Thursday, April 03, 2008 Editorial: It takes a village
"IT TAKES a village to raise a child" is an African saying often repeated by feminists and social workers.
But what we see in our midst points to a very dysfunctional village as the young prowl the night, break out in riots we've never seen in number and in frequency before, and bring around birth certificates ready to taunt policemen all set to arrest them for crimes the older folk couldn't have imagined a kid could do.
As we all point to the parents for not having control of their children, and then point to the government for not providing jobs for parents so that they can have time and enthusiasm to attend to their children, and then point to our Church for not providing the spiritual guidance to the youth. And then we see ourselves and our community, as it is today, and getting worse.
Admittedly, we're in a quagmire of a situation that we no longer have control of, much like the parents of these wayward children who see the police as people to taunt and play hide-and-seek with. The number of times one escapes from the grips of the police, the number of times one leaves the confines of the detention cell, and the number of times one fires a gun to scare away a rival gang (or kill a rival gang member), are virtual medals that the young seem to aspire for, proofs of their being tough, and their ticket to adulation of their peers. The vagaries of youth that when left unchecked will bring forth a criminal adult. Much like the children we have today.
But, there are many things we don't have much control over, these wayward minors are but one of them. But like not having much control over the rice shortage, we can still eat anyway. Meaning, we may not have much control over the waywardness of the children in blighted communities, but we can have control over what kind of communities we live in. Start with your street. Be the first in your block to reach out to your neighbor, not to exchange gossip, but to extend advices, help, suggestions, and even just asking how your neighbors are.
We have long passed the blame on everyone else, it's time we say I am concerned whether your village may be in posh Insular or at the dumpsite in New Carmen.
It does take a village to raise a child. But if we really want that kind of support, we only have to look at ourselves. Do we see ourselves as part of the village? The state of our wayward young today stemmed not when inner cities started to grow so fast while job opportunities remained scarce, it started when we became too busy with our own concerns and too eaten up by our own self-righteousness to care and tacitly allowed the bullets to end the problem caused by those who went wayward. This goes to all of us: the parents, the neighbors, the leaders, the Church... the village.
