ARABIC YOUTH
Do you sometimes get the feeling that the population group we call “Youth” does not exist in Arabic lands?
Our young people form natural levels largely due, I suppose, to a large degree by our system of education by class divisions, determined by the intensity in learning.
As I see children depicted on television and in the media, in general, I find one level we have in abundance - people in the Youth classification but they seem to be missing in Arabic lands.
We have “youths” in this country who are citizens at an in-between, formative stage. Some are still attending High School, some are in a college setting of one type or another, while others in the age group are in business, commerce and industry as learners, beginners, ,and in the jargon of fast food industry, in particular, some are called “management trainees". Some, too, are in the armed forces of nation. Some are married and have children . The age span may run from the late teens, then, into the mid-twenties. They speak and think of themselves as being the “Youth” of America. They can show am amazing control of major sections our economy by their purchases; they can influence the popular view of all aspects of living in the world today, by their sometimes ,outspoken even belligerents voices they can cause a teetering in upper social levels.. They are sensational statistics at times in fanciful charts claiming to show what might become of us as a nation in the future. This vibrant segment of our population may also be said to have been “high-teched” to a point which some critics think is “a bit much”. The youth of our nation is schooled and, by training and experience to use of the Media for a myriad number of purposes many of which are being formulated as they go along to whatever conditions make them viable.
Don't you agree that we do, indeed, have such a group in our society? I can find in other nations as well, but “youth”, per se, seems to be absent in Arabic. Our method of study is television and that may hinder us from seeing all that is to be seen. We see the skinny kids throwing rocks and anything and everything they consider to be hostile. Others, also thin and seemingly undernourished, stand mute and motionless watching bombed-out cars burn. A lanky boy might toss a piece of rubbish on the pyre as if to keep it going and shake his fist gingerly in the air - at whom we dare not guess. All these are urchins, kids, kindergarten and early graders in any school system. You will, occasionally, see a few older boys in the street crowds, milling about, and in groups weaving their arms when told to do so. Since reforms, we now see some young teen-age girls in the schoolrooms scenes but not elsewhere.
I think the male youths of the land - aged late teens to the mid-twenties – are hidden in the crowds of older men. It seems that the young boy, once he begins to grow a more than few hairs his face, abruptly become a full-grown man. He is in those crowds we see - young in enthusiasm but old in appearance. They remain largely arm wavers, stampers, jumpers as they applaud the actions of older, or hairier, men among them.. as hey are more active - firing guns into the air; brandishing weapons and screaming insults at anyone opposite them. Whom ever the older men hate the less hairy will hate as well. One gets the feeling the are managed by oldsters ...puppets.
We look to our youth as tomorrows leaders. I don't see such potential in the hirsute hero of Arabian lands.
A.L.M. December 8, 2004 [c638wds]
