My Australian experience of the Commonwealth Youth Forum

Held in Fremantle, Western Australia from 23 – 27 October 2011, the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF) 2011 was organized by the Australian Government in association with the Commonwealth Youth. Up to 130 delegates representing every nation of the Commonwealth were flown all over the world to attend the event. Of those, about 30+ Australian delegates, + 9 Australians of the planning group, 5 Canadians, some europeans, carribeans and for the rest… 2 selected youth from developing countries. Hmm…can you see some IMBALANCE here?

I didn’t see any problems with this, AT FIRST.

The 130 youth delegates had to produce, after debating in different sub-groups of topics, a single one page communiqué which would be circulated at CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting)… ”giving the young people of the Commonwealth a slight chance to have their ”opinions heard” by the Heads of Government” for some minutes of their agenda.

http://www.youth.gov.au/CYF/Pages/CYFdelegates.aspx

1st CRITIQUE
Why was the Youth Forum located out of Perth, in Fremantle, in a countryside SECLUDED area, away from all of the other interesting main important forums of this international event? it would be like having a Heads of Government international meeting in Montreal and the connected international youth meetup in Longueuil. In too many instances, the youth are put aside. If the Commonwealth aims to bridge the gap between the youth of ancient british colonies and their governments and deciders, why put us in Esplanade Hotel in a secluded area where we had no chance of interacting with our foreign ministers, politicians, private sector deciders?

The only interaction was the 5 minutes speech given to heads of governments by few chosen youth delegates, OH and the famous shaking hands with the Queen of England with three chosen youth delegates (english, canadian, nigerian). She should be called the Queen of corruption and take her hands off of the people’s land, instead of shaking people’s hand for nothing. Geez, I know she’s a grandma, but even my grandma has done more good and is cuter.

2nd CRITIQUE:
It was all great and cool to ”represent” each of our countries, but the outnumbering australian, canadian and other developed country delegates made the conversations about; Youth impact and participation in decision making, Peace building and conflict management, Environmental sustainability, Health, Youth enterprise, ICT, Sustainable Livelihoods and the Economy…TINTED with more australian and canadian voices and EGOS. If you think all this colonialism thing is over, hell nah, it’s just more hidden and invisible. Neocolonialism has puppets under its sleeves and these puppets come in all different colors and shapes. I hate meeting young canadians ”of color” who have no notion or pride of their background cultural heritage, go oversea and act like colonizers, the same selfish people who have depleted their grand-parent’s land and ressources. EGOS, I tell ya.

You still have young australians and canadians pretending like they know everything and stepping over other people’s toes to advance their own interests although they already have all they need. But just because, ”Hey, I want to be number one and even more than that, i’ll eat off of your plates you little barbarians”. A couple of my african and asian youth delegates were confused and saddened by deaf debates, secret meetings and competitioning. Why? because they are modest people, sharing people. What had to seem like a democratic discussion between international youth ended up being a nasty show down, with a little pinch of sprinkles and glamour, aww! Just the way the news like it, yay.

3rd CRITIQUE:
After seeing it all, noticing some youth delegates going out as tourists, some delegates just being at the hotel as if it was vacation and hearing awful stories about ministers being flown in and paid insane salaries to not do much….I told myself that after all, when I come back home, my own real fieldwork with underpriviledged youth is where the real work is at. So, I checked out for funding to achieve a concrete project, because after all, we were flown to build some leadership skills and to learn about the Commonwealth and… guess what! ”The Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council provide support, guidance and funding for life changing youth exchanges between the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Countries.” No exchanges can be funded with Canada and South Africa nor any other country. The money has to stay in London and all projects have to go through already spoiled londonians. Damn. ”Why did you even invite me to this Forum then? If you can’t help me develop youth in need.”, I was wondering. Why would I do a Canada-UK exchange?

After all, yeah, it was nice to see koala’s, kangourous and caves…

And I did meet some interesting youth.