For
much of the talk about the need for obedience, courtesy and respect for the
elderly in our society, nothing seems to have changed among the youths of today.
Virtues have been corrupted, good manners have run ill, and everyone seems to
have abandoned their basic courtesies. Gone are the days when young people
extended a hand of assistance to the elderly under the circumstances. Growing
up in the past, I could remember our mothers and grandmothers especially
advising us to make sure we help the elderly with the loads off their heads,
allow them take our seats when they are standing and then run errands for them,
no matter who they may be. This used to be the guided principles we had been
living by, until a certain time they call the “21st century”.
On our
way to school, one could not help but lend a helping hand to the tired, aged
and frail-looking woman returning from the market with a heavy load on head,
neither could one afford to get past an elderly man, pushing a yam-loaded
wheelbarrow all by himself from his farm, as slow and tiring as it may be en
route to his home. Kwame’s grandmother returning from the stream with a bucket
of water on head does not get past us in her obvious struggles in containing
the bucketful. Similarly, Akuna’s widowered father, in his late seventies is
able to get his clothes washed, his compound swept and water to bath and drink,
not by wishful-thinking or by the touch from the magic wand of a fairy, but by
the courtesies afforded him by a few young men and women in the neighborhood.
Even in
the cities, in public places or in commercial vehicles, sitting young people naturally
vacate their seats to allow for stranded elderly persons’ occupation at their expense.
Additionally, young people in queues to purchase a commodity or anything-say “Hausa
koko or waakye or beans”, allowed the elderly ‘jump’ the queues and get served
because of their age and plight and it took nothing whatsoever away from them who
extended these acts of courtesies to these elderly persons.
Greetings
and exchange of pleasantries which existed between those who were young and
then the elderly in our society has taken a very minimal tilt or worse of it
all are non-existent almost like a taboo. I see many of my mates glide past
these elderly people in recent times on a very consistent bases as if they were
not present. Then again I make reference to what it looked like in the past,
the complete opposite.
Unlike
in those days, a lot has changed momentarily. Disappointing as it appears, one
cannot help but sit and think deeply about how all these good times seem to
have simply eluded us.
I am unable to tell if this seemingly “unhealthy way
of living” has anything to do with the consequences of our “modern age”. There
has been rapid increase in youthful indiscipline-as I would want to call it,
during this our supposed modern age. Everything has almost over-turned. A
myriad of such undisciplined acts I have witnessed, points absolutely to this
assertion of the fallen virtues in our society today.
In the queue the other day to get aboard a “trotro”
at the Madina bus terminal on my way home, I witnessed the worst incident yet,
in this regard. It was sunny and the queue was long and winding, then an old
man appeared, I suspect he could be in his late seventies and wanted to get
aboard the “trotro”.He did not join the queue, he simply walked to the head end
of the queue and appealed to the two young men leading the queue, to allow him
“jump” it and get into the “trotro”, which otherwise back in the day would have
been easily done even without the old man uttering a word. From where I stood
around the tail-end of the queue, I realized there erupted a near-brawl up
top.Apparently,the two young men would not allow the frail-looking old man
“jump” the queue and board the bus unless he joined the queue at the end of
it.The distraught old man was as well determined by whichever means possible to
get aboard the bus, so words were exchanged, the two young men spilt some very
terrible invectives at the man, some of which included-“opanin borne-to mean
bad elderly man”,”opanin toto-to mean irresponsible elderly man, describing him
as a no-body, just because he sought some preferential favors from them and
insisted he be granted this wish because of age, state of health and all.
Amidst all of the brouhaha, a “trotro” arrived and those in the queues began
jumping in, and no sooner had the elderly man attempted jumping into the bus
than he fell onto the ground, via a push by these young men. I felt very
terrible from where I stood and thought to myself, why this should happen in
our modern day. The man could easily pass for my grandfather and theirs too. It
is unacceptable and irresponsible to say the least. And so I ask the questions:
where and why have we as young men and women abandoned our manners, virtues and
courtesies? Who cares in Ghana today if the old woman has a heavy load on head?
Who cares if the elderly are upstanding while we are comfortably seated in the
same bus these days? Who cares about the little good mornings, good afternoons
and good evenings these elderly people deserve? I believe we have not done much
in this regard; hopefully something would change after my fellow young friends
read this piece.
BY KINGSLEY KOMLA ADOM
GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM
E;mail;kingsleykomla@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment