Durban: World's Youth Demand Education, Work Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - AIN WORLD'S YOUTH DEMAND GUARANTEED EDUCATION AND WORK Durban, South Africa, August 28 (AIN)--Attended by 800 youths from 420 non-government organizations, the World Youth Forum concluded with a condemnation of racism in its most diverse manifestations. In Durban, the Forum of the NGO scheduled for today has raised expectations according to the number of attendants expected, who are congregating in front of the big tent of the Press Conference. The youths' meeting was described as very positive by Kenia Serrano, Member of the National Committee of the Cuban Union of Young Communists, who presides over the Cuban delegation. In the final statement, she said to the journalists that the young are eager to express their feelings over a theme like racism which is in the center of the problems faced by them, either in its exclusive or discriminatory use. She referred to the poverty affecting 850 million persons, as well as illiteracy, and notes estimates that 80 percent of the world's illiterate population is female. The meeting was attended by two delegations from the United States, one formed by several NGOs and another one participating as a government envoy. Serrano said both delegations had positive attitudes. The participants from juvenile NGO's were very critical of the racism practiced in the United States, the number of jobless people within the great country and other manifestations of the US government's destructive policies. The Cuban delegate referred to joint support actions by the Latin American and Caribbean delegations. She gave as an the example preventing the Internet from becoming an instrument for the propagation of racist ideas but turned into an instrument of struggle against that evil. She added that Cuba had proposed an interchange net among youths and gave detailed information on the work done by the Cuban Computation and Electronics Club. Serrano pointed out that the anti-Cuba US blockade was discussed by several delegations, who rejected this kind of measure not only as a racist manifestation but as also as an example of discrimination against the Cuban people. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-08.28.01-19:11:46-13423