the world, they choose and decide to act.

Hernán is a 22-year-old college student. When someone asks him what bothers him in his community, he asserts: “There are very few areas where young people are able to participate and have an adequate environment to deal with their great concerns”.

Upon this situation, Hernán decided to find a solution. The “most logical” choice –according to him- was to create along with college mates “Espacios Alternativos”(‘alternative spaces’), an organization meant to “generate alternative spaces to encourage the development of young people’s personal virtues, stimulate their intellectual and artistic skills and promote their active involvement in their learning processes”.

Mariano is a 27-year-old graphic designer. He used to be and still is bothered about so many people living in poverty and lacking opportunities to fully develop. His answer was “Proyecto Infantil Brazos En Solidaridad” (‘charity arms project for children’, which you will surely remember by its acronym: P.I.B.E.S. (‘kids’). This organization is formed by enthusiastic young people, students and professionals who have been actively analyzing children’s reality in the most unprivileged regions since 2002. They create the necessary spaces for those children to have better development opportunities by means of different methods. They’re currently working at “Los Dos Angeles” (‘two angels’), a shanty town 30 km away from the capital city of Mendoza, where they carry out different educational and productive projects: they help generating productive undertakings and organize educational workshops for children, teenagers, parents, etc.

Mariano says he participates “as an excuse to try to expand it a little… to reach areas where talking and not doing anything is further installed than working in silence, in order to teach by example. Making people think is already a great achievement”. My goal is to generate a change in attitude starting from thinking and towards acting", he says.

Hernán defines participating merely as “commitment and responsibility towards ourselves and the others”. And Javier, who was also interviewed, defined it as: “the action of being unselfishly involved in the existing social and cultural problems”.

Why? Nobody acts without a reason...

Participation emerges on several reasons. According to a recent study elaborated by Julio Bango [1], people participate (acting collectively and organizing themselves) based on at least four reasons:

In the first place, in order to improve “access to goods and services”. This is, to make some money. Others do it “to integrate certain processes in progress within a particular society”. Translation: those are the ones who attend the “cacerolazos” to pick up girls. Then there are people who do it “to improve their opportunities to materialize their life projects”, for example, a doctor colaborating with MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘doctors without borders’). Finally, there are the pure idealists who do it to generate a better future for them and their children; as Bango says, they participate “to feel they have a leading role, to deliberately build their future; definitely, to strengthen their self-esteem”.

“This qualification is arbitrary and I’m sure more aspects or reasons why may be identified, but I can assure you that every young person that participates finds his or her motivation to act”, the author concludes.

Where? Thinking globally and acting locally (and viceversa) The ways and spaces to participate may be very diverse. Many find their place in the so-called CSOs (civil society organizations, formerly known as NGOs); others make their contributions in foundations, children’s feeding centers, parishes, etc.

Traditional political parties, although they’re currently very discredited in our country, are also formed by young people. But the list doesn’t finish here. New technologies enable the so-called “cyber-activism”: thousands of young people publishing their opinions online, campaigns and demonstrations organized from blogs and huge virtual nets of young people are only some examples of this incredible phenomenon.

For instance, haven’t you heard about the widespread demonstration against whaling organized by Greenpeace through the Internet? Under the slogan “We love Japan, but whaling breaks our hearts” they invited people to protest (by kissing your boyfriend/girlfriend!) in front of the Japan embassy in Buenos Aires on Valentine’s Day [2]. A young girl sent the idea to Greenpeace... Quite original, huh?

How? What we can do and what we can’t

There are some things we can’t change, that’s for sure. I’m not asking you to stop the poles from melting or that you run for president on the upcoming elections this year.

But, at the same time, there is a great a deal of issues upon which we may influence, make our little or big contribution, it all depends on how you look at it! We must be idealistic but, at the same time, very realistic: coming up with concrete solutions and proposals, improving our skills and trying to make voluntary work more professional, getting support, making alliances and forming nets to potentiate the project are the main pieces of advice our interviewees give when we ask them about the keys for their undertakings’ success.

The 60s and 70s were times of strong “social effervescence” encouraged by great collective ideals. Times of “peace and love”, the Beatles, long hair and powerful ideas.

Today many people feel nostalgia for that historical moment (I don’t dare to say whether this was further due to the ideals or to the fact that not bathing was cool then), deeply convinced that “those were the days”. Although it’s a reality that these days apathy and lack of interest are the rule, many participating young people prove that all is not lost.

At the same time, the most optimistic ones see today’s young people’s pragmatism as an advantage for participating: they come up with concrete, possible and doable solutions and put them into practice. Many analysts are nowadays talking about a rage for the so-called “new social movements”, and the role of the young people among them is essential.

Worldwide youth conventions and numerous social organizations entirely led by young people all over the world prove it. Likewise, we are to recognize that only a minority participates actively.

What about you?

Locally, the participation prospect within a medium-size city (approximately 1,700,000 inhabitants) such as Mendoza, my province, is not quite encouraging. There is a small number of juvenile social organizations dealing every day with many problems and obstacles.

“Being young and participating is not easy”, all of them agree, although they all add almost at the same time that it’s really gratifying. Mariano comments: “Getting members is very hard; moreover, human relationships are very hard to deal with when permanently working in a group, both with the people in the neighborhood where we work and among ourselves”. Hernán also answers after doubting a little when we asked him to explain the obstacles: “I’d say they’re our own flaws. They ended up in lack of financial support and, sometimes, of people. But all these flaws give us a lot of experience in exchange”.

–What would you recommend to those young people who want to start participating in society?- Opinión Sur Joven asked to conclude.
Hernán: Above all, determination and values. Determination is what allows you to materialize an idea and sustain it. Values are what make all that work be worth the effort.
Mariano: Enjoy the beginning, which is the best part, because motivation flows on its own… For those who have already started, be constant and don’t stop trying even if you have to restart 10 times (although it sounds corny)… You’ll edit this afterwards, right? As you can see, I didn’t edit it because I think he’s right.

From my personal experience I can prove that participation, although it is different depending on the place, is very similar in all corners of the Earth. There are many difficulties and they’re almost the same everywhere: lack of interest and “adult” support for these projects, problems to get financial support and lack of human capital; that is, few young people committed to participating. However, my friends, let me tell you that the will and the strong conviction of those who choose to participate let us be optimistic. For example, when I ask Hernán what he thinks about youth participation in Mendoza, his answer (which comes from Germany, where he’s currently collaborating with different social organizations) is really surprising: "Today, it’s scarce. Potentially, it’s infinite”.

So… What bothers you? What annoys you the most? And more importantly, have you already considered what you’re going to do about it?