Mozambique is a country that has been experiencing great population growth and most of its population is young, followed by the active adult population. Years ago, this group was referred to as the generation of the turning point because of their commitment to work and wealth generation, which has made the face of the country more beautiful.

We currently have a new generation rising up, but its characteristics are different from those of the "generation of the turn". Today, the majority of young people are lazy, alcoholic, promiscuous and not at all committed to the development of our beloved country, but they are very ambitious.

But how can they not be lazy if they were spoiled, grew up sitting on the sofa watching TV and had everything they wanted, because parents don't want their children to go through what they went through in childhood, they give them everything they lacked in their childhood and then they grow up and we want them to study, work and try to generate their own wealth. Even education has had to lower its level of complexity to adapt to children who find it difficult to learn.

If we carry on like this, our children's brains will no longer be challenged. But because there is a need to have money, easy ways to get rich are being combined with gambling - the industry has come a long way in the last decade - scams, which are becoming more and more elaborate, obscurantism, and so on.

It tends to be a universal concern in countries with demographic characteristics such as ours to develop the education sector as it is considered fundamental to the country's development, unlike what happens when the population is old or adult, where the main concern is to ensure development in the old age and health sectors. This population trait leads to the labor absorption capacity of the economic system being exceeded, thus creating unemployment and leading the population to experience extreme poverty.

At this stage, vocational subjects and courses were introduced to the corricula, on the one hand; on the other, the generation of the turn solved this paradigm with the development of self-employment, and it was effective. There wasn't as much corruption as there is today, and there was a lot of funding that was really aimed at young people. Nowadays, projects are even approved and the funds disbursed, but because they don't reach the project owner, no actual company emerges, but operates on reports.

Our country is not very industrialized and the production of alcoholic beverages seems to be leading the way. The industry has brought in millions and contributed generously to the national income with the country's two largest breweries set up in three provinces, and there are still those that produce dry drinks mostly consumed by teenagers and young people due to their affordability and availability.

We know about the effects of alcohol on the functioning of our brains, the poor ability to memorize and learn due to poor concentration, among other effects. Have our leaders thought about attracting investment in agriculture and food instead of allowing more alcohol factories to be set up to pervert more and more of our young people and jeopardize the country's development?

Given the structure of the Mozambican population, shouldn't the country be concerned with attracting investment in agriculture and livestock farming in order to put an end to hunger and chronic malnutrition in the country? Shouldn't the priority be to produce milk to nourish our children and more food to guarantee access to food and enable it to be varied, solving the problems of malnutrition? We are rich, but few benefit from this wealth. Various minerals are being exploited throughout the country, but how does this benefit Mozambicans? I'm talking about class C and class D Mozambicans.

The seafood caught in our vast ocean is sold outside the country and we import it from other countries. How many Mozambicans eat shrimp, lobster, sardines and tuna, other than in imported cans? How many eat eggs, drink milk? I'm not talking about the Mozambicans conglomerated in the cities (although there are several cases in the country's suburbs), I'm talking about the large part of the population that lives in the country's rural regions.

Today's generation has lost its values, there are no more taboos and they become sexually involved at an early age, often enticed by their elders, the "Sugar Dads" who teach our daughters that they don't need to do anything else to generate income except serve them and then shower them with gifts, money, trips and all the good things that money brings.

Others, on the other hand, are already satisfied with a few bottles of beer or cider and give their bodies to men who are thirsty for pleasure. They keep hearing from the media that you have to live as if there were no tomorrow, "carpen dien", and so we have a generation that's too immediate and not at all committed to the future. If you look at the birth rate in rural areas of our country, you'll notice that most of the women giving birth are between the ages of 16 and 25.

A reflection on the causes and possible solutions to the problems faced by today's youth is necessary to guarantee a promising future for our country.

Text: Vitorino Mutimucuio