My name is Dami Benbow and my job title is Chair to the
Young Advisors of the Young Mayor of Lewisham. As a Chair it's my
job to regulate the meetings, make sure everything's going to
order, make sure there's no arguing and also oversee the agenda
- say what's going in which place and what happens during the
meetings.
Any young people here who want to get involved with politics
should just to join your local youth council which is a
fantastic place to start, and not only what they do for your
career, your CV, if you want to go to university, if you want to
get employed, just mentioning you've been in a youth council
shows responsibility. But if you want to be in politics it's the
best place to start, because people start to ask you how to do
things. You finally get to learn what life in politics is like.
I do really, really badly want to be a politician, because I see
it's such a corrupt system and my main problem with politics is
that young people are not represented. I mean I know it's starting
to change now, but it's still such a hugely unfair system, and
politicians are always liars I think. You know it can't keep going
on like this, I mean I don't know, I'm not in the system yet, but I
keep on saying if I was in the system, I'd do something better, and
I do want to be in the system so much, changing the system from
within.
If I could be anything at all I think I'd be, and feel free to
cringe here, I think I'd be the sectary general of the United
Nations. Kofi Annan, after seeing him, and what he did, to have the
guts to tell the most powerful leaders of the free world that they
can't do something because it's illegal, I think someone like that
is who I'd like to be, that's what I like, just so I can do what's
right. It may not be Annan but at least I can say what's
right and at least people would listen to me, if not actually do
anything.