The Royal Commonwealth Society's Youth Summit
Day One
Waking up at an obscenely early half past seven, I dressed, ate and listened to the sublime voice of Beth Rowley through my Walkman as I made my way to County Hall.
“Why were you going to County Hall?” I hear you ask curiously. Yes, I can hear you! Where could I be? Under your bed? No! Never mind, carry on. We’ll discuss personal space and invasion of privacy later.
In answer to your question, I was making my way to a youth summit that was being held by the Royal Commonwealth Society. Don’t worry, I’d never heard of it either but I hope to enlighten you in this article. And then we’ll all be clever and I won’t have to patronise you any longer. Isn’t that right?!
Meanwhile, back in the narrative, I arrived at County Hall at five minutes to nine. I like to be early. Asking a smartly dressed receptionist where the youth summit was, he replied that he didn’t know what I was talking about. I was, I admit, a little confused. I asked him again, but he insisted that he had no knowledge of this event.
I was concerned. I whipped out my communication device, also known as a phone and rang our Editor. The conversation went a little something like this:
“Hello?”
“Hi Arielle, it’s Sam”
“Oh hi Sam, everything OK?” *giggles*
“Well not really. In the e-mail you sent, you said the summit was at County Hall and I’m here now but they don’t know anything about it.”
“I know! I purposely sent you all the way to County Hall for my own amusement!” *laughs out loud* “It's actually in City Hall! City Hall! Mwahaha!”
“Thanks for that Arielle. It’s five to nine and I have to walk all the way to City Hall by then.”
“Better start running then.”
At that point she hung up.
Well, it went something like that. I was a little dazed, having not realised that there was such thing as an 8:55am, so it could have gone slightly differently. Not by much though.
Anyway, after running all the way to City Hall, I managed to arrive just in time to realise that they were starting late. I was given a cheap name tag which falsely glorified me as a journalist. I was flattered but nonetheless intrigued. I wasn’t aware that I had been made a journalist. I missed my graduation and everything. I don’t even know shorthand.
A glass of water and a swift introduction soon led on to the first exercise: a seminar entitled “Commonwhat?” which was just as useful and as helpful as its title. The hour consisted of four pretty dodgy teams trying to build a tower out of paper and a quiz which bombarded confused, uneducated minds with a constant line of puzzling and complicated questions which didn’t help anybody… I don’t claim to be qualified to critique teaching skills but… well…
We moved on after that to a workshop called “Education For All” which was more interesting and beneficial to the young people at the summit. Included was a game of “Run to that side of the room if you agree with this statement or that side if you disagree” which was fun and got people discussing ideas. Following that was a group exercise which allowed the young people to get thinking and working together to create a project to show back to the others. This workshop was considerably more enjoyable than the first.
Lunch was fun. Sarcasm. It was dull. The layout of food there was vast but oddly all looked exactly the same. I don’t think City Hall realised they were catering for kids. Salmon balls? Seriously?
Moving swiftly on, I found myself in a room with a young woman who clearly hasn’t had much experience with kids. I mean they practically walked all over her! The workshop, originally entitled “Health For All”, was about malaria: a very serious issue which kills a young person in Africa every forty five seconds (or so I’m told). And what’s the best way to go about this situation? Why, playing with cardboard flags and pretending we’re on TV of course! This workshop seems better suited for younger young people. It was somewhat educational though, so I suppose that’s something.
Resulting in my everlasting despair, I missed the last workshop. I was instead taken to a function room to meet a young man named Tom. He was our Media Mentor. Well, that’s what his name tag said anyway. He was very helpful, polite, and approachable and gave us an unusual task. At first the task seemed pointless and dull but once we had completed it and Tom told us its true purpose, I realised that we were clearly dealing with a professional.
And so ends Day One.
Day Two
Not completely enthralled by the previous day, I was I admit, a little disorientated for the opening session. But I soon switched on for a lively and interesting debate about education in the Commonwealth. As a ‘journalist’, I was forbidden to contribute to the debate but I took great delight in questioning some of the countries during, what was called, “lobby time”.
The debate was thoroughly enjoyable to watch and while the second debate was happening, myself and my fellow ‘journalists’ were taken to a secret location known only as Function Room C to write up our thoughts and ponderings of the debate. We each wrote about the debate in a particular style, mine being as a columnist. Fun.
Lunch was much, much, much better the second day. Tuna and sweet corn sandwiches, although they were on white bread, not wholemeal. Oh well: can’t win them all. There were also chicken legs. Yum.
The third debate, which I was allowed to take part in, was by far the most enjoyable part of the summit. The debate was about all our concerns as young people living in and around Cardiff. I raised a very serious issue regarding a certain Border Collie and idiots on motorbikes as well as constantly raising awareness of theSprout.
After the debate, I read out the column I had written and although poor timekeeping throughout the day led to my rushing it, that didn’t stop Cllr Freda Salway talking for an unnecessarily long period of time. I try not to be negative about people, but by the end of her ‘speech’, half the young people were asleep and the other half were quietly talking to each other about how she could possibly talk for so long.
The second day was thoroughly more enjoyable than the first. And although all the workshop leaders were friendly, I can’t help but feel like some of them may need to rethink their teaching strategy. I met some lovely people there and even received a goody bag, which I’ve yet to investigate due to an extensive schedule.
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