CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM: World Chess champion Garry Kasparov at the Youth Engagement Summit yesterday

CHESS legend Garry Kasparov expressed a cautious optimism about today’s generation of youths during the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 (YES 2009)  held at the Putrajaya  International Convention Centre (PICC) yesterday.

“They see no frontiers, they are very energetic and the sky’s the limit. They cannot be undermined by great challenges. But they seem to have a  very short span of attention.

It’s a quick  world, it’s a Twitter world,” said Kasparov.  He referred to the example and message he made during his earlier speech:

“You can make the plane bigger or faster. The same with technology, you can increase the bandwidth or you can shrink the message. What is your choice?”

He said he didn’t like the latter, adding that one doesn’t need great technology to shrink the message — but it does not help us to build a better world.

“We have to go vertical now. We have spent too much time on horizontal development and I think the youths are ready to take on the challenge.”

However, he said today’s youths need to recognise the shortcomings of modern development. They need to overcome the shallowness created by new tools and to differentiate between these tools and the real inventions.

“They need to recognise that having all these little gadgets everyday are just bells and whistles. It’s not about technology.

They have to start dreaming about something much bigger and I hope that the youths, especially here in Asia, will show more appetite for this change.

“We are all getting tired, I talked about America today because I know this country well and you can see it’s getting a little tired.

“Here in Asia, you can feel the energy. That’s why it’s time to lead. I hope the girls and boys who listened to my speech and many more see the opportunities available for them.

“It’s very important to communicate the message that we are about to embark on a new journey. And it’s for them to ‘blow the wind in our sails’ as it were.”