TEDx Bermuda: 'It's time to start taking our young people more seriously'

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19: Neglect, abuse, addiction and exclusion — Bermudian Davida Morris has tackled her fair share of problems while helping troubled youngsters.

The former PLP senator, turned youth worker explained how the community needs to engage more with its young people.

“The community is not aware of how much it impacts people,” she said.

“Life for our young people is not fabulous. Their opinions are at the bottom of the scale, their needs are not given as much weight as adults. They have a low ranking.

“The way forward is to invite young people into the conversation about their future.”

Morris drew comparisons between the youngsters involved in the recent London riots with those youngsters involved in gangs and violence in Bermuda.

She said there were a number of common factors influencing their behaviour she said including lack of good parenting, an over emphasis on material goods coupled with economic constraint, poor education and negative messages in pop culture.

She said: “The messages are go to school, get a job and get all the symbols of success. We live in an economic crisis in the UK the price of university education has tripled and large portions of society do not have access to material possessions. So they riot.

“Does this all sound familiar? Here we have the same problems, here we have gangs and violence. The issues surrounding gangs are single parent homes, poor parenting, economic constraint, low education attainment, materialism, pop culture.”

As an example of the negative influence pop culture can have, Morris used the lyrics of popular rapper Lil Wayne: “In the song he says ‘you’re nobody ‘til somebody kills you, in my neighbourhood you are nobody ‘til you kill somebody.’” Morris suggested: “Why not become somebody to them?”