Posted 02 April 2003
Unfortunately, the youth are the most silent and sleepy part of the Armenian Community in Abu Dhabi. The reasons are numerous:
1- Majority of them are hard working persons, involved in every day life. They work in manual jobs and their salary range is not high. Those who have high educational credentials, prefer not to waste time by attending Armenian youth gatherings, in which their interests are disregarded.
2- The official Armenian youth association in Abu Dhabi has succeeded so far to arrange one picnic in the last year or so. Therefore the total number of events organized by this association from April 2002 to April 2003 is one (kebab party).
3- The number of Armenian youth in Abu Dhabi (up to age 29) is estimated to be 100 , but the number of those who attended the annual youth meeting which took place in January 2003 was 16 (half of them were over 30 years old, two of them over 45 years old). The agenda of the meeting was to evaluate the activities of the association during the last year. The activities were highly evaluated and the taste of the kebab was appreciated.
4- Three members of the youth association were appointed members of the new Council of the Abu Dhabi Armenians, most probably due to their (zero) experience in the activities in the youth association.
5- The most important concern of the Armenian youth in Abu Dhabi has been the lack of a meeting place. Till now, nobody has thought to hire a small corner of a good cafe for 2-3 hours weekly in order to facilitate the communication among the youth. The annual cost of this endeavor is very limited. Let's hope that this option will be discussed in a serious way. To make things easier for those who do not want to spend money, there is no need to hire a place, just find a place and announce the youth to be there at a particular time. The cafe will be happy to have such brilliant clientele.
