The Saint Lucia Perspective is a segment of the Examer Company Limited, an interactive platform that discusses social issues confronting the community and its people.
When I read some of the comments being posted on Social Media, I am sad by the senseless and unethical values contained thereof. My instant reaction is Oh my god! This is not clever thinking just trash talk about moral values, family life, relationships…etc. These comments devalue our values and instead promote views of self-centeredness and ideas that are simply reflective of our own sense of justifying our mistakes in which our own hearts painfully condemned us, at the same time trying hard to justify our mistakes against our values. As the wisest man King Solomon said some 1000’s of years ago: There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
The wisest man Solomon says the end or result of these not so clever comments or rather lifestyles only leads to death. Not necessarily a physical death of a person but death in the sense that they reap the sad, bitter and no doubt painful consequences of their unwise decision of the past, that mirrors one’s own death. What has happened to upright values of the folks of our past generations? Those values are what shaped us as individuals and as a responsible society. It is no wonder that King Solomon says in another of his proverbs: “The heart knows its own bitterness…” What a blatant truth. Remember King Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. Are we wiser than him?
There are so many great ways we can benefit from Social Media. We at the Examer Company Ltd is endeavoring to Empower, Educate and Elevate the coming generation by encouraging them to break free from this backward mentality by promoting Social Entrepreneurship. Helping youths to use this avenue to connect and get inspired to make a difference while in school which ultimately will help them to connect to the real world before they graduate from school. To help them discover their dormant talent, sharpen their creativity in our ever changing digital era.
Our youths are lacking, struggling to adapt, hopeless, aimless, unskilled and disengaged. To be honest I must say that they are out right LOST. WHY is that? We live in a very informative era in which technology has taken over and actually provided a way out for us to escape from looking at the Western world to solve our social maladies. But our youths are not embracing “the good side” of the technology instead they are being distracted by it, using it for trash talks that I am amazed by. We need to engage our youths in what will essentially open the door to creativity and entrepreneurship. We can do this by providing and promoting effective use of technology. This is more than promoting oneself by posting pictures and senseless comments on social media but it is a way for them to better themselves by tapping into their own environment. This reminds me of the question Bill Drayton posed during the Skoll World Forum: “How do we help young people develop the life skills they need to flourish in this new world?”
The answer is simply: “Thanks to new technologies”, but sad to say that the existing educational systems in developing countries aren’t keeping up as a result our youths are in disarray.
At the Examer Company Limited sponsor by Film Annex Corp, we are making small yet an effective way out. Many youths around the world are making use of Film Annex platform in more sophisticated ways to earn money. For instance many students in Afghanistan, Belarus, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Netherland, Philippine Russia, and United States are taking advantage of it not only to earn money but to help them discover and unleash their hidden talents and creativity through writing.
For instance:
http://www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/the-impact-of-social-media-digital-literacy-communication-and-sustainable-education-on-the-world-of-technology/79389
Do you see yourself being a part of this global community here in Saint Lucia? All it takes is to blog about subject you are passionate about. You can register on www.filmannex.com
Today our youths have more time at their disposal yet they lack basic social structure, they lack zeal and community supports which can be dangerous because it ricks them becoming unproductive, unstable and uncertain citizens. Many concern individual have talked, blogged, twitted about these issues but unfortunately they always fail to provide a simple and meaningful solution to the social issues confronting our youths. All fingers seem to always be pointing to the government to do something about it. The government has tried but sadly time and time again they fall short of providing a solution. Time and time again we see those in power more concern about their political careers and how their party can remains in power than the serious issues plaguing our societies and by extension our youths. We have the solution; we have to put our minds and hearts together in order to bring about effective change.
To do that the Positive Deviance concept that first appeared in nutrition research in the 1970 comes to mind.
In our next blog we’ll use the Positive Deviance modular to recreate our path to success.
