There have been extreme cases of cruelty done to children by parents and guardians in the course of behavioural correction. Such extreme or repeated infliction of pain has a strong impact in the life of the young persons. While ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ has survived to be an unwritten parenting principle, it is not the only thing that parents should offer to their children. Cruelty does not decrease resistance to change of behaviour. It has more potentiality to do the opposite, making it almost impossible to achieve the desired result.
The sociopolitical reality of all free and democratic states, like Tanzania, is hinged on a collaborative relationship between the people and those chosen to be leaders. Underlying this is the unity in the mind of the people, whose vision is(ideally) carried out by the leaders.
As such, leadership, at all levels, should have as its target, fulfilling the vision of the people, which is already implied, even when the leader employs his or her personal creativity.
While being young is not officially pronounced a crime, it is a criteria for numerous extreme judgments in society today. Contextualizing this discourse locally, there appears to be more negative things said about young people than the positives. If we do not challenge this mentality now, its roots will grow deeper.
If we adamantly remain stuck in the ways of the past, while adjustment will cause us no harm, our young people will always be overtaken by their global peer competitors.
The global diversity of cultures and heritage makes for an unimaginable learning corpus which no human person can exhaust. As such, a better starting point of discussing appreciation of cultural heritage is appreciation of culture itself.
The reason why the word ‘lifestyle’ is used to cover a whole lot of rejected behaviours is its perceived neutrality. When one says, ‘it’s just a lifestyle’ it suggests harmlessness and absence of need for interference as it is ‘just’ a lifestyle; Akin to saying, doing the same thing in a little bit of a different way. oung people are not at the service of lifestyles without a damage to their own very person.
The practice of having realistic plans and goals helps us to remain focused and to grow. Our resources, be it time, money, property, etc. can only be properly managed with clear plans and goals, otherwise they are all at risk of going to waste.
In many African countries and cultures, the biased thinking that a child cannot be brought up to be disciplined without being caned and physically punished is still flourishing. We need to join hands to end torture in children.
Short of appropriate limits, raising young people would become a dangerous “all-join” as Nigerians would say; A situation where everything is allowed, to any extent desired by the parts involved, for any reason, anywhere, and at any time. But this is not how life works.
One risk that social media has come with is the temptation to “record,” to “share,” to “post,” to “forward”, etc. There is, purportedly, not so much thinking involved. Today most people would assent that they tend to be more careful in public because they can end up becoming popular jokes and memes in a split second.
It is common to hear in the media, news, public addresses, celebrations, etc. that leaders are praised so much. Often times the praises are exaggerated as compared to the performance of these leaders. It is high time we question when all this began and where it is taking us as a people. Why do we entertain it?