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opinionAlso in this section:
Endara Hill, Father Gallego in his church and his community E. Jackson, Richardson's the best in a strong Democratic field Bernal, A disgraceful spectacle Sirias, A debt to a great teacher N. Jackson, Take back the night Silkwood, OAS Secretary General Insulza
Building student citizenship by Raúl Leis R. --- raulleisr@hotmail.com The protest, when it's an expression of civil disobedience, is a finger that writes in the sand about the public sins of power. It's a sentinel's voice crying out in the night about what has happened or about the coming day. To cancel protests is to gag that voice, or to bind the hand that would write the word, or shackle the feet that want to walk. The protest takes on many forms and is manifested by different groups or sectors when they see themselves affected as to their specific interests, joining as one voice then they are able to express the general interest. Thus there are protests by workers and business owners, teachers and students, farmers and the unemployed, women and retirees, the insured and the indigenous, and all imprint their distinctive seal in their form of protesting. The attempt to protest has various levels: The basic or reactive level is the protest only as a complaint or expression of displeasure with an unjust act. But in addition to this there are others that rise above this, as with the understanding that a protest accompanied by a proposal to surmount the situation that's criticized, which supposeds the there is a need to gain sympathy, to attract other sectors, not to isolate oneself but to become a magnet for other persons and other sectors to be able to overcome the unjust act, by way of viable proposals for change. Seen this way, the means or form by which protests are expressed leaves the protesters exposed, as many times the means or form they use to protest generate collective rejection or reproval, although not necessarily against the object of proposal. In a certain fashion, democratic protest develops in the arena of mass communications media, as it is an extensive manner of calling attention to the protest's objectives. Thus, the media should cover and report more upon the peaceful uses of protest in order to stimulate these, instead of rushing to the scenes of stone throwing, tear gas, water cannons and molotov cocktails. But what's happening with the recent high school demonstrations that end up in vandalism against the surrounding area and even brawls among students themselves? You have to take into account that Panama, as pointed out in the UN Development Plan's Second Human Development Report, there is an inequity among different age groups. As people of different ages tend to be at different levels of sophistication that becomes associated with different capacities to organize social groups to intervene in decision-making processes that affect their development. The youth are heterogeneous and there is not equality of opportunity for young people. That generates a great contradiction among the potentials that can be developed and the real opportunities that society offers for them to develop. The rapid increase in the minimal educational demand and the weaknesses in what the institutions and communities --- the social networks --- can offer become transformed into structural generators of inequity. These produce constant changes in family composition. The breakup of families has profound consequences for the support that young people can receive for their development. The indicators from the justice system show that there is an increase in cases of delinquency and violence among young people and this has had a negative impact on public opinion. However, this increase originates in their demographic expansion. All cases of juveniles having problems with the justice system still only represent two percent of the youth. Moreover, of all cases of serious crime, only 3.1 percent can be attributed to juveniles. In other words, there's a context that stigmatizes or renders invisible young people that's provoking outbursts and violent reactions. On the other hand, in many educational centers there is no room for participation that reinforces democratic values --- especially tolerance --- by means of formal educational processes; which generate knowledge of the forms of democratic citizenship (involvement, accountability, monitoring, negotiation, dialogue, meetings and conflict resolution) that allow people to relate to one another to transform a hostile or indifferent reality that many times they believe can be changed. Nor do they provide autonomous spaces to generate the associative capacity for juvenile participatory democracy in the schools and the communities, was was the historic experience of the Student Federation of Panama. Recall that in 1982 student associations in the educational centers were banned, which eliminated the possibility of democratic internal debate among active juveniles. The teachers, parents, education officials, communications media and other actors have the duty to talk with students and be jointly responsible for the wholesome formation of a student democratic citizenship that expresses itself in the high schools and the communities, by way of different associative and participatory projects that are built in collaboration with the students.
Also in this section:
Endara Hill, Father Gallego in his church and his community E. Jackson, Richardson's the best in a strong Democratic field Bernal, A disgraceful spectacle Sirias, A debt to a great teacher N. Jackson, Take back the night Silkwood, OAS Secretary General Insulza Unclassified Ads | Calendar | Outdoors | Dining | Science | Sports | Español | Front Page Archives | Wappin' Radio Show | Just Music
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