Problems of the Young at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Problems which the young are facing today are very different from the problems that were
pressing down the young of the past. Obviously different times different conditions
different youth. !early the fact that we have a chance to discuss about the problem whether
on internet debate in school in different media or simply in the evening by the beer with
other young people which indicates that we the young have a "ey roll in solving the
youth#s problems is telling us how our time conditions and youth is different from others. $or
instance the rich capitalists were %in the time of industrial revolution& using their wor"ing
force with such dredful rawness that they were even brutally torturing the children they
were wor"ing in places where adults couldn#t in chimneys shafts etc. Children from five to
twelve years old were forced to wor" in complete dar"ness for several hours. 'ronicly the
army complained because the young men were to wea" to serve it(
Problems the youth has today are very different. )oday we don#t "now the horrors with
which the young people of the past were facing. *e aren#t hungry mostly we come from the
environment wich is pleasant to us we have a roof above our heads( +ven more there are
many different types of salamis in our fridge from smo"ed ham to ,ortadella lots of cheese
marmelade cucumbers(we have a playground in which at least three different sports can be
played near our home and warm bed modern computer stereo -.- player together with all
new films at our home( 's it worth spea"ing about our problems at all/ ( 'n those e0act
things a problem lies hidden that ' personally am e0piriencing. '#ve got everything ' want.
'#m in lac" of nothing. *hy would ' even bother if the thing for which ' was meant to try to
get it ' allready have/ ' find that one of the biggest problems of today#s youth living in
enviroment where they live very well and are completely en1oying the comfort which parents
have provided. )hat can steal motivation and leads into la2iness mar"s in school can 3uic"ly
fall due to high amount of poc"et money the money is spent headless aspiration for bigger
comfort can appear for why would anyone try everything when one has everything/
)he ne0t big problems that ' see are drugs. -rugs have spread so 3uic"ly that it#s actually
strange when you don#t find a lot of rests of 1oints in your wal" in the par" needles can also
be found( 4s we "now today#s drug addict isn#t society outlay that lies in dirt beside the
road. !o today#s drug addict is a young male %or female5& who is well dressed has a car and
comes from the enviroment which ' have mentioned before. )here is also a crowd of fifteen6
year6olds who are drin"ing cheap wine or brandy in the par"s where earlier in the day children
were playing( )his habit doesn#t end 3uic"ly and in most cases it drags far in their twenties
in some cases it never ends( ' don#t want to be a saint because ' "now the feeling of drin"ing
a beer or two in hot summer days and warm summer nights very vell but %so called& culture
of drin"ing that is being practised by today#s youth misses the whole essence of drin"ing to
have a good time and leads to throwing up vandalism not to mention filthy sorroundings
empty bottles plastic glasses tins butts that is "ept after that "ind of drin"ing. )here is
nothing wrong with parties they have are and will allways e0ist but there is something very
wrong when a party turns out to be bare drin"ing or drug abusing.
' call the state of mind which ' have noticed by many of my contemporaries. )hese young
people see their greatest problem in mar"s at school. )he girls who see their greatest problem
in the fact that their sympathy is in love with their best friend. )he boys who see" fights and
they put their aggression on the wea"er and then they brag in front of everyone. Both of them
litteraly competing who dran" more the night before( )hen you try to say something
intelligent to them and when you see the way they act you end up feeling the most stupid of
them all. )hen there is the other side the ones who spend all of their days studying and
sometimes in seems that they don#t really "now why they study so much. )hat they will be
successful in school. )hat they will be accepted in the college they want. )hat they will be
successful once they grow up. *hat they don#t see is the basic pleasantness of their youth
slipping through their fingers the time in which you can be if you can be at any time %in the
positive way of course& relieved from worry(
' wan#t to say that in spite of everything that ' have written ' "now a lot of young people
who are truely intelligent and are loo"ing a way out from all the problems ' have described
not only for themselves but also for others. )hese are my friends that are stuc" with me in the
middle of all those problems we are a part of them together and ' find the evenings when we
tal" about all those things most precious. 4nd sometimes we even find a way to solve some
problems. 't is true that for now we only tal" about it but ideas never die do they/
4ddition7
-ue to festival +8') being the centre of the debate '#ll include it in my te0t as much as '
"now the festival.
,ost of the attendents of the festival come from the area of former 9$:;. ' find this very
fact very positive. )oday we are all filled with stereotypes about sublimity of 9lovenians
hypocrism of Croats and nationalism of 9erbs. ' myself sometimes 1o"e about Croatians and
9erbs. <owever ' learn on my e0perience. 4nd my e0perience are friendships that ' hold with
former =brother> nations and the ma1ority of these people are actually nice and friendly. )here
are e0eptions of course but these e0eptions alone are the reason for stereotypes. ' was a
witness to the emptyness of those stereotypes many times.
+8') is a large festival. 4nd ' can#t imagine a better feeling than being together with
thounsands of other young people when you are friend with everyone when it doesn#t matter
if you are 9lovene Bosnian Croat or 9erb when you reali2e that you are not alone that there
are thousands 1ust li"e you people with the same problems. 4nd then it probably seems that
the solution for all the problems isn#t as far as it seemed. 6

Matja Zorec, Pozitiv, age 19