Children are our future, so why are they leaving in droves?

Editorial
Sunday Comment from NN, Spain

It was interesting, if not predictable that Obama and Cameron would emerge this week after 2 days of talks to announce they would work together to counter the 'poisonous ideology' of Islamic extremists and would (most likely) flout privacy laws in order to achieve their aims makes me somewhat uneasy.

In their joint press conference on Friday Cameron said, "We face a poisonous and fanatical ideology that wants to pervert one of the major religions, Islam and create conflict, terror and death.  With our allies, we will confront it wherever it appears," with Obama adding that they would work together to build "strategies to counter violent extremism that radicalises recruits and mobilises people, especially young people, to engage in terrorism."  (See Reuters for more details)

It is widely accepted that many young people are recruited via social media and I agree that something needs to be done to try and combat this type of recruitment and radicalisation, but it's a very slippery wicket.  If legislation is passed that allows the authorities to close or limit the reach of the sites from where recruitment may or may not occur then Western governments run the risk of being labelled hypocrites.  How can one extol the virtues of Charlie Hebdo to espouse their form of free speech (agree with it or not) and on the other hand legislate against others because they may promote subversive material?

It is a very sticky situation and I'm not sure that anyone knows quite how to combat the problem.  I agree with both Obama and Cameron that something needs to be done to counter Islamic extremism, but I'm not sure that fighting it by passing one-sided, or selective legislation is the way forward.  In the same way tackling the threat militarily is, I think, not the answer.  I think all these will achieve is the radicalisation of the next generation and then the next, and the next.....

According to the Economist the reasons that Western youngsters join IS, among other Islamic groups, are manifold and surely the governments in the West should be looking more at the reasons for the disenchantment and disenfranchisement of the West's young people rather than by trying to shut the gate after the proverbial horse has bolted!  It appears that many may be merely looking for some substance in their life, a bit of meaning to counter the boredom of unemployment or a life with little or no prospect of a meaningful or satisfying future in their homelands.  

Reproduced from The Economist 

I think many people are dismayed by the two-tier society we inhabit these days.  The gap between the rich and the poor, the have's and the have-nots, is growing.  In our 21st Century world should there really be people who go hungry, wherever they live, whatever their religion?  Should there really such a gap between those at the top and those who struggle to make ends meet.  Poverty, hunger and the resurgence of diseases such as typhoid and polio (I realise this is largely due to anti-biotic resistance, but politics also plays it's part) are problems that should not be occurring today.  I understand and fully appreciate it's easy for me sitting here to just say why don't they do this, or do that.  The mechanics and logistics of politics mean that much of what should happen never does just because of the various political systems within which we all live.  But that said, I would assert that if Western governments put greater effort into solving the problems at home, this might make the recruitment of our brothers and sisters that much harder.  After all, if one is generally happy and fulfilled then what reason would there be no reason to leave, would there?

Throughout human history Wars are traditionally fought by the young.  And now in the 21st Century, after the longest period of peace (is that what this is?) in modern history the boundless energies of youth are not being harnessed in any sort of constructive way.  Is it any wonder the youth in the West look on enviously at their generational compatriots in the Middle East and see that they fight for a principal, fight for each other and have something to believe in, whereas at home all they have is a once-a-fortnight visit to the dole office to gee them up.  The natural optimism of youth is irrepressible and yet in the West we seem to want to pull the teeth of our young men and women, telling them to be happy with a life of inequality, unemployment and little or no prospect of a home life, a home of their own and then we tell them to sit back and be good little citizens.  Is it any wonder youth crime, drug taking and now radicalisation are all on the rise.  The street gang members of the 90's are today's radicalised.  The mods and rockers of the 50's and 60's are today's disenfranchised.  You can see, this is not a new problem.  It's just a shame that what we don't have are new answers to a very old question.

In retrospect, I think National Service should never have been stopped, but sadly one can't go back, no matter how much one might wish to.  

Policy makers want to look at what is missing from the lives of the disenchanted youth (see chart above for estimated numbers of foreign fighters recruited by IS) that they can look at the videos of IS and imagine that life could be better under their banner than at home.  For me, that says more about what they leave behind than what they're running too.

It's not about restricting Western freedoms further.  That surely, ultimately plays into the hands of IS and anyway, once a freedom has been taken away it's much harder to return it.  This is no doubt, the thin end of the wedge!  Monitoring our emails, phone calls and spending habits, or restricting our movements as a means of 'securing our own safety' are examples of freedoms that we will never get back.  Happy people have nothing to hide and if we spent more time trying to make our people happy, by giving them a future that they can invest in, something to look forward to, to work for, then surely having Big Bro peering over your shoulder won't be necessary.  So, be brave policy makers; level the playing field and give everybody the same opportunities.  Make all education free; make health free, cap the salaries of all fat-cats no matter what industry they are in - we're all pissed off at the criminal bonuses bankers, for example, receive even after plunging the world into recession - ensure everyone who works earns a living wage, one that enables everyone to put a decent meal on the table.  Stop world hunger, end world poverty and promote equality across all boundaries.  Invest in our youth; stop punishing them for being young.  Give youth the chance to shape their own futures in a world we can all be proud of and we might just find that a few more stay at home.

None of this is easy, but it is all possible.  It can all be achieved.  It can be done in stages, bit by bit and as it happens the simultaneous dismantling and disarming of the terror machine may well accompany it.  Happiness at home is the extremists worst enemy. They pray on disenfranchisement, loneliness and dissatisfaction offering the excitement of a life with guns, the chance to mould their own futures, even if it wasn't exactly what they anticipated their lives would be when they were children.  Take that away and you disarm the extremists, their promotional videos become just that; videos.   

As the song suggests, 'children are our future.'  The problem is that no-one in the West believes that any more, especially the kids themselves, so who can blame them for looking for something else to fill the void in their lives.  The governments of the West must find ways to fill those voids with something more constructive than just talk and empty promises of a bright future.  Just because the youth are young don't make the mistake of thinking they are stupid.  We need to give youth a chance, a chance to grow, to experience, to learn and to choose what is right, what is wrong, what their lives can be, what they should be and we need to be strong enough to trust them to come to the right decisions off their own back.  

Perhaps then we can all go to the shops or take a flight to our holiday destination without fearing that our families are in mortal danger!

Have a good week.