We are the youth rising.

national | miscellaneous | other press Thursday October 13, 2011 17:20 by SpunOutter

WE ARE THE YOUTH RISING....

We are the younger generation. We make up 40% of the population, making Ireland the youngest country in the EU. 30% of us are unemployed and dream of work. We are among the 1000 weekly emigrants who don’t want to leave. Many of us are artists without spaces, visionary entrepreneurs with no investment, politicians without parties, the spiritual without churches, and idealists without leaders.

We are the young in a country that doesn’t realise how badly it needs us.

We are inheriting a world at war for resources to fuel a flawed system. A world where one half are overweight, while the other half goes hungry. A world where the richest 1% own nearly 50% of all the wealth and the future of our planet is at stake.

Approaching 2016, we inherit a divided island and an IMF-ECB-EU-NAMA republic. An Ireland battered by history; by invasion, famine, war, emigration, church, and the corruption and greed of the Celtic Tiger. We inherit the wounds, the hurt, the anger and debt of a country where some with power abused it, while others turned a blind eye.

In this Ireland we are gamers who want adventure, the scholars who want success, the ‘hoodies’ who want somewhere to hang out, the bored at school – trapped in an under resourced and outdated education system. We are among the non drinkers, the fun or escape seeking drug users and binge drinkers. We are the targets of non-stop adverts selling us alcohol, image, sex, gadgets, beauty and fear. We are those who are happy, sad, in love or lonely. Lots of us are worried, depressed and some suicidal in a world where many of our elders have lost their way and forgotten that we all need each other more than ever at this time.

Yet, we are not victims.

We are much more than this. We are picking up the pieces of this shattered world and we are re-inventing it. We are challenging authority, proposing solutions, demanding answers and creating alternatives. We are making our own media, growing our own food, nourishing our own minds and speaking our truth. We are turning away from negativity and fear and joining friends and strangers of all ages and backgrounds to create a new world, where happiness, meaning and purpose and smiling faces are the real measurements of success.

We are the new millennium dreamers... We are volunteers and voters, authors, conservationists, anarchists and compassionate conservatives. We are black, white, rich, poor, rural and urban. We are young farmers, teachers, politicians, fashionistas, barristas, barristers, culture vultures and sports stars. We are making great movies and kick ass music, inventing new technology, exploring new places online and all over the world.

We are creating a country that is learning from our past and will become an inspirational green island of innovation and ideas that is a hub for science, for a new spirituality, for peace and equality, for real democracy, for green food and energy, and for happy creative communities.

We are the new Ireland, the Ireland that will no longer look outside for answers, the Ireland that is visionary, powerful, caring, confident and courageous.

We are the youth rising.