Employement or Dignity?

http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/news/2013/01/the-price-of-finding-decent-employment/6402

Employment or Dignity?
 

By: Cristiana Guevara-Mena

The problem of unemployment in Nicaragua has reached the point that the instinct of survival is much more important to people than their human dignity is. We live in an era where it is better to earn something and survive than it is to have nothing and suffer from poverty. In these times, choosing which job to have is a luxury. Since jobs are so scarce, the person must work in whatever job they find, and do the best they can, without giving consideration to how well or poorly the job pays, whether or not it puts their mental or physical health at risk, or having to sacrifice time with their family, just to earn a miserable salary (because it’s better than making nothing at all). What has become of us? Where is the value of human life? Does this crisis have a solution, or are its roots so deep that we are destined to live this way for a long time?

The youth, despite being the majority of the population, don’t have enough experience, by virtue of the fact that they’re young; as a consequence, they’re not being hired, or, if they are being hired, it is only in exchange for favors. When you hire personnel, in public and private enterprises, it is generally on the basis of friendship or a similar relationship, and not because of merit or competition. This makes the institutions not work properly, and causes them to fall under their own weight because of uselessness. This further delays the nation’s economic progress, and when the enterprise fails, it produces rising unemployment.

Companies do not have enough incentives to hire young people, even if the young people have university degrees. The vast majority of the youth between the ages of 16 and 35 are unemployed. Many of the ones that are lucky enough to be employed have a job that doesn’t pay them all that well, or doesn’t give them the opportunity to grow within the institution or company, or they are working in something without previous experience because there are no jobs available that are related to the field in which they studied. There are very few people who work in what they like and earn well doing it.

Currently, there are many young people unemployed throughout the national territory, and when some of them do find jobs, they end up working in something lower than what they are capable of, and are therefore paid very little. This is a consequence of the need that forces them to rent their brains and muscles for the miserable salary that they are offered. The dignified young people that choose not to pay that price have to bear to be unemployed for a long time, which produces an increasing amount of economic and psychological anguish.

Unfortunately, there are many who give in and accept the stingy alms they are offered in order to not starve to death, because if they don’t, they see themselves forced to commit crimes that will lead them to social delinquency. The country is filled with involuntarily delinquent youth that threaten the security of all the Nicaraguans, and it’s a danger that increases every day.
This painful and difficult situation generates the growth of delinquency at a national level and affects the street vendors who are in a very poor condition. The humiliation of allowing one’s self to be exploited for a few cents leads to the blockage and lack of motivation in the workplace, and above all, the will to emigrate to another country. This feeds great economic instability in the country, preventing it from using its human resources to advance, and maintaining control by a few with power and riches.

Irrespective of all this social and economic disgrace, there is a solution for the skilled youth. This consists in creating, with imagination and solidarity, even with little resources, their own businesses, with bold and original characteristics according to the result of their hard work and analysis of how to overcome poverty by doing what they can do best. This way, not only will they produce enough to survive in a micro-enterprise, but will also improve the quality of life of the youth.

This way, by triggering individual initiative and entrepreneural character, we will inevitably create new employment according to the social reality that we live in. By creating their own businesses, the young people they will become productive citizens independent of anyone, of both the public and private enterprises that give humiliating alms to eat, and free from being exploited without mercy by those with money and power, who continue to feast, fatten their bank accounts, and spend wastefully. This way, all the youth will become the social and economic solution that, little by little will take our dear Nicaragua out of the black hole where it finds itself.