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P. Seka: Address to Africa Summit
Written by Philbert Seka, President, Youth and Students for Peace, Africa
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Address to Africa Summit 2018, Cape Town, South Africa, Nov. 21–25, 2018
I will talk about youth, peace and national development. I was preparing to show you our report, but finally I asked myself, Do you really need our report, or do you need to know how our activities can really transform young people and help relationships develop?
A version of a book went on sale but only for one day due to a spelling mistake. It was called How to Change Your Wife. But the correct title actually was How to Change Your Life. So when you see that, you can really see the problems of our world. Nobody wants to change, but we want others to change.
It is difficult to find young people today who are passionate about their lives. So many young people have no good purpose for their lives and are just wandering around. Our youths become drawn into violent and destructive behavior because they don’t have any roots, they don’t have any mothers. The image you can find of young people today includes killings, robbery, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, and so forth. But why is this so? Families, the cornerstone of all nations, are not taken in consideration.
Survival is based on the capacity for people to adapt themselves to life in society. But nations have other priorities than education of the population, and the growth of developed nations is based on abuse and exploitation.
Our youth is the most beautiful and important period of our lives. This period should be a time of tranquility. It should be a period when you really realize creativity, positive energy, imagination, and love as you prepare for the future. So if you look around the world, if you want to find the best sportsmen, you cannot find them among those who are over 40; you have to find them among those who are young. If you want creativity, you have to go to the young people. If you want energy, you have to go to the young people: also, if you want imagination.
The time when we express the most important part of our love is when we are young. If I ask everyone here at what age you got married, you will not tell me that you got married when you were over 50 or 60: You got married when you were young. It means that our youth is the most important period of our lives. If you successfully meet your youth period, you meet everything in your life.
When young people are raised in a good environment, their talents are revealed and produce good energy. You can find among young people good entrepreneurs, good sportsmen, good actors., famous musicians, good athletes, and the best football players.
Before continuing, I would like to show you a short video.
[Video shown.]
Through this video I want you to see that the most important thing in your life when you are young is to educate your character. If your character is well educated, no matter if you are poor, your character will never change. If you go to South Africa, Europe, or Asia, you will never change because your character is what qualifies you, what shows your real life and your real being . . . .
So the most important way for us to transform young people and inspire them to take positive action to develop the nation is to educate their character. That is what I wanted to introduce to you today. Thank you very much.
To go to the 2018 Africa Summit Schedule page, click here.