Rodney Owen Maccarthy

Estava eu a percorrer a edição digital da revista "Dazed and Confused" quando páro num artigo intitulado "Apathy is dead". O artigo começa com a transcrição de uma parte do discurso proferido por este rapaz de 15 anos na Coalition of Resistance National Conference, em Camden, Londres, no passado dia 27 Novembro. O discurso foi proferido depois de confrontos entre estudantes e a polícia, em protesto contra o aumento das propinas universitárias, dos quais Rodney fez parte. Passo a transcrição para aqui:
"You know this was meant to be the first post-ideological generation, right? This was meant to be the generation that never thought of anything bigger than our Facebook profiles and our TV screens. This was meant to be the generation where the only things that Saturday night meant was X Factor. I think now that claim is quite ridiculous. I think now that claim is quite preposterous. I think now we’ve shown that we are as ideological as ever before. Now we have shown that solidarity and comradeship and all those things that used to be associated with students are as relevant now as they have ever been."

Ora, todo o artigo despertou-me a atenção, e quando tento encontrar o video, nada. Nem uma única referência. Quer no Youtube, quer no Google videos. Pelos vistos o vídeo tornou-se viral. Ao mesmo tempo deve ter-se tornado incómodo para alguém. Restam-nos os excertos nos artigos de imprensa e a ideia de que o futuro está, de facto, nas mãos dos jovens.

Cheira a algo novo lá fora. Cá dentro ainda vai aquele cheirinho a mofo que tantos gostam. Ficam mais alguns excertos de alguém que, aos 15 anos, já deixou o sofá de casa e o facebook para ir até à rua fazer-se ouvir. Haja esperança.

"They can't stop us demonstrating, they can't stop us fighting back, and how ever much they try to imprison us in the streets of London, those are our streets. We will always be there to demonstate, we will always be there to fight."

"We are no longer that generation that doesn't care, we are no longer that generation to sit back and take whatever they give us. We are now the generation at the heart of the fight back."

Our baby-boomer generation all benefited from the misery and sacrifices of our parents & grand-parents. Now the elite want to snatch away what we had from our children & grand-children in order to perpetuate war & oppression & to maintain an unsustainable life-style at least until we’re all gone. We should be ashamed at what we’ve allowed them to do & take hope in that the young are waking up and taking to the streets on behalf of all of us.

Transcrição completa aqui

PS: a minha falta de competência em pesquisa não me permitiu encontrar o vídeo. Um muchas gracias à Vera Viana por o ter feito por mim. Cá vai