🎧📢I'm Arya, an undergraduate Pharmacology student going into my final year of university in the UK. I'm from Qamişlo and have spent a part of my childhood in Hewler and Slemani as well. I've been in the UK for around 8 years now. From high school to university, I've been through the education system in England.
Lately, there are protests across Europe with countries including France, Albania and Spain. Though the reason as to how these protests started varies from country to country, the underlying issues are similar, and the majority of the people protesting are young people. The cost of living is rising, and young people are concerned about the education system and their post-university careers including employment.
The general perception of life in Europe is that everything is available here, money is abundant, and opportunities for education and work are always at hand. Unfortunately, this overly positive view of Europe is not always true, and these protests point out that there are also problems, issues, and shortcomings in European countries as well.
The economic situation across Europe is not great. Every country has its own slightly different problems, but my question is, "Why have we reached a point as disastrous where people feel like they should go out and protest?" Would there have been so much protest and anger if the rights and needs of the people, and especially of the youth, had been met?
I'm in the UK and there are no protests here yet, but the situation here is no better than in those countries. The economic situation here is also getting difficult, things are getting more expensive and there are no compensation measures.
I would also say, from a student's perspective, that there are also difficulties with education. In the university system here, we can get a loan for the tuition and maintenance fees. Then, when we start working, we pay a little bit of that loan every year, according to our salary, and every year in which we don't pay, it increases, and the interest rate is increasing.
Even with this system, many young people who have just graduated from university spend at least a year looking for work, that's if they find. The rate of unemployment among the youth is on the rise.
There are other challenges, such as the high cost of rent and buying a house. Recently, there has been talk about how they can make it potentially easier for young people to buy a house and enter the property ladder.
There are talks that maybe young people will be able to start buying houses with just a 2.5% deposit. The decision has not been made yet, but there are talks.
The question of why there are more protests in certain countries and none in some is, in my opinion, a question that cannot be answered easily. Many factors play a role.
The wave of protests has been widespread across social media platforms. There is media that documents the situation and the media is portraying that is portraying Generation Z as being more rebellious. I personally don't believe that our generation is rebellious in a bad way, there is a reason for the anger of our youth.
I wanted to ease my mind and also chatted with some friends whom are from Brazil and Indonesia. There are fears and protests in those countries too, people are angry at the government...
As a Gen Z, my friends and I share the same thoughts. If the system met the needs of young people, not only would there not be protests, but the society as a whole would progress and thrive. Three quarters of the people at these protests are young, because the decisions made will affect our future.
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*Jiber ku hejmara karakteran cîhê Spotiyf dide derbaz dike em parçeka kin ya Îngilizîya xeleka Arya Abbas nikarin bidin.
Fotografa li qapaxê: Leonardo Vph