Youth as leaders

GEOFF SIFRIN

It follows the tradition of an audience throwing eggs at an unpopular politician pontificating in a hall. This particular politician greatly deserved it.

The senator had done what white supremacists everywhere do – attack immigrant Muslim and other migrant communities, as they have done to Jews in the past. It followed last week’s grisly killing of 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a man described as a white supremacist. The senator did not exactly justify the killings, but clearly considered Muslim immigrants not welcome.

The senator will forever be the butt of jokes among supporters and foes alike, notwithstanding his aggressive response and slapping of the youngster, and subsequent wrestling of the boy to the ground by his thugs.

But, for sure, he and his thuggish ilk will not disappear. Sadly, they will be back on the wave of increasing racism and nationalism in the world, not just in New Zealand and Australia, but in Europe too.

This wave is exacerbated by unsavoury comments against ethnic minorities from the leader of the world’s most powerful country, President Donald Trump of the United States. Trump promises to “Make America great again”, but his underlying message is racist. Swastikas are appearing in unlikely domestic and public places from Canada to Hungary. The world needs to move, lest we return to the poisonous racism of the 1930s.

The difference between this egg-in-your-face protest and other, more conventional forms is that it was done by such a young person, a teenager too youthful to have had much political exposure. It shows the depth of unhappiness and sense of embattlement of Muslims. His means of protest was so unorthodox and theatrical that it brought an immediate smile to most people, even those who disagreed with the message. The video went viral worldwide.

There is a South African precedent: four young women took everyone by surprise when they stood in front of the audience at an Independent Electoral Commission results announcement ceremony in Pretoria in August 2016, as former president Jacob Zuma addressed the crowd. They held five signs saying “I am 1 in 3”, “#”, “10 years later”, “Khanga” and “Remember Khwezi”. The posters referred to the woman Zuma was accused of raping 10 years previously.

They stood there, unmoving, in black dresses, holding their placards in front of the podium, their backs to Zuma. Nobody listened to him; he was unaware of what was on the posters and overshadowed by the four women, who were then violently removed by security officers. But the crowd was drawn to the young protesters and the words on their posters, rather than to Zuma. They stole the show in the same way the Australian boy stole it from the racist senator.

It’s as if the world’s youth are on the move and won’t take adults’ hypocrisy anymore.

At January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, all but stole the show with a howl to the comfortable global elite that “the house is on fire”. She condemned the record number of flights by carbon-spewing private jets that ferried rich corporate bigwigs to the event. She was nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Grown-ups are being taught by the children in this topsy-turvy world.