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The Importance of Not Being (too) Earnest

Saadia Iqbal's picture

The other day, someone told me Youthink! needs to be more optimistic. Well hey, it’s hard to be cheerful and witty about topics like poverty and disease…

To be fair, though, there’s often good news from the world of development. So, maybe she did have a point. I decided to try to highlight more of the positive from now on.

That's why I really liked Joao's photos of the "Youth Wave" at the World Water Forum. It looks as though they're having a great time, while also making a statement about the need for an increase in youth participation in decisions concerning water and sanitation worldwide.

Here’s a story I read recently about some US college students who’ve teamed up with the Indian Youth Climate Network to find innovative solutions to climate change.

The article stuck with me, because it was about people doing zany things and having fun while working on serious issues.

My favorite part was when the writer quoted one of the students as saying, “... the world needs crazy ideas to change things, because the conventional way of thinking is not working anymore.”

Crazy ideas have sometimes changed the world, and getting overwhelmed by gloomy headlines is probably not conducive to crazy ideas. Development shouldn’t only be associated with economic blah blah and pessimistic data. It should also be about being creative while having fun.


Submitted by Narantsogt on
I think there is a fair difference between looking at the crisis as an ongoing problem and pushing thoughts to people's heads that the world's going to end. I think this crisis is too overrated, especially for the youths. Now, I am a soon-to-be-grad student and I know that RECESSION is happening in some countries. Developing countries are asking for stimulus whereas the developed countries are suffering from financial crisis. But on the other hand, if mass media stop over emphasizing on the doomsday scenarios THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED YET, and start looking at this recession as it is, that is with opportunity and threat, governments won't need as much stimulus as they say they need.

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