4 January 2011
Two recent youth events
in December 2010 powerfully demonstrate the value of educating our young people
properly. The one was the (CPO) Cape Philharmonic Orchestra’s 10th
Anniversary Gala Concert at Artscape on the 29th December. The other
was the much publicised 9-day 17th World Festival of Youth and
Students (WFYS) held from the 13th to the 21st of
December in Tshwane.
At the CPO event, the
rising stars of opera were Pretty Yende and Given Nkosi. Pretty Yende, who recently won the
prestigious International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna, gaining
top honours in opera, operetta, press and public, and who recently made her
debut at La Scala in Milan, brought the Artscape audience to their feet with
her heartfelt and beautiful renditions of some of the most famous arias in
opera. Living up to her name, she is not only pretty, but takes her craft as an
opera singer seriously as she sang arias in Italian, French and German as superbly
as mother-tongue singers accompanied by her promising acting ability, a talent
often lacking in opera singers. The other star, Given Nkosi, recently, named
the 2010 Graham Beck Opera Ambassador, and who won the 2005 Schock Foundation
prize, dazzled the audience equally with his tenor voice, well on his way to
becoming our own little Pavarotti. They made a splendid duo and the audience’s
spontaneous standing ovation was a proud moment of not only celebrating our own
home-grown talent, but owning them as young South Africans who are fulfilling
their dreams of going to La Scala, the citadel of opera in Milan, convinced
that our young people can make it anywhere provided they work hard, strive for
excellence and excel in whichever discipline they choose.
The World Festival of Youth
and Students, on the other hand, makes one want to weep. With R69 million scandalously
thrown at them from government and the Lottery, the festival ironically had as
its theme: “Let’s defeat Imperialism for a World Peace, Solidarity and Social
Transformation.” As far as I am
concerned, it was a farce, if the declaration posted on its web is anything to
go by. The National Youth Development Agency which hosted the Festival here has
a Chairman who is barely literate but who allegedly earns more than some
government ministers. The extract below proves my point:
“In this room
the topic under discussion is the Latin American Revolutionary Che Guevara?
Isn’t this an indication of reconciliation? Is this not the beacon of light
we’ve shone to the rest of the world and given as an example - that
conversation rather than conflict can solve problems?
.... We
believe the respect and implementation of the right of self-determination of
Western Sahara will ensure peace, stability and development for both the
peoples of Morocco and Western Sahara. The same applies to the Zimbabweans and
Britons in attendance. A session on the Equality of Women and Men was graced by
a speaker from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and illuminating on
the initiatives taken by their leader Kim Jong-il to further the development of
young women revolutionaries in their country. “
The WFYS’ declaration
presented to the Presidency at the Union Buildings at the conclusion of the
Festival reads:
As the anti-imperialist
movement of the youth and of the people developed its struggle, the
imperialists also seek to consolidate their forces and to fortify their
structures. They use all mechanisms in their hands such as NATO, AFRICOM, EU,
IMF, WB, WTO and all ways of intervention such as blockades, sanctions,
embargos, conflicts, military intervention, wars and occupations against
sovereign states and progressive movements. The new strategic concept “NATO
2020”, decided in Lisbon ... reinforces the cooperation with EU, proving it as
an imperialist organism for the creation and education of military corps,
acting against “extremism” inside and outside of the member’s borders,
targeting firstly all those struggling to defend the rights of the peoples and
the youth against imperialism. Under these circumstances, it is intensified the
attack against anti-imperialist forces, with particular expression in
anti-communist measures. The crisis of the capitalist system is inherent to the
deepening of its inner contradictions, unveiling its historical incapacity to
achieve progress for mankind.
Allowing our youth to gorge itself on
taxpayers’ money just because they have the potential to be kingmakers in the
ANC’s electoral politics is a crime against us as a nation. R69 million would
have created more Pretty Yendes and Given Nkosis.
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