Jackson's death lesson to immigrant kids

The Ghanaian immigrants' Kids and their Michael –Jackson's syndrome.

Blame your parents for your shortcomings and Iniquities.

RELAX, THIS IS NOT an Off-the –wall tribute or a thriller. I have no interest in rubbernecking or trivializing Michael Jackson's death---people make mistakes.

However, there are lessons to be learnt in every situation and tragedy. I believe from others, we learn our most vital and valuable lessons in life. Second, only to our own mistakes and unique experiences, we learn best from the experiences of those whom we most admire and respect---and in rare cases those we detest.

As we are all reacting with sadness of the sudden death of a songbird, Pop-superstar and dance - machine, Michael Jackson, there are other dimensions to his life that are emerging which need examination, attention, explanation, exclamation mark and reflection, which also mirrors the thinking of some Ghanaian immigrants' kids in the diaspora who don't get it.

His death brings up some important points in parenting, our kids' fantasies, peer pressure and society's unrealistic expectations.

The sad part of Michael Jackson's “HiStory” is that his father, Mr. Joseph Jackson's role in his life has been dissected and discredited to minimize its value and importance. And, that has cheapened the currency of parenthood in general and fatherhood in particular.

Sadly and suddenly, Michael Jackson's death had brought all the social “experts”out of the woodwork, who are analyzing his father's role in his twisted and turned life. They even attribute Michael Jackson's downfall to his father's disciplinary role. Oh, puh-lee-ze! Give me a break!

Question: What did his father do to warrant all that negative publicity in the media?

Let me see if I got it right:
First Mr. Joseph Jackson saw the talent his five boys possessed at, a very, very early stage of their lives and he worked hard to cultivate them. Yes, he pushed them to be what they could be. Perhaps seeing the number of kids in the family and the income of the household, his only ticket to a better life for his family was to harvest those talents and their creativity, to get out of the web of poverty. I'm talking about the afroed, pre-plastic-surgery, brown-skinned era.

Yes, he encouraged them to practice and practice and study. Yes, they had home tutors and they did not have enough time to play around and be influenced by the other neighborhood's kids who were equally talented as them. But they were different and much disciplined because their father was very protective to a fault. However, that is what every responsible parent is supposed to do. If you don't believe me look around in your community, every successful kind you know has (parents) who go against the conventional wisdom.

The truism of life is that, democracy works well in government, but not in parental consensus management. Democracy does not work for parents especially, when you want to feed your family and want a better life for your kids and see their future in constant struggle with other forces within the society.

In the eyes of the law and eyes of God, I guess we are all born equal, but thank God we are not born the same. Knowing this simple truth is a big step to realize your potentials, talents and limitations. In other words, mastering the art of finding what is good for you and your kids, is very important as a parent.

Through Mr. Jackson's leadership and parental guidance his kids became successful beyond their own imaginations. Michael in particular became a multimillionaire in his 20's, when his contemporaries were struggling on college campuses or at the McDonald's food assembly lines, flipping burgers. So in a nutshell, his father's crime was to seek the welfare of his kids and nurture their talents and career to yield an enviable dividend. It's unfair to beat this man in the media circuit for playing his meaningful role as a father and a provider.

He exemplifies the kind of parent most of our kids need-especially those who have lost their bearings and took the idea of the so-called 'American Dream' as shopping and consumption of material things, instead of playing to their personal strengths.

All began in Gary, Indiana:
Looking back, at former neighborhood of the Jacksons' family in Gary, Indiana it is obvious that the father of five boys and three girls had no other choice, but to push his kids to live up to their God- given potentials. Not only did he literally take ordinary kids and turned them into extraordinary celebrities, but he also turned them into money -making machines; with unyielding amount of hope and belief in the power of perseverance and passion. Mindful of the fact that weren't there equally talented kids besides the Jacksons, who did not make it that far? Could it be that they were not that fortunate to have a good parent who could push and guide them? There is every indication that the family was super –poor, so he had to do whatever he could to get his family out of the hands of poverty. As a result his kids' success defied everyone's expectation.

Was Mr. Jackson too strict on his kids? Probably. Does he love his kids; I can bet with my last dollar on that. The fact of the matter is Michael Jackson could have been nothing if it hadn't been his father's intuition and stewardship. So whether his father was strict or not is not the issue because he made Michael laugh all the way to the bank at a very, very tender age; while the rest of his age group barely survived.

Just like the Jacksons' family who escaped poverty by migrating from Gary, Indiana to protect and nurture the family's “assets”---the kids' talents, most of us (the first generation immigrants in the diaspora) migrated from our home land to escape poverty so as to enable us to give our offspring a better life we never had, when we were growing up in Ghana. In a way, if our quest to create a better life for them is seen as pushy and abusive, let it be.

The substance of this episode is that when Michael made it in the entertainment world he surrounded himself with 'advisers ' and social “experts”, who did not give a fig about him, but his money and thought of his father as a threat to their own interests. So they found every way to discredit his father and his role. It was an attempt for them to fix their own leaking financial faucet.

Then came the allegations of been abused by his father. Yes, they said Michael was allegedly abused by his father because he was robbed of his childhood. I beg your pardon? Oh, Lordly, what is wrong with this world? Remember, we are talking about a person who perhaps had the best childhood love, toys and other life amenities than 95- percent of us reading this article. Well, except if you thought of helping your kids to live up to their potentials as a crime and an “abusive” endeavor.  Continued    Source: Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi

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