Letters to The Editor
The generation that took "Silence is golden" too far...
May 22, 2015 - 12:17:49 PM

Generation Y, known for their unfair and almost criminal access to the most information readily available than any previous generation in human history, has perhaps taken the golden rule of silence too far.  You may ask how I came to that conclusion...

The Bahamas younger generation is engrossed in technology and information. Moreover, its denizens have all the power and exposure the World Wide Web and their smart phones with mobile internet can offer. The potential for social change is so powerful it has become transparent, so much so it is almost intangible. There is much to be desired in all but a few sectors of society that Generation Y can change and need to change, yet they remain silent.

Why am I putting all of the focus on the youth? Because they are the ones that need change most. They are the ones that need cars to drive, mortgages to build homes, an education to survive, higher education to thrive, money to pay their bills and food to put into their stomachs. Yet, just how I am focused on typing this document, they are focused on WhatsApp conversations, and Facebook and Twitter posts providing them the bare minimum of stimulation (providing the electricity is on or their data plan hasn't reached its limit).

Generation Y needs to speak up and remove the gag of silence they took when they went to their secret meeting (that some of me and my colleagues obviously weren't invited to) and use the power that they have. The Arab Spring is the perfect example of the use of the tools that are at Bahamian's disposal. Too low are the mutterings of poor government performance, BEC supply cuts, and the conflict between the student body and administration at The College of The Bahamas (COB).

Stop posting on your Facebook wall about the slow but sure decreasing subvention to COB that the government is making, and throwing a snide comment on how the powers that be could find 9 million dollars for Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival and talk directly to them (I would also like to advise you see how much Junkanoo adds to the GDP of The Bahamas ....$-18.5 million, sorry for spoiling the research). Write your MP a letter, then encourage your neighbours and friends to do the same thing, then copy and paste the same letter until you get an answer! And when that doesn't work, show up at parliament en masse and demand answers!

Ask them, "Sir/Ma'am why are you cutting funding to education when a few months ago you claimed that our trading pieces in WTO would be human capital?" Last this writer checked, to trade human capital, these humans need to have skills that are mainly acquired through post-secondary education that is being made farther and farther out of their reach. With a cabinet filled with lawyers and doctors must the value of a higher education really be established or did you learn law on the back of a shovel like Abraham Lincoln? And how to practice medicine from House or Grey's Anatomy?

Let's drop some hypothetical-but-still-realistic figures here. The Bahamas have a population of say... 500,000 people? College of The Bahamas has a student population of about 6,000 people. I’m not mathematician, but that’s about 2% of your population moving on secondary education and lets bump it up to about 3-5% (which is a generous figure) because some high school grads go directly abroad for their undergrad and the like. So less than 10% of the population of this country is properly equipped to be your human capital, and even then half of those do not come back home because of the lack of opportunities that are being provided for them.

I digress... Generation Y's stop being Facebook bullies over the increase in fees at COB when your student reps hold informational sessions and try to bring you face to face with administration, but only 12 - 100 of you show up. Moreover, it’s quite ludicrous to think about alternative ways to increase revenue brought into COB without think about ways to reduce operational costs in tandem.

COB fee increases are the symptoms and reflection of a government operational problem. There is no transparency in government. So obviously as a quasi-government institution there will be no transparency there. In carrying forth your picket signs and passionate crowds, ask members of cabinet what are they doing about the problem of government ministry workers driving government cars after 5pm on weekdays and on Sundays and Saturdays altogether.  I am definitely sure it’s not government business to be stopping at a 'web shop' at 2pm. Also ask them why your fees are increasing when the Ministry of Works is supplying these free riders with the gas to be carrying out their person business in government vehicles?

Also ask them why are we so dependent on fossil fuels when we have 300+ days of absolute hellish sunshine that solar panels could defray the cost of? Generation Y, you are too silent. You are blissfully quiet listening to music about 'truffle butter' and three and four letter words make up the majority of the track to the same beat just in a different key, to realise you are being robbed blind. Your veins are being cut, and out of them is pouring opportunities. The inequality of opportunity is the greatest inequality imaginable, because with every precious drop leaving your veins, your chance at an education is gone, your land is gone, your identity is being stolen, your sea of choices seem to be dwindling down to but a tiny stream and suddenly your disgruntled Facebook posts seem all of a dime a dozen. Take out the gag, find your ability to scream,  and break the golden rule of silence before your fate has been sealed.



KýShaun Miller, was born in New Providence, The Bahamas he is an AA Law and Criminal Justice and BA Psychology (Clinical Psychology Strand) Student at The College of The Bahamas. He is the President of Student Leadership and International Relations and the Senator of The School of Social Sciences. He is an Image and Branding Consultant with Artifex Media, and can be reached at kyshaun24@gmail.com

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