By Kuranda Seyit, executive director of Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations
It has been over a year since I wrote my first Message of Hope, and now in a post-pandemic era, we look towards an uncertain future, with rising inflation, job shortages, and the cost-of-living skyrocketing on all fronts, especially energy and petrol prices.
For an average family, life is getting very tough, expensive and it’s a challenge just to juggle all the bills, expenses, and those extras we have become accustomed to, like eating out, movies and weekend holidays away.
I for one, having just returned from five weeks abroad in Turkiye, now have a huge hole in my pocket.
But this is where we have to be smart, innovative, and resilient. I am optimistic that the global issues we are currently witnessing will pan out and stabilise.
We have to remain patient, as we go through this tough period.
During this time, it’s important to curb our spending, look at alternative ways to entertain the family, and spend more quality time together, just doing the basic things, like, talking.
I have always been an advocate for getting off our mobile phones and getting back to Nature, and strongly recommend that we allocate at least one day a week to being a mobile-free day.
As a teacher, our students are told to leave their phones in their lockers and as difficult as that may sound, it is possible to survive without your phone.
I hope that as a community we can begin the conversation about new technologies and social media, the impact it is having directly on us and particularly on our children.
The problem is that we have such a diverse nature to our community, we are all at differing levels and experiencing different issues depending on how long you have been in Australia.
For new and emerging communities, which Dandenong has many, we need to have supports in place.
Many parents are struggling to communicate with their children, who are increasingly becoming aloof from the parents, as they try to fit in.
Other, more established communities have children who have lost touch with their own culture and identity.
I hope that we as Australians, can promote a strong connection to our faith, our culture, and our heritage, in order that we enrich our sense of identity and strengthen our resilience to deal with the constant and ever-changing challenges ahead.
For me as a Muslim, my faith has really honed my sense of identity and my temperament to deal with life’s challenges, I find that it gives me a clear direction and a genuine sense of hope.
I know that my friends from other faith backgrounds also share a similar sense of hope.
The collective challenge for us as a community and for the Government is to continue supporting our youth, through our schools and our community facilities, in an attempt to maintain strong family links, providing avenues and pathways for success, especially through vocational guidance.
The next decade will see some very big changes but looking at many of the students I have taught, now in their early 20’s, I have some confidence that the next generation of youth will sensibly navigate the challenges while maintaining a healthy ethical and moral society.
Here’s to the new generation, let’s give them every opportunity possible!
