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, discipline as we knew it has been relegated to the dogs
and everyone seems to have abandoned their basic courtesies.
These forms of indiscipline appear
to have transcended large sections of the social sphere so much so that the
youths and even adults – to a certain extent are culprits of acts of
indiscipline.
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 help the elderly with the loads off their heads, allow them take
our seats when they are standing and then ran errands for them, no matter who
they may be.
During that same period, you hardly
would find people indiscriminately littering the environment owing in part to
the fact that the use of plastics and other materials at the time was limited –
if not non-existent.
It is apt to add that even the act
of buying was measured – that’s some personal fiscal discipline there; you buy
when you needed and not for the sake of buying or showoff.
This used to be the guiding
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 on 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.
Myself and some 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.
Inadvertently or not, we are all
caught in this web – instances of indiscipline, one or another.
Unlike in those days, a lot has
changed.
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 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.
Indiscipline among the
youth is a problem which all concerned citizens are expressing strong views about.
One of the factors that promote the vice is peer group influence.
As young people move
about with their friends, and social classes, they influence one another
positively or negatively.
A group of five young
men are likely to influence positively or negatively their timid counterpart,
especially if he is not strong-willed.
Gradually he begins to
learn from them, their ways of life, and their mannerisms, among others.
Chances to get
negatively influenced are greater than chances to get the positive end of the
impact.
Indiscipline among the youth,
some experts in child and youth development have argued is as a result of the
adoption of some western cultures – and to attempt to debunk this will amount
to being untruthful in my opinion.
The youth, learn from
their homes to receive education from the primary source of information from
the family – that’s their parents.
But when parenting goes
wrong, then a massive issue of breeding miscreants arises. Especially in the
case where the marriage breaks and the children are torn between both parents,
it becomes an arduous task to regulate behaviours of these children, and that
is where it starts.
They enjoy freedom from
family control and behave the way they think is right, but this is a silent
destroyer if you comprehensively analyze the times these children have all to
themselves and what they are potentially seen doing within these periods.
A desperately serious
consequence of this is drug abuse. The use of drugs like cocaine, marijuana and
heroin causes the youth to be undisciplined due to the adverse effects of such
hard drugs on their physical and mental make-up.
According to the
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the second most popular drugs
of abuse in the U.S. are psychotherapeutics including painkillers, tranquilizers,
stimulants and sedatives but this is not a phenomenon restricted only to the US
but is mainstay in lots of other countries even in Ghana.
This involves the
nonmedical use of prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and drugs that may
be manufactured illegally, such as methamphetamine and ecstasy.
One of the myths floating around
about drug abuse is if it can be or usually is used as a medication, it's not
harmful.
However, contrary to what some ill-informed
believe, the abuse or nonmedical use of any drug can have long-lasting effects
on our health same as the hard drugs or even worse.
The
truth is even the "safest" drugs can have negative effects on your
health and well-being if they are used too often or over too long a period of
time.
Besides
alcohol (which has its own set of health effects), the above are the most
commonly abused drugs even in Ghana, in order of popularity, and how they can affect
the health of those who consumed.
Several studies have
revealed a correlation between the upsurge in cases of indiscipline among the
youth in Ghana and their affinity to taking drugs – what is however unclear is
whether or not these drugs are necessarily banned substances, or ordinary
analgesics or other.
The result – we see on
our streets, the increasing numbers of society’s derelicts, who have been
reduced to squatters and paupers have been described as effects of an addiction
of a sort to hard drug or liquor. Once they take in these drugs, they begin to
react hyperactively and in the process commit severe acts of indiscipline.
Approximately 2.1
million people in the U.S. use cocaine, making it the third most abused
category of drug.
Cocaine can be snorted, injected and even smoked in some
forms of the drug.
In all cases, cocaine
is a strong central nervous system stimulant which affects the brain.
A recent survey implicated
Ghana as one of the leading consumers of marijuana – and that has been
described by watchers as a bad image for the West African nation struggling to
deal with a multiplicity of issues confronting it.
Once many people are
believed to be in the act of consuming hard drugs, the likelihood of breeding
miscreants who are mostly culpable when acts of indiscipline are referred to, is
twice as much as would have been without parental guidance.
Misconduct of the various
forms that exist has their peculiar causes, and no discipline strategy should
ignore the causes while trying to ameliorate the undesirable symptoms.
In the queue the other day to get
aboard a bus at the 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 could be in his late seventies
and wanted to get aboard the bus.
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 onto the bus”, 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 him, 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 bus 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. And so I ask the questions: where and why have we
as young men and women abandoned our courtesies, discipline and virtues?
Implications of these sickening levels of indiscipline
permeate every fiber of society - industry, education, health, sports, economy,
and environment among others.
Imagine one or all of these;
-That the health aid worker reports to the health facility
an hour later than they are expected to
-That a fruit juice manufacturing company’s employees are
rude to clients
-That students at the nation’s premier university absent
themselves from lectures and party all their stay on campus – they fail to do assignments
and course works
-That footballers for the national team refuse to attend team
training at major tournaments and subsequently beat up officials
-Or that residents in a settler community indiscriminately
defecate about the area and litter everywhere
These scenarios have one underlying theme- that’s indiscipline.
However their implications first of all on the individuals and of the
institutions they work for, can be particularly terrifying.
Productivity is reduced; lives may be lost at the health facilities,
sportsmen may lose their spots in the team to other disciplined fellows, and
the community gets polluted with all forms of human waste.
All these have a net effect, which is stunted growth in the
country’s economic fortunes – and this in the short to medium terms has
injurious consequences for Ghana and our forward-march to attaining global
recognition as a beacon of everything a developing country should have.
Human resources required by the various industries in Ghana to
remain productive may also become extinct – owing to drug abuses, laziness,
lateness, incompetence, and other forms of indiscipline.
Then another phenomenon may arise, many companies may not be
willing to employ people from the jurisdiction, and this will leave thousands
of youths and graduates churned out from the universities annually, unemployed.
If the trend in the increase in cases of indiscipline should
be reduced and the fight against the vice should be won, then it requires an
all-encompassing change in attitudes of the citizens.
If people will take their jobs very seriously like it’s
their own, and the average Ghanaian will vow not to litter and indiscriminately
pollute the environment, the health worker will be professional in his dealings,
the school teacher will not charge illegal fees from students, the students themselves
will take their lessons very seriously, the footballers and other sportsmen will
learn to play for their nation for patriotic reason - with the nation at heart,
the public sector worker will shun the apathetic attitude towards work, the
driver will obey all road traffic regulations, and the politician will learn to
be honest, life generally will be as tasty as it gets – with milk and honey
flowing for all to enjoy.
(Kingsley Komla Adom)
Cocaine can be snorted, injected and even smoked in some forms of the drug.
