Saturday 20 August 2016

The Prevalent issue of lack of respect amongst youths in contemporary times.

Many a time Elders most especially African parents often stress the need for children and youths alike to cultivate the habitual nature of respecting and greeting elders. This attitude was hitherto adhered to strictly but in the 21st century, this culture of respect for elders began to dwindle drastically. A number of reasons have been put forward as to the cause of this negative trend. These include;
1. Failure on the part of Parents to instill the "greeting culture" into their children.
2. Exposure to such trend through the availability of western movies in which children show little or no respect to their elders.
3. The African Children themselves claiming that the "greeting culture" is old fashioned.
4. Some Elders don't respond when they are greeted.
These and many more are the reasons given as an explanation of the ill manner portrayed by youngsters today.
Not too long ago I was driving into my school compound through the main gate in company of a youngster. I greeted the security officer who gave me a gate pass and to my dismay he didn't reply. I felt bad (I must confess) but I drove past him and continued my journey. The youngster accompanying me saw the look on my face and putting "1 and 2" together he figured out that the reason why I was not all smiling was due to the fact that I was snubbed at the gate a while ago. Having known me for a while and my constant adjudication for people to always greet elders, he began to put forward reasons why he ordinarily does not greet some certain people and this included the "snubbing ish". After much haggle we finally settled the issue by me telling him to keep on greeting elders because it's the right thing to do at all times and it also has its reward.
  So many other persons have various painful experiences while trying to exchange pleasantries with elders and getting snubbed. These persons sometimes resolve to keep their cool and continue to greet but this is not admissible to all due to the fact that we all have our "elastic limits" by which when stretched beyond limit, may snap and give room to a cantankerous situation.
  In suggesting a solution, when we are faced with such situations, we should try as much as possible to "play the fool" and move past the scene at that particular time;
reason being that it takes absolutely nothing to greet a person and even if they snub us,  it equally takes absolute nothing from us to go our way without creating a scene that would either make us suffer grievous bodily or emotional harm.
Finally as a concluding sentence, I would say that it pays to be respectful at all times because by so doing, people have received unmerited favours from others.
Da Jandy

7 comments:

  1. Nice one Jandy. I totally agree with your submission.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Issorite. Jandy is now a writer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If i greet somebody and the person doesn't answer, i walk closer to the person and keep greeting until i'm answered.How dare any human waste my greeting like that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. If i greet somebody and the person doesn't answer, i walk closer to the person and keep greeting until i'm answered.How dare any human waste my greeting like that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe I know people who do same. It's the best actually but you ought to access the mood of the person you greeted and if you deduce he or she is in a bad mood then I would advise you retreat so as not to create a scene o.

      Delete