Health and Wellness Minister, Sir Molwyn Joseph, has made an impassioned
appeal for a united national effort to save the youth of the nation.
Sir Molwyn, who announced that this new term would be his last, serving in the
House of Representatives, said he is very concerned about what is happening to the
young people of the country.
“The elephant in this room is the young people. When our young people listen to
some of the utterances; when they get up each day, all they hear are negative
voices, nothing uplifting!” he declared.
With comments such as “you are what you are because the politicians don’t care
about you and you are what you are because the politicians don’t care about your
education, bombarding the young people daily, what will become of young
people?” the minister queried.
“So what is going to happen to these young people who are not getting positive
messages? I then had to think of my own upbringing. I was surrounded by people
such as teachers who would say positive things to uplift you and make you
confident; make you look at life with positive possibilities. When you have young
people without that type of influence from home, not getting it from the schools,
and in recent times, the churches seem to be distracted by other things rather than
embracing young people and helping them develop wholesome characters, what do
we expect, than what we see in society today,” he remarked.
He added that some on the opposition benches have been promoting the idea that
young people are ‘victims’ and someone else was responsible. “The call should be
that everybody should be working in unity to save the youth of this nation!” he
implored.
The health minister said activities such as sports are important for young people as
they help them to ‘use up’ their excess energies. However, he said that the entire
nation should put aside their differences and come together to create the
environment through which the young people may thrive and flourish.
Sir Molwyn advised that on his retirement from active politics he intends to
dedicate much of his time, to helping young people to cope with the vagaries of
life.
