Welcome to New Zealand. A land free from walls and political twitter wars. A place where we look out for each other and lend a helping hand to those who need it.
A place where children are safe and free to be whoever they want to be. Well, rubbish. Recent news headline: "Girls, 9 and 10, die in suspected suicides". And this is not just another story coming out of Trump’s America. This is us.
Is this our perception of a "safe" New Zealand? At age 9, our children’s biggest worry should be what toy to play with after school. But that is not our reality. Our reality is that our kids are killing themselves and it’s our fault. We could spend a lifetime trying to point the finger. We could argue this is the Government’s responsibility, that our ministers for health, education and youth are not doing their jobs. We could debate that it’s the parents’ fault for not protecting their own kids.
Or we can accuse the youth themselves for making short-sighted and rash decisions. But the truth is, this social matrix is skewed. We expect our current system to solve all our issues, but we will not admit that we personally have a responsibility in making it work. We are addicted to the blue pill. We are choosing to leave the lives of our young people in a system we know is not working.
New Zealand, wake up. The alarms are ringing loud and clear. I know we hear them, but we are choosing to press snooze and take the pill that desensitises us from the painful truth. We cannot label this country as safe for young people when the leading cause of death for youth is suicide. We have a choice. Keep taking the blue pill and wake up tomorrow with a deluded reality or take the red pill and wake up to the responsibility that each of us must shoulder. The red pill is a painful one to swallow. But the sooner we get it down, the quicker change will begin. Let’s not wait for someone else to fix our skewed matrix. Change starts with us. It starts with me.
- Ashleigh Smith (19), from Naseby and now a Dunedin student, is vice-chairwoman of the Sticks ’n Stones board and New Zealand’s 2017 Queen’s Young Leader award winner. She is working with the Government to help inform its policy-making on bullying and social media. Sticks ’n Stones describes itself as s a student-led programme focused on taking positive action online to stop both bullying online or in person. It was founded in Central Otago.
