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Q&A WITH ZAIN VERJEE
Young People Weigh in on Global Issues
Aired December 25, 2002 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Christmas Day. In the past, when the world has been enveloped in war, hostilities have ceased on this day to allow a reflection of its meaning, the promise of peace, hope for the future.
ZAIN VERJEE, CO-HOST: And it's that future that we look at today, through the eyes of kids (ph). But the vision is clouded: Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Venezuela, Ivory Coast, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Saber rattling and even more. And dramatic changes in global economics.
JIM CLANCY, CO-HOST: Where does all of this leave the world's future, its young people? Their hopes and dreams now survive in an insecure and imperfect world, dictated by the actions and mistakes of us all.
VERJEE: On this Christmas edition of Q&A, present and future, through their eyes.
CLANCY: Hello and welcome to a special edition of Q&A. Some different questions we're going to be asking this day, right?
VERJEE: Yes. We thought it might be worthwhile to bring together some young people to explore their thoughts on the world, its future and their place in it.
CLANCY: We do have a lot of young people with us today. We'll talk about their views, their perceptions of the world.
So let's start first in London and if you will give us your name and a little bit of background about yourself, and tell us how you see the world from where you live.
MARGARET GIBNEY, LONDON: Hi. I'm Margaret Gibney; I'm here in London. I'm a UNICEF young ambassador for PACE and I see my role here as one that involves the promotion of peace and reconciliation. And that concerns children who are involved in conflict all around the world.
CLANCY: For you, in Northern Ireland, that's an everyday occurrence. For every young person, whether they're Catholic or Protestant, whether they're pro-British or Republican.
GIBNEY: Yes. It's something that, I think, every child in Northern Ireland has grown up with, even today. Yesterday before I left home to come here to London to do this interview, there were police and military patrols in the streets because there's -- there have been some problems, even now, coming up to Christmas. And that's something that young people are going to have to face, that feeling of insecurity, you know.
Why are they marching the police in and around the area? Why are they patrolling, you know? It makes children feel insecure.
VERJEE: To Memphis, Tenn., and to Ben.
Ben, as you look at the world today, what do you see?
BEN FERGUSON, MEMPHIS, TENN.: This is Ben Ferguson in Memphis. When I look at the world today, I see a place that has broadened since the attacks here in America on 9/11. And before America -- the Americans were very narrow-minded toward what was just happening in our country. And now I see the world, and I no longer see America.
Part of that's our upbringing and education system over here. But now I see a world that is filled with a lot of terrorism, a lot of people that hate other countries, not only just America but other countries, especially in the Middle East with Israel and all sorts of different areas.
So -- but I also see a world of opportunity. And that's what people don't need to forget. The world now is a place where, that if you can come together, the lines are drawn and there's a division line now. And either you're with the world or you're against us, and it's amazing to see how many young people now are getting on the band wagon to help other people.
CLANCY: Let's go to Kelly now, and Kelly how do you view the world? The predicament you find yourself and other young people where you are in.
KELLY-MARIE MANN, JERUSALEM: I view the world in a more optimistic fashion. I think that we're all just trying to find our place in it. And I don't think Israel is really that different from any other place. I mean, violence is a part of the world and always has been. So is hope. And so we have to choose which thing we're going to look at and one we're going to focus on.
VERJEE: Sami, what about you?
SAMI HABASH, JERUSALEM: I consider myself -- I think that the world is an environment which mainly lacks peace. I mean, we've been trying to reach peace for a long time, but things aren't working out (ph) everywhere. I mean, Israel, this country's people (ph) have seen many, many wars: World War I, World War II, and many other wars between the two sides, the Israeli and the Palestinians. And we're just, we're really getting tired of wars and we just want to settle down.
So I just that we can manage to find a solution for peace, and we'd almost done it five years ago. Nobody knows how it just didn't work, and I just hope it works later. I really hope so.
VERJEE: Elad, how to find that solution? What do you think are the most significant things that we need to consider about finding a solution, particularly in that region?
ELAD SCHAFFER, JERUSALEM: Well, I think, basically also it's education. Peace, education, working at peace in schools and high schools and really trying to enrich the community, with inviters (ph) of peace.
And that is basically what can change our world view. It starts with education and when the kids grow up, they grow up in a peaceful environment. They grow up in a different area and different society than what we see today. And nowadays, when violence is spread all over the place, it's vital (ph).
CLANCY: Do you think that young people today are more actively involved because they understand more about the world? Do you think that they want to have an effect on their world?
GIBNEY: Definitely. I mean, I think young people need to know that there are opportunities out there, and they need to be educated about their rights to participate in processes that are going to affect, you know, their lives and the world, and it's going to be theirs in the future.
And I think as more education about children's rights and about the opportunities that are open to young people, as that gets, you know, as that is distributed more, more and more young people are being involved. Because they do want -- they do want to get involved and, you know, make the world a better place for us to live in when, you know, we become adults.
VERJEE: Let's get to Washington and get some of Christy's thoughts.
Christy, as you look at the world, what are some of the biggest problems you think that you face?
CHRISTY AGNER, WASHINGTON: Well, hi, I'm Christy Agner, and I'm in Washington, D.C., this morning, and I'm active in the Young Democrats for America organization. Listening to Ben and just listening to Margaret helps me answer your question.
When I think about what youth are challenged with, I think we all have some of the same issues. We want a better world, but every day we're looking for quality jobs, we're looking for opportunities to serve one another and serve the public. And that's one of the things my organization brings to the table. It takes people like the other young people on this program and helps give them skills and opportunities to find places to change public policy.
We desperately do want to better our society, and I still think that young people are very positive overall about the global climate. That being said, there's -- it's definitely a larger world than we've all lived in the past. And we have so many opportunities in the United States as young people. We have our own domestic issues, but we share those domestic challenges with people from other countries. So we have a lot more to learn from each other than we have differences.
CLANCY: All right. I'm going to ask all of you to stay right where you are.
VERJEE: Well, we've heard the views of where we are. Next, where are we going?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Welcome back to our look at the world and its future, through the eyes of youth. We want o bring you know Millet and Aliyah who are in South Africa and joining us.
Millet, beginning with you, tell us how do you perceive the challenges that are faced by young people there in the world today?
MILLET NKANYANA, JOHANNESBURG: I can say that the challenges that we, as young people, have in our world right now is to help -- and help build up the world. That we can't just sit there and say that the world's messed up and so don't do anything about it. So I think our challenge today is based on helping the people so we can have our younger sisters to -- looking up to us.
CLANCY: Aliyah Allie, do older people in governments and in public listen to young people enough?
ALIYAH ALLIE, JOHANNESBURG: Well, I say that we obviously having this great problem. We're not being listened to and children often say that we want to be listened to. But it's not happening. Often we have -- when we have press conferences for whatever cause we have, what issues we are having, you know, people -- we send out invitations, we get the RSVP. People say, "Yes, we're coming," this, that and the other, but when it comes down to what's actually happening, we get no response.
It's the children sitting there with everything they have planned, everything they have worked so hard on to show the world what they are doing, and they get no response.
VERJEE: Down in Memphis, you do have a radio show, Ben. You have a lot of officials on your show. You've talked to them. Do they listen to you?
FERGUSON: The majority of them don't, and that's why the problems that are facing young people today is the laws that are being made now, at least in America, I think, around the world, are going to affect my generation a lot more than my parents' generation.
And the problem is they talk to us, they use us as a backdrop, they use us as a platform, they use us to get polls, to get ratings and to get votes. But the reality is, they really don't care what we think a lot of times, because they don't think that we're educated; they don't respect our opinion; they don't think we know anything. Because they're kept a little bit above the world at politics and they're the ones that really don't have the reality of what's going on. At least in America.
I don't know why, out of all the advisory councils there are to the president of the United States, why there's no advisory council on youth issues. I mean, war on drugs, crime, education, youth violence. And they make -- they think they can fix all the problems, yet they don't even talk to the people that are having the problems, which is our age group.
So it's a huge, a huge problem. Eventually, I think some leader, whether it be on a national or international platform, decides, OK, here's a brilliant idea; why don't we talk to young people and see what they're thinking so we can, maybe, instead of throwing millions and billions of dollars of funding and money to fix a problem, maybe we can just fix it with having a formal conversation with the youth of the world. I don't know.
VERJEE: Let's bring Christy in on this, in Washington.
Christy, from where you sit, what is it that young people want?
AGNER: Well, first I just really want to echo what Ben was saying. I think we both live in a very similar world, and I can tell you the frustration with an impending global action, shall we say, with our own U.S. military. Let's face the facts, it's folks like Ben and I...
FERGUSON: Exactly.
AGNER: ... who are in that military. We're the folks who are in the National Guard who are having to make plans during this holiday season how we're going to care for our children and for our spouses and our homes and our bills when our National Guard unit gets called up to go into this military action, if that is what the country chooses to do.
And as young people, we do definitely support our president and the administration in trying to keep our citizens safe by doing what needs to be done. But I think that our generation feels a bit differently about how we want our country to be perceived in the international community.
And it is people, our peers, our neighbors. People in my church and my community and my family are on boats and ships and are making plans to be on boats and ships. And we're the folks who are going to be involved personally in this conflict, and I don't hear anyone talking to us about how we feel. And that is a major concern.
FERGUSON: I want to say one thing ...
CLANCY: Let's go to Jerusalem. Sami Habash, let me ask you, because you talk about being directly involved in many ways. The people of the Middle East are caught right in the middle of this whole Iraq thing.
HABASH: Considering the other children in the Middle East and especially my people (ph) over here, it's getting kind of -- it's not the same position as other kids in the world are. Because, you know, if we continue this war that we're having over here, so it's -- the kids are not being grown up in an ordinary way, in a normal way. So many of them are, most of the time, at early ages, are teenagers and want to go and throw stones and fight and stuff.
But other times, when you think about the correct solution to the whole thing, you must treat them (ph) as one thing and have a desire for peace. Because in this situation, there's no other way but peace to solve the whole thing.
VERJEE: Elad...
HABASH: But some of them think it's impossible.
VERJEE: Elad and Kelly, what do you think the future holds for you? Kelly first.
MANN: OK. First I'd like to say I agree with Sami, but we have to remember that violence only teaches violence. And if we want the next generation, or even our generation, to find a solution for peace, we have to stop teaching them that the only way to get what you want is with the army or with throwing stones.
You have to understand, they learn from -- they learn from our example, like our kids learn from our example. And we learn from our parents' examples. And it's important to remember that whenever you plan a military offensive.
VERJEE: Elad, what about you? Fast forward 20 years. What does your future look like to you?
SCHAFFER: I see the future, and I do see cooperative coexistence is possible. However, nowadays, the situation is fight (ph). And I'm going to be in the army in a year, and I want a different future. I cannot just leave, just like that, knowing that me and my brothers are going to be in the army in a few years.
CLANCY: Margaret, do you think that your future is going to be better than your parents'?
GIBNEY: Well, I think more and more young people are becoming aware that conflict and war isn't the answer, you know? And I believe that in order to move forward, more and more young people are becoming involved, becoming actively involved and participating.
CLANCY: Anyone can respond. I want to start in Johannesburg, though. And just to ask you: we so often hear adults telling young people, well, you just don't understand. Do you think they're wrong?
ALLIE: Well, I suppose adults have the advantage (ph) of experience over what young people have. But again, I mean, child participation is something that persists at the U.N.'s presentation. I was there, right? And everyone was saying, all the children were saying, we want children to participate in everything that involves them. Everything that will affect them, they should be involved in.
So the adults come and say, you just don't understand. If we don't understand, explain it to us, you know? Make us understand.
NKANYANA: Yes. I mean, if they keep on telling us we don't understand, then why are they not helping us to understand what they want us to understand? I mean, are they just pushing our participation away or is that they don't want us to be there?
ALLIE: And another thing, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was when we children, all of a sudden, had rights. And South Africa in 1995, the CRC was signed by Nelson Mandela on his government. Everyone in South Africa was ecstatic. Adults were saying, "No, how can children have rights? They can do what I want."
NKANYANA: To be sure.
ALLIE: Exactly. I mean, it was said that no, children can't have rights. And are they blocking our participation? Do they not want us to participate? Or, if that's the case, we're going to embarrassed. You know, you can't do that to children.
NKANYANA: I mean, the future for tomorrow is us, so like, we're just going to be the same as them. We're just a little way (ph) away from them.
ALLIE: And I think, as Millet is saying, the future belongs to us. They were just like us yesterday (ph). When people started saying, the children are the future, that's where the problem started. We are here today, so be with us today.
VERJEE: Christy in Washington, your follow-through on this Christmas Day on the youth of the world and what they want, how they want their future to be shaped.
AGNER: Well, I don't know the end result of how we want our future to be shaped, but I can echo with my peers that we want to be a part of shaping it.
And it's not so much that we have to wait for someone to give us an opportunity. I think from the strong opinions of the people on this call, it's clear that there are young people all over the world who are just going to take an opportunity and band with each other.
And we will, just like generations before us, we will provide opportunities for leaders to come and motivate us. And we will make the world, you know, a stronger place then the way it was given to us, if we're so fortunate.
VERJEE: Margaret, your final thought?
GIBNEY: I think more and more young people are becoming involved and just from listening to what's been said today, I'm very, very encouraged that there are other young people out there who are willing, no matter what's happening in their lives, whether it's against a war (ph), who are willing to stand up and let their voices be heard.
And, you know, let adults know that what their actions and their decisions and what they do today isn't always in the interest of those who are really being affected by those decisions. There are a lot of children who have been affected by war and conflict. And all those things have been created by adults. And children are being used as weapons in their conflicts, as well.
And I just, from listening to everybody today, I'm just really glad there are more young people out there who want to stand up against it and just tell adults this is not right.
CLANCY: Elad...
Let's get in Jerusalem now, some final thoughts. Elad, you first.
SCHAFFER: Well, I just want to say that in addition, words are very nice but they're not what's happening in practice. In practice, child participation isn't as high as it should be. And after all, we are the ones who are going to live this future in 20 years. We are the ones who are going into the army; we're going to study. And we need this future to be better for us. We need to be heard.
I cannot accept people telling me that I do not understand. I live the situation. People die right next to my place.
CLANCY: Sami...
SCHAFFER: And I cannot accept people telling me that I do not understand.
HABASH: What I wanted to say is just concerning the meeting (ph) we had in search (ph) of peace in the summer. It was a great experience for me for having (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Because first, it governs (ph) us with both sides, first with Americans and other nationalities. And this makes us very able to kind of live with each other and solve some problems with each other and listen to the solutions. And it's just being there was a great gain for me, and for all the guys of my age. So I'm quite glad of being a part of that search for peace.
SCHAFFER: And don't forget (ph), I think peace starts with education. Once you get people to meet each other as human beings, Palestinians and Israelis together, we have a better future. We can live with that. We can coexist.
CLANCY: Kelly-Marie?
MANN: OK. For me, as a medical student, I would like to see more of the youth. We say we want to be heard more, but I think it's our responsibility, at least to a partial extent, to make ourselves heard. As a medical student, I would like to see the youth of today become more interested in health and in health education. Because I think when you reach out your hand to heal somebody, you lose the ability to hurt them, and you lose the ability to dehumanize them.
And I think that's a very good way to find a way towards peace.
CLANCY: Kelly-Marie Mann, Sami Habash and Elad Schaffer, our thanks to you for being with us.
Also, a thanks to Millet Nkanyana and Aliyah Allie for being with us.
And our thanks to Margaret Gibney over in London, Christy Agner in Washington and Ben Ferguson in Memphis.
Thanks to all of you for being with us.
VERJEE: Well, those are today's young views here on Q&A. It's refreshing to hear what they have to say.
CLANCY: All right. We've got to take a break, but we'll be right back. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Just before we go, we'd like to remind you to send us your comments by e-mail.
CLANCY: You can address them to YWT@cnn.com or the more familiar Q&A@cnn.com.
VERJEE: Please remember also to include your country as well as your first name.
CLANCY: All right. We're also going to have our own little Christmas present for you. It seems to keep going all year long.
VERJEE: Absolutely. If you go to our web site, at CNN.com/YWT you can find out the details about Q&A.
CLANCY: There, you can sign up for our newsletter, delivered to you every day before the show. And we get up awfully early to write that thing.
VERJEE: And we want you to read it.
CLANCY: And that's all waiting for you at CNN.com/YWT.
VERJEE: As Q&A, now YOUR WORLD TODAY, continues.
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