They kill passion
Tumie Modise | Monday August 4, 2014 17:47
Now, Rre Mogae was neither an ordinary nor uptight President (not to say that we have ever had any uptight president) . He was known for calling a spade a spade and not a big spoon, as most of us would prefer to call it.
That was at a time when such killings were being committed at an all time high. Almost every week there were chilling stories of people (mostly males), bludgeoning and hacking their lovers to death, all in the name of ‘love’. The stupid things people do for love.
For some reason, at the height of those terrible times somebody out there bestowed the genocide with the fancy term, ‘passion killing’.
This is where the former President came in. Without mincing words, he condemned the term, only falling short of calling the act foolishness.
He poured scorn on the perpetrators, too. For a while the killings abated and the nation even breathed a sigh of relief thinking the madness was over. Far from it.
To this day, the genocide still continues. Teenagers have joined in, and not to be left behind grandparents have also come on board.
There is no age restriction, no class discrimination either. Meanwhile, families continue with the painful act of burying their daughters and sons.
Because at the time this madness started, everyone was stunned, I have come to the conclusion that in yesteryears this fashion was almost unheard of. This could only mean that our parents and grandparents were actually much smarter than we think we are.
With all our education (or miseducation), our emotional intelligence is rapidly dwindling. How else can we explain supposedly smart people killing others in cold blood over relationships?
People are funny, very funny. We live in a world in which we have accepted that we are living on borrowed time. We know that some day we will all die, one way or the other.
We live in a world in which it is easier to accept a parent’s death than rejection from a person you met in a bar. We also live in a world where, after years of one struggling through school, a dead beat relationship can render all that hard work null and void in just a heartbeat!
What, really, is wrong with people who kill others in the supposed name of love? I think they are not wired up correctly in their heads; that they easily short circuit when under pressure.
I honestly think our parents are raising a nation of cry babies. I also believe that the biblical rod is being spared. In the natural way of things, parents are supposed to mould and guide their children, but the roles now seem to have reversed.
Speaking of the rod, my own father was an avid fan of the rod. A firm disciplinarian, he was really a no nonsense parent, he still is.
To this day, I am never anywhere other than my house after sunset. On the rare occasions that I get to my own place late, I always get panic attacks at the gate and imagine I will find him in there, waiting with a stick.
Times have changed. Growing up, we used to hear stories of how newborn babies are slapped hard at birth on their bottoms after delivery.
It was only after becoming a mother myself that I understood why. By the way, it is true; babies get whacked right after birth!
While such an act it is done in the best interest of the child (to shock them and jumpstart them), it is consistent with discipline, in my opinion.
It is therefore my submission that children who grow up to be troublesome adults did not get their fair share of the rod when growing up.
Research shows that almost all children who are treated with kid gloves when growing up end up as immature adults later in life. The bad news is, they now become somebody else’s big problem! This is where the problem lies.
I dream of a world in which parents go back to the basics and don’t spare the rod, I know I don’t. A world in which we all aim to bring up real men and not insecure little boys.
What about assertive, strong and independent little girls? Instead of the mild bottom whacking at birth, which is supposed to make babies learn how to wail, how about midwives and doctors just whack them across the faces as well, open their eyes to the world at once, while at it? For how can one see the world if their eyes are closed?