A Bridge Over Troubled Waters?

We know that major disruptive trends are in the works. Global warming, overpopulation, food shortages, water shortages are the lot of humanity as it now exists. To these can be added the problems humanity causes itself, partly as it responds to these environmental pressures, e.g., war, racism, cultural antagonisms; and the multiple ways humans have of making these conflicts even worse. When one thinks of productively dealing with these matters, it is clear that we must start with those that humanity generates on its own. One of the greatest inhibitants to dealing effectively with our environmental problems lies in dealing with global human problems and fundamental to this is developing a global perspective, indeed a global mind set. Up to this point we have tried to deal with global environmental issue through our national and international institutions. However each of these has a primary interest in its particular national, economic, religious or cultural institutions. We keep preaching to ourselves that we must love diversity all the while rejecting it because we can find no effective functionality in it. What is needed is an overriding concern common to a large portion of humanity around which they can organize and exert their common energy.

I believe I may have seen the beginnings of such an effort in the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, especially in Egypt. First of all the youth of Cairo organized themselves into a major component of the protests. They are known as the April 6 movement. Second, they took full advantage of modern communication technology, especially Facebook and Twitter, as their vehicle of organizing. Third, they want a secular state. Fourth, a notable feature was that these young people were dressed in the ubiquitous blue jeans, not traditional or cultural apparel and there were far more women in their protests than those dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Finally, these young people reached beyond Egypt's border seeking solidarity. They e-mailed their support to the protesters in Madison Wisconsin. In short, here is a constituency capable of organizing on a global scale and with the energy to do so. All they need is a unifying global cause generated by a common fundamental issue.

A little investigation indicates that this issue may be jobs. A close examination of the cause of such vigorous youth protest in Egypt reveals that a want of jobs for youth was a fundamental driver for reform, especially among the well educated, yet unemployed. This issue also generated protest in the dockyards of Suez and in the steel and textile mills in other parts of Egypt. The issue of jobs is basic to youth throughout the world. In France Muslim youth rampaged burning cars and destroying storefronts a few years ago. In 2008 Greece experienced substantial youth riots for the same reason. In our own country rapidly increasing numbers of young people, even after they have married, are living at home because they cannot find jobs that would permit paying for their own home. In 2010 the United Nations issued a report on the global youth unemployment problem. Perhaps this quote from the report will indicate the enormity of the matter, "About 152 million young people, or a quarter of all the young workers in the world, are employed but remain in extreme poverty in households surviving on less than $1.25 a person a day in 2008, the report said" Because of automation, business consolidations and other factors, jobs can be expected to decrease on a per capita basis. This means the problem will be continuous and continuously worsening unless a solution is found, e.g. shortening the work period either in hours, days, or years, thereby consuming production efficiency in bettering human lives rather than making the rich richer.

Given the above factors and given the fact that people at this stage of life are at their most vigorous biological selves and given that they are more at home in today's electronic communications, it would not be surprising if the multitude of young people will find global common cause in their quest for jobs. If this were to eventuate there would globally be several hundred million people with a common bread and butter issue for the first time in human history. The youth of Egypt demonstrated the ability, the political perception, and the willingness to reach out to others undertaking protest despite the fact that they shared little in common culturally. Whether this eventuates or not, it demonstrates that humans comprising very diverse cultural backgrounds can reach out to others in an effort to resolve shared problems. In this the youth of this world may build the first span over the cultural, religious and national turbulence that roils and will continue to roil the earth's human population. In this the young may be demonstrating a way for humans to get past their cultural barriers to peace and on to an economically decent, personally rewarding life.

Bob Newhard