Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands

Palau workshop papers

Small Island Voice – the Bequian View 

Herman Belmar 

Bequia is a very small tropical island, the largest of the chain of islands that form the St. Vincent Grenadines.  Located just on the fringe of the Caribbean Sea at 13ºN 61ºW, which ideally places us in a position to capture the prime Northeast and Southeast Trade Winds, making our warm waters one of yachtsmen’s superb choice for cruises.  We boast a population of just under 5,000 persons that live in five coastal communities, depending mainly on fishing and tourism as our mainstay. 

Our petite 7-square-mile territory does not in any way isolate us from the world, as all the modern communications, fashions, sports, visitors and modes of education seem to reach us the day after they are developed on the other side of the world.  These changes and growth in technology and development come at a cost, especially in education and on impacting young vulnerable minds. 

Like most developed and developing countries the youth are seen as the future and one of our greatest assets.  Developing these assets is an expensive undertaking and a challenge to any government, especially those of small island states such as ours.  These challenges lead to issues, both real and imaginary, that affect the minds and souls of our youth, and ought to be addressed lest there be serious and long-term consequences. 

The UNESCO Small Islands Voice Youth Forum must be commended as a forerunner for youth expression in this field, as it offers our youth the forum and time for venting the issues that are closest to them, using the available technology of cyberspace.  The very cyber connection that has made the world a global village and our living rooms part of the global stock market has made our youth more familiar with what is right and wrong, what is hype and what is boring, and as such they speak out with voices unheard of a decade ago. 

Our youth are demanding to be heard on issues of political, social, cultural, environmental and personal nature, and are, therefore, seen and heard in the youth arms of various political parties, youth clubs, service clubs, cultural and social clubs as well as environmental clubs.  They find support among family, friends, neighbours, political representatives, church leaders and peer groups.  Of course, each has his own agenda, but all lead to a more vocal, more liberal society of young people, whom we as adult leaders can challenge and lead into more productive lives if they are willing to be guided in that direction. 

Their concerns are very real to them; after all, they are often told they are the future of the world, and they are living and experiencing it.  How they react depends on how they are impacted.  The youth of our small community are no longer living in a culture of “be seen and not heard”. Teachers are often blown back by the way they are prepared to discuss or simply voice issues that we are often not equipped to handle in a classroom environment.  Nevertheless, we must, lest we totally disappoint them. 

Prior to the launching of the Small Islands Voice Youth Forum our English Language and English Literature teacher held an interactive discussion with our Third Form students (13-16 years). I was surprised that some of the youths were willing to discuss the issues of incest, pornography, homosexuality, among, other things as openly as they did.  To be even prepared to share these programs on an international forum, while at the same time promote the beauty of their community and socio-cultural environment, spoke highly of the maturity of the minds of some of our youth. 

Our young people are very eager to use the Internet to communicate with friends in distant places, and have already bonded with other small island communities that are not even visible on the average atlas or world map.  Yet their concerns, likes and dislikes are so real and close that they express their feelings of being like family on the same islands.   

In making an analysis of the program and to chart a way forward for Small Islands Voice Youths in our school and community, a Fourth Form (15-17-year olds) Social Studies class was divided into four working groups for interactive session.  They were asked to discuss among themselves any issues that were affecting them as young people, then to select the ones that were most important to the various groups and write them on sheets of paper in 3 to 4-word statements.  Without any inter-communication between the groups they were asked to post the most important issues of each group. The results as posted on the chalkboard overlapped in four basic categories: environmental, sexual, violence in the community and drug abuse in the community. 

The four working groups were allowed to meet again and came up with the following solutions. 

On a higher level, a group of Fifth Form students (16-18 years) were asked to write a paragraph in English class on any issue affecting them.  A casual reader would easily believe that the issues were earlier discussed with the Fourth Formers, or it may be the same group of kids, as their paragraphs were written on the following issues: garbage disposal on the island, drug abuse, including alcohol, gangs, teenage pregnancy, HIV- AIDS, health care and gossip.  These findings confirm the smallness of our community and the issues that affect all of us, which may well be the same as those of other Small Islands Voice participants worldwide.  We, therefore, believe that 2003 could be an interesting time for the youth of our various communities as the Small Islands Voice Youth forum is expanded.  We believe that it could be promoted at the national level by capitalizing on some or all of the very suggestions of our young people, i.e. having a bold action plan for our youth through:  

• Panels on issues affecting them, among youths of secondary schools, moderated by representatives of the National Youth Council

• Encouraging the formation of local chapters of the National Youth Council outside of the political youth arms

• Conduct interviews which will be publicly broadcast with the National Youth Council on issues affecting youth

• Link up with national Talk Radio programmes to discuss pertinent issues

• Interview the Minister of Youth Affairs on their plans for a youth voice at the national level

• Have regular articles in the local papers

• Promote parent/youth discussions at parent teacher association meetings, church meetings and service clubs

• Have service clubs adopt a youth mentoring programme

• Foster the development of sports clubs under the guidance of national sports stars 

The suggestions are many and the ways are overwhelming, but of course, we would have to influence adults to be flagships to make it possible, as you and I know too well, the youths of today are too often bombarded by distractions to stay focused without guidance.

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