Any society or a country incapable of maintaining the survival the young population is doomed to the death of its future adults. A young person is one who is not far advanced in life; he is still near his beginning with little practice or experience. A young man has not yet performed enough. Nevertheless, with the little he exercises, he does it with cleverness and enthusiastically. He is too daring to venture out with little anticipation of the consequences lurking yonder no matter what.
In the process of growth, the case of maturity plays a key role in the life of the youth; therefore, the real problems of the young man lie in the areas of social, emotional, and economic maturity. To a large extent, however, it is up to the young man, himself, his family, his friends, his school, and his society at large to determine whether or not he is to become fully adult. It is the enter play of these variables that have either positive or negative impact on the young man’s future life.
Over and above, parents can present the most important gifts, self-confidence and security to their children. Without these coordinated efforts the young man is left amidst physical, psychological and emotional wilderness, nobody and nowhere to turn to. The Intervention of all the stakeholders in the growth process of the young man necessitates an undivided and focused attention.
In the Ethiopian context, the youth comprise seventy percent of the total population. If well-tapped, under normal circumstance, these many young people can generate unfailing and unprecedented resources for the development of the country. Abreast of this, creating good and dependable citizens out of the young people is expected of the parents. Their role in nation-building endeavors is so vital that parents should shoulder the responsibility entrusted to them, by God and the country, unreservedly and with full commitment.
The very fact why these young people should be well-looked after and well mentored is simply because they are the major productive forces, the backbone of the nation’s economic leverage. As strength of the old wanes, immediate substitution of the youth is of paramount importance to keep the society going.
They take over the leading role with new vision and capacity to materialize them, yet with close supervision of the veterans who have long life experience. There should be a smooth flow during the transfer as the uncontrolled enthusiastic emotion of the young man can jeopardize the whole efforts. The wise guidance of the old, alongside the submissive obedience of the youth, can make the whole venture abundantly fruitful. Behaviorally the youth is fast, vigil, emotional, bright minded, and strong.
Attention accorded to the development young people by parents
For holistic development, the youth need to get the necessary care and control and follow-up from their parents. They should be provided with proper and balanced food to maintain physical and mental growth. They should be counseled to be in stable emotional state. Parents must make it their bounden duty to assist the youth to have holistic development to face the challenges that life presents eventually.
Of all things, man, by nature, yearns for love from friends and all his acquaintances, more so from his parents while growing up. Love is a strong driving force which willingly accomplishes things without compulsion. Love employs good will to create understanding between parents and children for any venture and the resultant desired success.
Children’s education, without which the young man cannot survive later in life, equally needs focus in this time of fast technological advancement. Only the properly educated person while young can cope with the hustles of modernity, the case which the parents should know better to academically equip their children for their future job security and economic benefits. Due to parents’ rejection and negligence of their off springs and their poverty, the youth are exposed to foreign perverse influences to compensate for the loss they encounter.
This fact, places the youth out of accepted life precepts and conduct themselves in the manner contrary to the norms of the society. Thus, they practice unethical life to the disappointment of the parents and the society at large. Coupled with this, the virtue of the people in the area, where the youth live, in raising the child has vanished and this has resulted in the absence of upright moral development of the young child whereby impoliteness and disrespect have become rampant as we daily witness.
Defiance of authorities, from the way the young people conduct themselves in their relationship with others, seems to have won societal approval and acceptance. The inculcation of the sentiment of individuality has ingrained self-seeking greed in the psychology of the youth. Thus, honesty has been pushed out of the way only to loosen the tie of trustworthiness among people.
The young man’s ego-centric attitude, in which he thinks of only for himself, is singled out to the extent he does not care about the interest of others at all. The development of such behavior is traced back to his childhood years. Lack of love and care parents the parents, at this stage, result in selfishness, perverted political views, racism and economic problems.
The government’s intervention in the development of the young people
The negligence of the parents, in the process of the up-bringing to council and discipline their children the situation which later becomes beyond their capacity should be intervened by the government strong arms. Lack of economic power on the part of the parents makes the young people to flee to other places to earn a living in which they find themselves in a fix as there may not be job opportunity available there.
Population explosion has encroached upon the rights of the young people to be well fed and be sent to good schools as it has extremely weakened the economic strength of the parents, the situation in which they find themselves even unable to piece ends together for their daily bread; as the population grows, demand and supply in which the consumers goods fall short of fair distribution and the cost rises higher than the money the parents can afford to pay for especially the food items for their children. Apparently, ill-fed children are physically stunted and mentally weak adversely affecting their academic performance, the cause for their dropping out of school and eventual exposition to negative influences.
Political instability and corruption that at times rock the country have their negative impact on child’s growth process. Unless a country is stable, the situation where things are not likely to change or improve, the strategic plans for education, health and security may not be implemented effectively for the development, particularly for the young people.
Lack of skills and knowledge of some members of the leadership, particularly in the lower echelon, when it comes to executing matters concerning the wellbeing of the child, is rather disheartening. The inflexibility of the authorities in adjusting to the fast moving international development and raising the students to that level and keeping pace with it is another embedment that the youth suffer from.
At this juncture, when affairs are in such hopeless state, the probability of corruption, the pursuit of only personal interest, and neglecting that of the young people, the future hubs of national development, is the worst treason the country suffers from. The person’s immorality, deprivation and dishonesty by taking bribes, harms the country far more than it benefits the criminal, the enemy of the country. Through such wicked or cruel acts and behavior, the criminal inflicts psychological assassination upon the young man, the future hope of the country, in whom much is invested.
Globalization and its burden
Globalization or Internationalism, due to its advanced information technology, even though it has good impact, it is observable it has misguided many young people’s view and acts to the wrong direction. Thus, the youth by neglecting their own country’s tradition, culture and experience and turn to more of worshiping the foreign ones. There is one fact that adopting good foreign culture is beneficial, but totally abandoning one’s own is scorned, denounced and rejected. The Amharic maxim ‘the salt that the seller underrates, the buyer does not buy it,’ holds water.
Furthermore, the invading technology influence enhances emigrating to where the youth thinks is the land of opportunity the idea which may not be always true. Current events tell us that unfortunately there are always bad instances of being devoured by animals. Drowning in the sea, being looked down upon as second-class citizens and being robbed and beaten to death, such is the result of migration, the news of which has become a commonplace these days.
The horror of globalization from its distorted perspective and application does not end there; it has exposed the young people to excess alcohol consumption and harmful habits. Furthermore, the youth, through the instrumentality of the face-book, have confused the people by feeding false information only to force them to take wrong and harmful direction that result in natural, social, political and economic disasters.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 27 October 2019
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
