Environment Problem surrounding Youth in the Middle East in The Age of Information, drugs, movies, harmful books, Internet.
(taken from an article from Shiva Khalili, presented at The Third Women's Conference for peace in the Middle East, May 1999,, Copy Right 1999; Shiva Khalili, MA in clinical Psychology from Vienna University)
In the Name of the Most High
In order to have reliable, valid and effective results our applied research method should be based on a logic accepted by all views, ideologies and Weltanschauungen. It should be able to evaluate all the different existing views such as capitalism, materialism, eclecticism, spiritualism, or the major religious views like Judaism, Christianity and Islam not only in comparison to each other, but as well in their own efficiencies based on their applied methods, definitions and concepts.
In our case concepts and definitions of Human, and Human development seem to be of great importance.
Only when we have clear and common definitions of youth development, and when we start thinking of development as the most effective strategy for preventing youth problems, only then and together we may be able to design long term programs for offering our youth a more appropriate environment for such a development on one hand and on the other hand to prepare our youth to build up potentials relevant to enabling them to become successful due to our definitions of development.
As long as our definitions and concepts and research methods are not common or are not stable this will not be possible.
And this is specially the result of the Age of Information, Communication and Relations.
It is quite obvious at this age that no nation can claim to be independent, concerning these fields. No nation exists isolated. So if one country has a particular ideology but has to practice and apply a method based upon another ideology is condemned automatically to face „problems" due to its own ideological concepts. For example when a country has religious Weltanschauung and values and defines development in a more spiritual aspect, but actually is governed in a materialistic or capitalistic way, will certainly face problems. This will lead to a generation growing with empty words, values and concepts of its ideology or country, but living in an environment filled with imported values of another.
So the urgence of a certain research method with the mentioned attributes, based on common and accepted definitions is clearly felt today in our time.
But since we are a very long way from this stage we have to satisfy ourselves with talks and discussions around and on the surface of the matter only. Nevertheless to become a picture of some of the very obvious and commonly identified environment problems surrounding our youth in this age, a profound observation and some diverse statistics and reports may help. Our duty remains however to be honest to ourselves and to the youth and to think, search and identify the origins, causal relations and correlations of these problems. Then upon our concepts of Human and development, eventhough they may differ, we should try to find out solutions together with respect to the differences in our concepts of human development, problems and solutions in order to maintain peace in our families, countries and the world.
Now with the help of some worldwide reports and statistics we hope to be able to visualise the situation of the youth. Exploring youth situation and having youth development in mind we should start with the terms that already exist to examine these concepts as well.
We start with the so-called "developed countries" - the first world countries. The countries which seem to be ruling the world in our time - in technology, economics, global decision making and politics as well as in offering values/ information and setting models of behaviours, clothing modes and even language, in other words setting models for new cultures. (We can think of words such as OK and Cool, - to stay with the nice words only - which are spread worldwide).
This happens because in the age of information these countries are also largely ruling the information producing and distributing systems, which we call the Media and it is one of the most effective factors in offering and advertising and indeed manipulating the social norms in our time, worldwide.
All different psychological schools and text books suggest that one of the fundamental resources youth need to have access to, is a caring adult and a role model or mentor. When the environment of the youth cannot offer them honest and trustable role models, certainly our youth will be attracted to the models available in plenty, colour and beauty for every taste and style, which are offered by commercial messages and media. Manipulated and changeable models such as the unstable and corrupted role models made in Hollywood or music industry.
Current social norms clearly play a significant role in youth and teenagers behaviour. In our time the access to media such as television and satellites, magazines, movies, videos and music is a normal and natural activity. Everywhere the Media portrayal of aggression, violence and sex has also increased. Although few studies have looked at the role of media in influencing teen activity, common-sense suggests that given the high sexual and violent content of many television shows, movies, songs, videos (and internet sites) and given teenagers frequent exposure to such media, teenagers behaviour is likely to be influenced by these media messages.
So with a look at these developed countries, which are definitely more progressed than us in the interaction between youth and the information system, we may find some similarities in problems, though maybe in another context and eventhough these countries may seem to be advanced with some particular problems or their solutions in their society.
As an example we can mention the smoking problem which is commonly identified as a problem for youth. Smoking is the most world wide spread addiction and is the most spread among young people. The age when a man smokes his first cigarette is getting lower every year. In the developed countries (, where advertisement for cigarettes today is getting replaced in the media by education and information for the prevention of smoking) 42% of all men and 24% of all women smoke (with falling tendency), whereas in developing countries 48% of all men and 7% of women (with a rising tendency), because smoking has spread there only recently and the advertisement is in progress in these countries. Per day smokers smoke about 6 million tons of tabbacco in different ways. Consumption of tabacco increases every day, especially in poor and third world countries, whereas in more developed countries it decreases, which is a result of people being more conscious of the harm caused by tabacco. In 70-ties the greatest consumption of tabacco was in the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Great Britain and other developed countries. Later the consumption decreased. On the other hand in less developed countries the consumption has increased also because of duty free shops in airports and boarding, as well as the direct and indirect advertisement through media and the efforts of the producers in search to find new markets. So here we could realise some relations between the situation and a problem in developed countries and our countries.
Usually the US is taken as a symbol of developed countries. The continued ability of states to compete in the global economy brings naturally a vision or illusion for some of us (, which we have to find out) and hinges on how well they enable their younger citizens to attain the competencies and social attributes necessary to ultimately fuel economic growth and contribute to the well-being of their families and communities.
The statistics and reports about the situation of youth, children and families in this country are showing indeed the opposite version.
Using this information and our own experiences in the western developed countries we may be able to describe a teenager's daily life in these countries. This vision will help us estimate or predict some of the coming or already existing problems in our own countries in Middle East, countries, which unfortunately in my opinion, most of the time and in most of the fields blindly follow the instructions of these developed countries and their concepts and definitions of development, peace, freedom or other Keywords and terminology.
In the U.S. youth development is defined as follows:
Youth development means purposefully seeking to meet youth needs and build Youth competencies relevant to enabling them to become successful adults. (Building Resiliency, pp 11-14, National Assembly, 1994). These basic needs include:
· a sense of safety and structure; · belonging and membership; · self-worth and an ability to contribute; · independence and control over one's life; · closeness and several good relationships; · and competency and mastery. At the same time, to succeed as adults, all youth must acquire positive attitudes and appropriate behaviours and skills in 5 areas: · health, · personal/social; · knowledge, reasoning and creativity, · vocation; · and citizenship. (Making the Case; Community Foundations and Youth Development, Bonnie Politz, Senior Program Officer, Academy for educational Development, Center for Youth Development & Policy Research, Foundations for Change, 1996, Second Edition).
So the concept of development due to this view and definition and in fact in all existing world views should promise a harmony in the motives, thoughts and deeds of its followers. The facts show the failure of the United States in achieving this:
The Situation of Families in U.S.A.
„Large number of parents at all income levels engage in risky behaviours that are harmful to their own health and the health of their children, including smoking, heavy drinking and being overweight and sedentary. One in three mothers and 4 in 10 fathers engage in at least one of these health risk behaviours„ (Nicholas Zill, „Setting an Example" in Child trends Organization).
„A significant proportion of teens are engaged in risky behaviours, for example 3.4 % of all adolescents reported suicide attempts in the past year, 24.9 % reported being current smokers; 17.5% reported drinking alcohol more than once a month; 11.4 % smoked marijuana at least once during the previous month and 16 % of 7 th and 8 th graders an 48.5 % of 9th to 12th graders said that they had experienced sexual intercourse (Adolescent Health Survey Sep, 1997 National Institute of Child health and Human Development).
Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for every age from 15 through 27. Almost half of these crashes are Alcohol related. (NHTSA, 1996; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention United States Injury Mortality Statistics, 1996)
According to the 1998 children's Defence Funds State of America's children Yearbook, 47634 children were killed by firearms (from 1986-1995) that make almost 14 children per day. (Centers for disease Control and prevention).
The rate of youth arrests for violent crimes quadrupled between 1965 and 1994. The increase has been fairly constant over time. Today there is an average of 22 youth homicide victims per day in the US. (Source: Uniform Crime reporting Program, Federal Bureau of investigation: Age-specific Arrest Rates and Race specific Arrest Rates for selected Offences 1965-1992. Pp. 12-17 & p. 181 U.S. Department of Justice. Special Analysis of 1993 and 1994 data by Program Support section, criminal Justice information Services Division, FBI). Youth arrest (for under 18) increased significally from 1984 to 1993 for drunkenness (42.9%) and drug abuse (27.8%). (FBI, 1994)
The rate of suicides in young people has grown by over 300% in the last three decades. Suicide rates for youth ages 10-14 have followed trends similar to those among older youth (Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center).
Approximately one million teens in the U.S. become pregnant each year. 115 pregnancies per 1000 females in this age group. About half of these pregnancies end in birth, one-third end in abortion and the rest end in miscarriages. (Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatative Statistics). United States has the highest teenage pregnancy, birth and abortion rates among developed nations, 500,000 babies are born each year to teen mothers and roughly 40 % of american girls will still become pregnant before the age of 20. (Report from Annie E. Casey Foundation ACEF: When Teens have Sex: Issues and Trends, 1998; Ventura et al., Trends in pregnancy rates. Estimates for the United States1980 to 1991, Monthly Vital Statistics Rep9ort 43, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyatsville, Md., 1995) Sexual abuse is particularly marked among young teenagers. Almost three quarters of girls who had intercourse before age fourteen and 60% of those who had sex before age fifteen report having sex against their will.
In recent years, the rate of nonmarital childbearing has increased among women of all ages. In 1993, 1.2 million babies - about one third of all babies - were born to unmarried women. While birth rates in many developed countries has dropped, the number and proportion of births to unmarried women rose rapidly.
Polls indicate that acceptance of premarital sex and out - of - wedlock childbearing has increased substantially over the past few decades. (National Center for Health statistics, Hyattsville, Md., 1995, Monthly Vital Statistics Report 44) As we mentioned before, the current social norms clearly play a significant role in teen behaviour.
Other important trend in developed countries is: People are getting married less and later. In 1997 a quarter of American children lived with only their mothers, 4% lived with their fathers, and 4% with neither parent. (Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, March Current Population Survey, 1997 ; Youth indicators 1993, Trends in the well-being of American youth, National Center for Education Statistics)
The United States has a much higher divorce rate than other developed countries. The annual number of divorce was 17 % higher in 1992 than 1975. About 1 million children were involved in divorces in 1988.
So considering the reports, statistics and some of our own experiences in developed countries, we can try to have a look into daily life of some teenagers in these countries:
He wakes up in an environment, where everywhere various and fixed schemes of lifestyles, idols and models are offered by posters, banners and placards on the streets, commerce on TV and radio, music, magazines, T-shirts and elsewhere. There are idols made and offered in plenty for every taste and every type of teenagers: sportive, musical, violent, sensitive, outsiders, homosexuals and even religious.
If he cannot follow the details of the idol, who is IN at the moment in his peer group maybe an actor, singer, sportler or a photo model, or if he has a lack of information or lack of money and cannot imitate the idol in clothing, gesture and language, he knows the school will be a torture as he gets spotted at and spiritually terrorised. Coming back home, if there is still a home with both parents living together, he is often facing a family crisis as well - the extramarital relations of parents is openly talked about and even again in media supported! I am thinking of Flirt-courses, assignments for group sex and etc. that are seen even in family magazines or programs. Access to alcohol and smoking exists in majority of households. If our teenager is lucky he fills his spare time with sports or computer games, TV, music or reading -, consuming information again through these media. Here as well there is the usual pressure to stay IN within the trends: newest games, modes, etc. Discotheques, alcohol and soft drugs such as speed or ecstasy are still IN or get replaced by similar substances. All are offered in plenty, beauty and low prices. For those who cannot afford the costs and are desperate or only curious, there are ways such as experiencing hours as a photo model, prostitution and other ways with their consequences. For youth with some more important problems or more risky behaviours there are harder drugs available too. News and scenes about child abuse, serial murders, all kind of violence, aggression, fights, corruption, sex and economic scandals are all around him as well.
Our teenager grows up in this environment, under the of flood of mostly manipulated and directed information offered to him without any outer sencorship or control and without any directed education or guidance how to use the information or protect himself from some of the direct or indirect influences. So it seems that the main part of the information distributing system is helping intentionally or unintended a marketing system in manipulating the social norms and values, which have already started to fluctuate everywhere in the world, causing problems specially in attitudes, values and moral of the youth and so in their motivation and behaviours.
The controversial information offered to youth carries messages for him, which the most manifest one declares that anything that makes fun is allowed and can be experienced. With this kind of attitude or at least these kinds of thoughts in back of the mind the youth will be facing problems anyway. Then he cannot follow the message along with the fast changing role models and artificial needs which he is offered by the media, and he never will, then these produced needs and alternatives are in plenty and new needs, items or activities are produced each second for the markets to be bought and sold, defining the direction and concepts of the information offered to the masses of people. So naturally "Frustration" will follow sooner or later. And the struggle to survive or get attempted by suicidal or anti-social thoughts starts. Some get fed up and try to find new values in different sects or esotherics, which again somehow finds its place in the information and marketing system. Some become clients of psychological and psychiatric departments. Problems such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia or other eating derivations are booming among teenagers and youth, now even spreading among male as well, then the pressure to follow the perfect idols is also forcing itself over men.
As it is obvious the information system and global media is mostly under influence of developed countries and a capitalistic system with the clear motto that anything goes as long as the money flows, hiding its true nature under words such as democracy, freedom and other deceiving definitions, offering youth an environment with no trustable or honest role model, corrupt politicers and destroyed natural environment. But anything can be available in the system, from problems and cures, to guns and best medical treatments, to drugs and children to be abused, multi-billionares to news of 40000 children starving to death daily and anything else one can even imagine.
And all these or at least their reports and news are on their way to our countries or have reached us already.
Now what happens in our countries in The Middle East is: becoming parts of the information via satellites, TV programs, commercials, movies, music and magazines and internet- namely the part which contains role models, behaviour samples and social norms of the developed countries so in fact the part which has already caused problems in their own countries. Our Youth watches the same colourful happy faces in chick and trendy clothings, showing a free and lucky way of life, picturing the same schemes of beautiful life, comfort and values, and so new values and norms establish themselves in our countries. On the other hand the corruption in the governments of this region, which may not and is not more than else where, but this corruption, its results and effects are much more dangerous, harmful and profound, then most of the countries in our region claim to represent religious values. The result will be the acceleration of the process of our youth being attracted to their "dream world" and its values, accompanied by a bitter taste of religion in mouth! The comparison of their home-countries with this beautiful dream world, in terms of technology, health care, comfort, fun, social facilities, educational opportunities, freedom, science and etc. helps as well that the youth slowly even rationalise their behaviours and ideas, taking these as their motto as they dream of their western dream world, living an imitation of life which they are acquainted with through media, films, videos and music.
This is indeed in my opinion only a small corner of the environment problems our youth is facing today.
Now what is our role as women in this world or lets say in this region and at this age, where politics, information, commerce and religion all meet together, added by a sense of desperation of which way to follow. When we take a look around ourselves, we may see our families or neighbours, who have either begun to imitate a life style they have learnt from the information, received via satellites, magazines, films, videos or music. Or are living a traditional life, ignoring all the information of the modern life as well as the hidden truth of their religions; living a life as a symbol of underdevelopment. But we may as well recognise a small but growing group, which seem to survive the environment without belonging to neither groups of imitators, nor the blind followers of some tradition. This small group in our region has taken the spirit of the integration of science and religion, information and stable values. Now the success of this group depends naturally on the honesty, tolerance, competency and consequency of the members as well as the truthfulness and so the stability of the values leading to warmth and harmony in the environment. These are exactly the main factors, playing a role in family to maintain a peaceful life.
So after identifying our world and our times of complex networks of relations and information, we can realise that the ruling system in the world has intentionally or unintended - created an environment with a focus on individualism, competitiveness and singular achievements. Increasingly hectic lifestyles driven by a social emphasis on achievement on financial power on one hand, and an increasing percentage of the population living in poverty and despair on the other hand is leading to a state of proud self-sufficiency in people worldwide, resulting in fear of being needy.
Now thinking of youth in this context, we have to look at the adolescent development as a part of the overall human development process. Such life passages often receive little focus in a society that emphasises academic or professional achievements over personal introspection or growth. This is unfortunately exactly what is happening even in our countries.
Since global researches based upon shared definitions as I mentioned at the beginning are not possible yet, I believe that we, women in the Middle East can and have to start ourselves, to offer our youth and our next generations a better environment with better possibilities for a development, we all can accept as such.
We have to find our shared attitudes and values...
As all the major religions are represented in this region, all defining Human development in a development not only material but as well in mind and spirits, in the direction towards love and GOD - and we all have to admit that religions can offer the strongest values, I would like to suggest the Federation to build up a responsible Committee / group in this region with the following concerns:
Evaluation indicators of youth development must be designed...
Youth development requires collaboration. No single community or organisation can provide the range of developmental, preventive and intervention programs and services required to give young people the experiences they need to mature into successful adults, upon the shared and common values, defined as indicators for Human Development.
After having clear definitions for development and its factors, we have to start with ourselves in living and practising the values in real life, especially with great tolerance but consequent.
Our youth must experience positive role models, who are honest, true and trustworthy. Models who can use the advantages of the information system, but are strong enough to hold on true and stable values, which can lead the direction of life in every stage and situation. In other words, Science and Faith should be represented and offered together to the youth.
Youth development is dependent on family and community development. Young people's maturation process is influenced by their surroundings and affected by relationships with key people, such as parents, teachers and peers. Young peoples development is supported through involvement with people or places that offer intellectual, spiritual and emotional nurturing. Each young person has different skills and abilities and matures at a different pace. Not all young people start at the same place developmentally because of economic circumstances, family problems or personal differences. Developmental activities must be tailored to meet the needs of young people who are in disadvantaged circumstances, as well. We have to recognise that it is crucial that positive developmental opportunities be available during adolescence, a time of rapid growth and change. Adolescents need opportunities to fulfil developmental needs in physical, intellectual, psychological, social, spiritual, moral and ethical areas. So in all these areas we have to provide our youth with the insight, to protect themselves from the direct or indirect influences of an information and marketing system, without loosing the opportunity to profit from its advantages. In other words our youth must be equipped with special filters in their interactions with and within the Age of Information. Indeed our final goals will be to influence and contribute to the information producing in the world. Here too we can start with.creating positive images in media and our communities, positive images of youth with values upon a well thought Weltanschauung and with abilities to use the modern world on their way of a true development....
Email: mwro@excite.com
