Comments on: I Thought This Was About Respect?

By: Nyakehu

Nyakehu — Sat, 21 May 2005 12:50:49 +0000

MJY another gem of a debate, you do this things so well and had me thinking about where I live, there are people who believe that it is the governments’ fault that things are so bad, or that the world owes them something, I live in a place where society has literary given up on this lot and the residents make one scream in frustration as they treat everyone other than themselves so shoddily and shabbily. The “yob culture” stretches from the personal to the political; witness some govt spin doctors however, respect is so two way.Perhaps, this a way of dealing with the problems as a govt that uses spin so often, you notice their infamous slogan went out of the window “dealing with crime and the causes of crime”. There is also a poverty of material and spiritual that abounds in a place where someone earns a million a year while another lives on a less than Ã‚Â£30.00 per week. Anyway good discussion!

By: Memoire

Memoire — Sat, 21 May 2005 12:25:00 +0000

I think that this can be dealt with culturally, although us Africans will complain about the excessive disciplinarian/authoritarian nature of schools/society back home (and it has many downsides) I think that reasonable discipline is crucial. Whereby in Africa such youths would be reprimanded by any adult in the area (in old days, they’d be whooped too) that wouldn’t work in the West. Youths need more facilities (sports, leisure, etc) so that they can occupy themselves, and they also need good role models in society. I totally agree that if they see adults behaving badly or being hooligans, then youths can’t be blamed without adults also being blamed.

By: Mich

Mich — Sat, 21 May 2005 12:22:06 +0000

This is a tough one to call. The whole ‘lack of respect’ thing is certainly nothing new but I do think that things have now reached a point where something must be done.
As far as assigning blame is concerned, I tend to think that a combination of factors are at work here giving these people nothing to do and no-one to keep an eye on them and what we see is the result. I certainly think however, that lumping the blame on single parent families or anyone else as the govt/media seems to be doing at the minute is very unfair.

By: kari

kari — Sat, 21 May 2005 08:29:52 +0000

i so feel u on the issue that we should not segregate one group of pple and label them ‘bad’ as the cause of all our shidaz..i think pple do that mainly coz of ignorance..and true,this thing of blaming families(good,bad or the lack of them)will not solve anything…its about taking responsibility for ur own mess….

By: lifemoments

lifemoments — Fri, 20 May 2005 06:23:45 +0000

I think this phenomena is repeated everywhere in the world even africa where pple thing democracies are yet to evolve.

By: KymmBr

KymmBr — Thu, 19 May 2005 18:54:45 +0000

Whew! there goes the politicians whistle………
Having tried a couple of times to surpress the sometimes active politician in me…and ofcourse having failed miserably in that aspect, I must say society sometimes paints some of its members in a bad way.
Those kids are not the way they are because they wish to be so….it is just a matter of bad policies being in place. blame the people yu put in power……. start doing smthing about it…..its a long way off before we reach a perfect world(or a near-perfect one)