Cry, our beloved children

Tumie Modise | Monday March 16, 2015 16:51

Because for months now, not a month has passed where strange things did not happen.  All of a sudden, and out of nowhere, we are a nation possessed and like bunnies on steroids; we are doing all sorts of crazy and unbelievable things! If it is not adults prancing around half naked, then it is a bunch of scantily dressed youth stripping and dancing at local clubs.

By my very own nature, I generally just mind my own business; I am usually too busy to even concern myself with what other people get up to. Life is short and I try as much as possible to make the best of whatever little time I may be left with on earth. It is no death wish, just being real.

Nothing could have prepared some of us for last week right here in this country. Like a veld fire, the whole thing started off as a mere rumour but within hours the whole thing had escalated into full blown ‘breaking news’. I could be wrong but this issue may have made a notable impact even on the Richter scale!

Thanks to this family paper, going into the full gory details would be grossly improper! Nonetheless what happened shocked me, and I imagine, even many sane parents of this country. A recording is making rounds and according to the twisted heads that watched and continue to circulate it, in it are three youths, a female and two males. Perhaps owing to the geographical location of the crime scene, some people would want us to believe that the kids must have been high on something. Yet others disagree and reckon that what happened is just a true reflection of what we have become as a nation.

The shocking thing is not so much what the children supposedly did (because I could not bring myself to watch). For me, the reaction by some adults and parents alike is downright appalling. If embarrassment was death, I would have died several times last week, in fact I would have been a troubled ghost by now. Because, just how do grownups get excited over a silly immoral tape made by teens? Where does a parent even get the urge to watch such vile a recording and worse, what if they discovered their own kids starring on such a tape? Don’t get me wrong, I am not perfect; I have never ever claimed to be. I own no moral horse, heck I don’t even own a cat. But I am a parent and unfortunately, a parent’s main role is to constantly worry and fuss about children.

The tape is still circulating and for some, the level of excitement of the tape is far from over. This again, brings up the issue of laws concerning pornographic material in this country. Could Kgosi Kgafela have been right about us only a few weeks ago? But perhaps this also brings up the issue of women and their rights.

Could it be that our focus is all on women’s issues, so much that we have completely ignored the plight of the girl child? To be honest, at this rate the girl child will soon fast become extinct in this county!

Now with last week’s incident, the incident is now very much our business, thanks to the people who were probably overwhelmed by it, then decided it was either too traumatic or simply too good to share.

I judge no one but judging from the reported downloads of the tape, which are said to have been unprecedented, it is safe to conclude that some sector of our society were hugely aroused by the tape. Whatever the case is, the tape was unfortunate and regrettable on many fronts. The worst thing about it is that parents now face the daunting task of having to explain it to their own children.

Without sounding insensitive, childless adults are turning out to be the luckiest people of this century. Evidently, sleepless nights and buckets of stinking nappies are nothing compared to what today’s parents goes through for the rest of their lives.

Every time I am home with my mother, I always observe that whenever she prays, which is minimum six times a day, ninety percent of her prayers are about us, her kids, where she even mentions each one of us by name! Add the four of us plus our nine children and you better be kneeling comfortably when she prays!

 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”- Proverbs 22:6