Remarks by Premier Sibusiso Ndebele from the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Republic of South Africa, to learners at Sutton Middle School in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Protocol

The image of South Africa's youth is perhaps one of June 16 1976. As you know, this is a significant day in the life of the youth of South Africa. During the Soweto Uprisings, the youth of South Africa took to the streets in protest against a race-based education whose ultimate aim was to create out of African/Black people a nation of illiterates and servants of the so-called master race. This image has been immortalised in several Hollywood productions and no less in the movie Sarafina which starred Whoopi Goldberg and Leleti Khumalo among others. Today this image has been replaced by that of youth who are either destined to a life of crime, are pregnant and have already contracted HIV and AIDS by the time they are 16 years of age.

On the other hand, the predominant image we have of American youth, especially African Americans, is again etched in our minds thanks to Hollywood productions which depict our people here as born free, but forever in chains. According to this image, African American youth have, as their greatest ambition to belong to gangs, fall pregnant and as Tupac Shakur told us, they die before they reach the age of 21.

The fact about the above statements is that even though they might in instances be true, they do not give us the full picture of either the life of the youth in Sutton Middle School or that of a young person in Vukuzakhe High School in Umlazi. In point of fact, there is more to the young people of Sutton Middle School and the entire United States of America (USA) than gangsterism, prison life and rap music. Similarly there is more to the life of a young person in Umlazi than falling pregnant as a teenager and contracting HIV and AIDS at every given opportunity.

There are several ways of responding to these stereotypes. The first way is to become angry and violent against the world which depicts you as potential losers who are meant to amount to very little. The second way is to treat these challenges as opportunities. I have mentioned the above in order to illustrate that, between the vast oceans which divide us lies the many things which unite us.

The youth of the United States of America (USA) face the same challenges as the young people of Africa. We are united by the challenges and we must be united by the opportunities we create out of these circumstances.

This unity is based on the genetic and historic link between us and our people here who were taken away into slavery centuries ago. This historic link extends to the challenges we face together as humanity in general and as Africans in particular which extend to the socio-economic, cultural and other challenges.

Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

Let us try to look at the broader picture.

According to a 2006 study by the Population Reference Bureau which is based here in Washington DC, while girls and boys are enrolling in secondary school in greater numbers than ever before and early marriage is on the decline, many young people across the world still face daunting threats to their well-being.

The datasheet, which provides a comprehensive portrait of the well-being of youth (people ages 10 to 24) across the globe, showed that many of these young people were at great risk for health problems ranging from sexually transmitted infections to complications from smoking.

* Just a minority of young people can correctly identify two ways to avoid getting HIV/AIDS, and adolescents are less likely than young adults worldwide to use contraceptives, including only four percent of women between the ages 15 to 19 in Burkina Faso and 14 percent in Vietnam.

* The study said youth in developing countries continued to use tobacco products at increasing rates: Approximately one in every five males aged 13 to 15 in southern Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia already smoked.

More than 25 percent of women in the poorest regions of the world have had a child by age 18. And while young women in developing countries are less likely to marry early compared with their mothers, child marriage - a practice contrary to international conventions on women's and children's rights - is still widespread in regions ranging from Southeast Asia to the Caribbean and Central America.

The study also provided some good news:

* The gap between boys' and girls' school enrolments narrowed in the last decade as girls' enrolments rose throughout the developing world since 1990.

* Labour force participation of both boys and girls ages 15 to 19 continued to decline worldwide, reflecting an increase in the numbers of those staying in school.

The PRB World's Youth 2006 Data Sheet also found that:

* More than one in every four persons in the world is youth, in other words 25 percent.
* Nearly 70 percent of youth live in less developed countries.
* In these countries, the number of youth will continue to rise for another 30 years.
* In more developed countries, both the proportion and number of youth are projected to fall, creating a different set of economic and social challenges.

As a people we have a long history of struggling against the odds together. What we are challenged to do today is to change our circumstance today to be better than it was yesterday. We must create from this group of young people a new future and a new beginning. This is what we can do together.

Here are three practical things we can do:

* Do everything in our power to ensure that we stay free of HIV and AIDS.
* Do everything in our power to give peace a chance - peace in our homes, peace in our communities, and peace in our hearts.
* Do everything possible to rise above our economic circumstances - do not let your dreams and vision be imprisoned by your present circumstance.
* Know the value of education - education is the great equaliser.
* Be a good citizen and be spiritually grounded.

I thank you.