Commentary by Kyle Cowan
Just last week, a group of teenage boys took it upon themselves to break into the bathrooms at the Oval Track.
They broke everything in sight, including the flushing mechanisms. Why, do you ask? According to what one of the boys told a policeman, ‘just for fun’.
This is where the problem starts; what teenagers constitute as ‘fun’.
Five Cent Piece’s parents played hide-and-seek or kleilat, or kept themselves busy in a manner that wouldn’t warrant a hiding.
At some point, harmless fun stops being harmless, and starts making a dent in bank balances. Five Cent Piece could rant on and on about the thousands of Rands’ worth of damage left in the wake of the vandalism, but the root cause is the crux of the decline in standards.
Youngsters these days are ‘sexting’ and smoking, often at the same time. Sex has become a part of the social ladder and alcohol and cigarettes are the key to unlocking the door.
The ‘laaities’ walk around with their hats back to front, smoking, pants around their knees, and reckon they are ‘groot’. Some young girls dress like strippers to get attention, and the boys compare notes.
And so they add, day after day, to the absolute decline in moral and social standards. Ask why South Africa has seen so very few great innovators in the past five years? Because our youth are too busy posting pictures of their scantily clad posteriors and inviting random guys over for a bit of fun. Soon they are pregnant, dumb and without a paddle.
So breaking into a bathroom and breaking stuff is no big deal, say you? Five Cent Piece disagrees. It’s a marker; it’s a sign. Its glaring red neon letters practically scream: Breaking down a bathroom today, destroy lives tomorrow.
By no stretch of the imagination, these youngsters will probably end up drunk or high behind the wheel of a car, a car they stole no less, because jobs are for people who aren’t cool. And then innocent people die.
But where do we stand, as parents? You hold the responsibility in your hands. Ultimately, you are responsible for the manner in which your offspring conduct themselves. If you don’t agree, you shouldn’t be a parent. Period.
Where are the days when getting up to no good got you six lashes from the police, and another six from your father when you got home?
Take a deep breath…it’s not all bad. The rotten apples are one in a dozen, but where does it end, or start? This country needs all the help it can get, and the help won’t be coming from the kids too worried about the next party to even care.
So boys and girls, roll your joints, smoke your cigarettes and drink your cheap alcohol. But don’t you dare turn around 20 years from now, and blame society for all the mistakes you might make.
