Home in Crisis.

Certain opportunities now available to this generation exceed our fore parent’s wildest dreams. Advancement and breakthroughs in varies human endeavours has opened new frontier of achievement and power. It also offers unlimited possibilities for generations to follow. One would think that perhaps homes as the smallest unit of the human society ought to be better for it. However, a reflection on the state of our homes is giving no indication of a happy ending. A whole new set of environment and cultural pressure never imagined a generation ago is already waging war on would be future of our society. The time to confront it is now.

There is no doubt that mankind have gone a little well above average at unlocking the potential of the natural earth. Amazing evidences abounds in our homes and we pride ourselves about these gadgets almost in everything. Immediately man perfect space landing, steps on the moon, conceived the possibility of cloning his kind, the next things was a desire to live in another planet. Almost everything imaginable is possible this day with technology. Modern tools in homes enable cross-continental communications with friends. You don’t have to travel to the Kenya; the culture in its full colour is free and accessible at any internet terminal. The speed at which this is impacting our cultural essence is yet to be valued. But we all know online contact don’t gratifies as would warm embrace. And neither would phone voices nor webcam smile replace it. The warmth in an embrace lies an inch away, when eyes meet eyes, and voice meets voice, and bodies’ touches the other.

We are plagued by an onslaught of abhorrent media images, substandard education and a growing insecurity in the system. Obsession with sex and materialism is the order. At some point, I got tired of television viewing or listening to radio. Their programmes are too shallow. Most of the footage paraded foreign culture that keep eroding our cherished heritage. What’s more disheartening is that these are the one that get sponsored. Radio and TV stations are falling for the cheap way of surviving instead of investing in qualitative developmental programmes. Just about anybody can present radio or TV programmes; all you need is a three months tutorial in relationship mantras, a couple of online browsing to familiarize with goings-on in the entertainment industry and, you are on air presenting. It is that cheap. Ironically, what’s been served is the same ‘sacrilegious’ stuffs that our moral and religious institutions have been condemning. Even the churches are buying these lies of overt sexism and materialism. I hate to think that we have lost it. Our society is under siege; the battle ground is nowhere but our home. The evidence is out there. If you want to know how sold-out we are, go to the schools; universities are the worst culprit. It’s in the name of fashion; being in vogue that our girls are happily walking the street with no cloths on. Worst still, it’s becoming fashionable for boys too to show off their pants. Children walking around in tattered cloths used to be a sign of poverty in my green days. Now it’s the freakiest fashion statement around. And I wonder what legacy is there to be left for posterity. Perhaps, a return to the Stone Age will pacify this lustful penchant.

A persistent fragmentation of families have placed additional emotional burdens on too many of our children, girls as well as boys, who never know dedicated adult attention during their critical coming of age. Critics will be quick to say this is what is obtainable elsewhere. Lest you forget, our society is yet to match the advancement in those nations. When we do, what becomes of us? Parents rush out too early and returns home too late to provide any warmth or care. Schools curricular are too fractionized to redress the influx of myriads exposure wagging war on homes. The religious institutions are getting too spiritual for the younger generation. And then, the accusing finger is pointed: lack of good leader, good policy, policy implementation, unemployment, bad economy, marriage break ups and the entire list.

A decent into chaos is imminent if something is not done and quickly. Hundreds of our youths are passing through the motion of neglect and we dare to call them ‘social miscreants’. Campus vices already match in intensity with organized crimes. The implication for us is gross; we have a neglected generation unprepared to win against the negative societal influences that stream their way into the frontier. For goodness’ sake, do we somebody to preach this gospel to us that things are not right? I said, the reason we have lots of youth struggling it out with overnight browsing in cybercafé is because the home security in not there. These menaces have their roots in the failure of the homes to provide and care. When there are too many ill-equipped parents in the system, what are we to expect from their offspring? Survival instinct is bound to push any children to the street. Some parents don’t even care anymore and those who do don’t have a say.

Quite frankly, many of our children are truly amazing. They are blessed with options and opportunities to shine and to mature into happy and whole adults. Yet – and this is where the war comes in – they must make their way in an environment and culture overwrought with explicit sex, violence materialism and insecurity of life. The depiction of women in the media are simply too trashy, too dumb, too demeaning. Timely sex education is good and needful to prepare the mind and body for greater success. But this deafening noise about the use of condom is passing a wrong signal. Again, an epidemic of fragile families and absent parents, with ever-present needs, puts many of our children (girls especially) at risk of becoming a victims rather than victors in life. There is a clarion call on all the managers of home to put more effort in their task of nurturing the individual for positive social contribution. This appeal can fall on deaf ear if its not sounded and supported by the all the social institutions responsible. The thought about the future is a concern for the people of the present because it belongs to our children and their children’s children.