Where are the voices?

The August winds have started and the winds of change are spreading through South Africa.   It is an exciting time in our history as we have experienced so much change in our lifetimes.   Change for the better and change for the worst.

I grew up in the 60’s where the youth fought for free love, the right to choose what to do with their bodies, the right to freedom of choice in all sorts.   Drugs played a huge role in society.   Music was exploratory and wonderful and still rates as some of the best today!

We wanted censorship to be revoked.   We wanted freedom to read, to watch adult films, we wanted freedom to mix with whoever we wanted.   We wanted a free and fair society and in 1994 we thought we had got it!

The voice of the church was loud!    Fire and brimstone railed from the pulpits and the more we said we were not preaching anarchy just freedom to express ourselves the more hell broke loose.

What did we get?

Pornography, violence, paedophilia, serial murderers by the hundreds, HIV and Aids, fraud and corruption, drugs in an unprecedented volume, protests and more and more violence, the total breakdown of Society’s moral fibre! 

The rule of law no longer seems to apply and parents, churches, businesses and schools are no longer instilling ethical and moral principles in the lives of their children or workers.   They are not leading by example.   How can we expect the youth of today to know the difference between right and wrong?   How can we expect them to make an informed decision or have an informed opinion?

Recently at a discussion at the Franschoek Literary Festival the topic  ‘Activism in the 60’s versus activism today’ I listened to a heated exchange between past activists and today’s youth.   I was amazed!

We have come a long way in the past 40 years.

The youth of today are fighting everything for the sake of fighting.    The student movement is not really about ‘Fees falling’   it is about creating anarchy.   They are the privileged few who are ruining things for the’ have nots’!

The youth of today are the products of generations of children who have been deprived of proper education.   They have been disenfranchised by their leaders as they have not been afforded the very basic human right - the right to decent education.

Many of them are on the streets.   Unskilled, jobless and hungry and possibly dying of HIV AIDS!

You would think that those who have come up through the ranks and been afforded the privilege to attend University would have compassion enough to work hard and better themselves so that they can reach out to their fellow human beings. No they are causing anarchy on the campuses.

Where are the voices?

The voice of the Church!

The voice of parents!

The voice of the heads of other religions!

The voice of Business leaders!

The voice of the Government!

And more importantly the voices of the Public!

Wrong is wrong.   Unlawful deeds will be dealt with by the law.   Nobody is above the law!

Jonathen Jansen says in in his column in The Times newspaper (4^th August, 2016)

‘Institutions that were built up over decades, sometimes over a century, are crumbling before our eyes without a whimper from the public.   You are more likely to see anxious public reaction to mountain fires threatening homes on the False Bay coastline than to get a response to the imminent demise of our universities’.

The youth have no respect for their elders and why should they?   What have we done to earn their respect?

The buck stops here!

How do we change this status quo?

Each and every one of us has a role to play.   We need to stand together and say enough is enough.   No more anarchy in our streets, no more anarchy in our Universities.

Church leaders must speak out.   Business leaders must make plans to reach out to the youth to train them.   Government needs to weed out the bad apples, spend more money on service delivery than on their salaries especially where education is concerned, and parents need to take on their proper responsibilities.   The Police and the law courts need to jack up their systems and become efficient again.

Deal harshly with the perpetrators and leaders.   Open negotiations with the reasonable voices.   There are always answers to problems.   Get rid of the Corrupt.   Get rid of the drug dealers and traffickers.

Other countries can do it so can we!

Use your voice!