CEO of Ghetto Games Raimonds Elbakjans: Do not fool young people and prepare them for an easy life, because it will not be like that!
Raimonds Elbakjans is known in society as the founder and leader of the Ghetto Games and as a socially active person with strong opinions that not everyone agrees with.
Neatkarīgā asks Raimonds Elbakjans more about life and people, including young people.
This year, the Ghetto Games are in their 14th season. Are you still at the age when events aimed at young people are relevant in your life?
I am definitely still that age! First of all, because times have changed and now people even around the age of 40 are considered young around the world. But in my case, the Ghetto Games are relevant not so much for my personal life, but for my four children, who are eight, thirteen and two are fifteen years old. So I have someone at home to tell me about the super-topical stuff for the young people and I can live it all for basically a second time. We'll see later, maybe I'll be able to live the whole growing-up thing also through my grandchildren.
Over the years, working with young people, I have developed an algorithm that allows me to calculate what is most necessary for a young person today. It is no secret that some young people are only interested in partying and getting drunk - there always have been and always will be people like that. But there are also some young people who are interested in an active lifestyle. I assume that some of our audience do both, so our organization’s mission is to maximize young people's time, attention and involvement in an active lifestyle that is not lacking in competitive spirit, ambition, self-overcoming challenges, friendship, compassion and other values that our organization has been carrying with it for years and communicating to a wide range of society.
What are your observations - has the younger generation changed in 14 years?
Young people have not changed in their nature, they are eager to get to know the world as fast as they can, but their methods are different. Whereas once we could talk about street kids and crimes made because of boredom, now the biggest competitor to an active lifestyle is the mobile phone and very busy parents who have to spend a lot of time earning money to feed their families, but don't have enough time and energy for their own children. At the same time, on the mobile phone, you can find everything on the internet - like pranks, which are often bordering on real bullying. Whereas in the past it was rare, now there is an unhinged prankster in every classroom, not just on the internet, because it is so popular.
I have noticed that, just as in our country as a whole the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, so among young people, the most powerful, capable and motivated get even more powerful, while the weak get even weaker and sink into the various depressions that are so popular. Today, in order to earn money, one has to be very versatile - it is no longer enough to know one field, because fields overlap and complement each other. A lot is demanded of you - you have to do your job, you have to be able to communicate, often manage social networks, you have to be able to parent - it is a very complex task. It's easy to talk about it, but it's hard to do. We no longer have a planned economy where it was clear how many builders we needed, how many seamstresses and how many doctors. Today, everything is changing very dynamically, so we cannot say exactly what a young person should study in order to reach something in 10 years' time and, ultimately, be financially secure. Maybe artificial intelligence will take over and replace humans...
Do you have a specific recipe for our young people to achieve their goals - to be powerful and versatile?
Every young person should be told from a young age that they are solely responsible for their own life and future. Parents often make the mistake of trying to put all the cushions they can under their children, to protect and shield them from life. But he has to learn to live, he has to become a decent human being, and of course, his parents have to set an example because personalities are formed in families. In that sense, the Ghetto Games is also the right place for young people to come and try their hand at sports, at culture, at hip-hop battles, at dancing and fighting. You can come as a spectator and meet other young people. A young person has to become conscientious and disciplined, realizing that life will get harder and harder. We are constantly being told and lied to, even in advertising slogans that you will be absolutely happy if you buy the latest model of phone or buy another outfit.
Whereas 20 years ago we said that a young person should be given a fishing rod so that he could catch his own fish, now we have to teach a young person to build his own fishing rod. As long as he finds the right stick, ties the line and makes the hook, he learns to create, because only those who learn to create will be able to survive in this world. If he does not learn to create, he will have to survive by doing very primitive things: is this what he wants? It is up to each individual to choose.
You were present at the founding of our 3x3 basketball team. Where did these young people come from who, without anyone expecting it, became Olympic champions?
Yes, this is one of the most striking examples of how, when you are in the right place at the right time and with selfless support, you get the chance to prove yourself, find like-minded people and do great things. For example, Nauris Miezis was a discarded and disqualified athlete, Edgars Krūmiņš played for a minor league team and nobody saw a place for him in big basketball, and Kārlis Lasmanis did not fit in any serious team. It turned out that all these "doomed" players were real stars who could prove themselves through the Ghetto Games events and later in the Olympics. There are many such examples in our organization because we come to work with a specific goal - to help young people find their place in life. It is not easy!
The motivated young people will probably learn how to make that fishing rod, but what about those who have no interest in going out and building it?
The fact that we say “the motivated ones will be fine” is a huge mistake! It is the motivated who need to be worked with, and that is what the Ghetto Games is doing very intensively. The more motivated people we can bring to high goals and results, the more society will benefit. By making the strong even stronger, we create people who are able to help the weak. But it is important that the strong grow up with decent values and high social responsibility. The beleaguered and the weak will always outnumber the motivated and the strong, and this is the audience on which populism is very effective in pre-election speeches. As soon as I say that we should work with the strong, who can become leaders and help others, I am countered by a bunch of populists who believe that it is only the weak who should be helped. Our organization works with both, but the country as a whole is built on populist ideas that pity the weak - and there are many of them, which is why the election results are what they are.
Outline your ideal program that could bear useful fruit in the future!
Starting with the Prime Minister, the President and all ministers, everyone must do their own job with integrity. All parties and government men must come to the people and say honestly: "Dear friends! We will have to work! We will have to get up early, go to work and work harder than ever." If every politician dares to say this and does so himself, only then can we talk about the ideal program. Until honest work is not the family's main value, our country has no chance. The ideal formula starts at home - with swept and clean floors, tidy clothes and a job well done. Values, values and more values. Every Latvian should have a sign on the front door that says: "Only perseverance and hard work will make us who we truly want to be."
The war in Ukraine has raised the national question. Are Russian speakers also involved in the Ghetto Games? How do you deal with their integration?
It's very simple - at the beginning, we speak to them in Russian, but after two weeks everyone speaks Latvian. I have seven bloods in me, including Latvian, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, German, Swedish and Polish, so I have never divided people into nationalities and races. I have tried to find a common language with everyone, speaking the language that we both understand. No self-respecting person judges others by their nationality and mother tongue.
There is a lot of minority youth in the Ghetto Games - about half. Everyone gets along well and one of our values is to prohibit arguments about language. Let the politicians argue about it - we won't stoop that low.
Ghetto Games are growing every year - isn’t it getting too hard?
I won't hide it: for me, Raimonds Elbakjans, every day is hard and getting harder, because I want to make the Ghetto Games bigger, more beautiful, more ambitious. I want it not only in Latvia and the Baltics, I want it in the wider world. I want "Made in Latvia" to be heard everywhere in the world. I also say to my team: it doesn't get easier - it only gets harder. If you want to paint a prettier picture, you will have to paint longer and harder; if you want to write a better song, you will have to sit down and think. Even for a country that wants to get better, the tasks will become more difficult with each step. Can we say that it is harder to study in first grade than in 12th grade? No, the further we go, the more difficult the tasks! Do not fool young people and prepare them for an easy life, because it will not be like that! They need to understand that they will have to work hard. The only question is whether they will work hard, waving the Latvian flag above their heads, and call Latvia the homeland that has helped them grow and develop, or whether they will see this country as a failed enterprise that has not treated them very well and has deceived them. It is time for the men in government to look in the mirror and decide who they want to be - whether they want to be a “fatherland'” or the temporary directors of a failed company. I want to live in a country where I can trust every person I meet because I am sure they are honest.