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09.04.2009 Feature Article

INDISCIPLINE AMONG THE ELDERLY

INDISCIPLINE AMONG THE ELDERLY
09.04.2009 LISTEN

I would rather drink from the belly of a baboon than pen down this piece but guess what, I have a fully loaded nine millimetre gun pointed to mine immature head and so I have no other option than to write this piece.

Indiscipline, if I am pressed hard by the gun on mine head to define in simple terms, I would say is behaving out of order. That is moving away from the normal as in light travelling from a less dense medium to a denser medium, the rays automatically move away from the normal. This theory is easy to understand that the dopiest guy in class back at SHS could rattle it out faster than the rapper Twister could to his lyrics.

Let me be more serous now, indiscipline is now so much attached to the youth as a new born baby is to its mother breast so much so that separation would cause a sudden out burst of a loud deafening cry in the case of the baby and with the youth it is almost impossible.

Relating indiscipline to the elderly would be like bringing two bar magnets of like poles together. There is automatically a strong repulsion. At least this is what society makes us believe. I in person dissociate myself from this myopic point of view and am focused by a diverging or concave lens to see the other side of the argument vividly.

A youth from mine perspective is a person below the age of thirty five (35). That means anyone above thirty six (36) years is considered an elder and should be respected as such.

The front pages of news papers have been taken over by rape cases. For instance 'a man of 45 years defiles a girl of 5 years', 'a woman of 50 years forces a boy of 15 years into oral sex', are captions that are all over our news papers. I am waiting for someone to tell me that rape is a disciplined behaviour. That person's brain must have been crushed as does the hard disk of a virus infected computer. Rape is most definitely an undisciplined behaviour and should be frowned on by society. Rape cases as it were are more dominant among the elderly than the youth as messenger RNA is more dominant than transfer RNA in the formation of proteins in humans. Sorry this is Biology not English.

Fornication is as undisciplined as adultery is. Adultery is even worse because it breaks a commandment of the Almighty God. Adultery is basically a disease of the elderly as rabies is a disease of dogs. A survey of hotels would inform you that elders of our society flock in and out of these hotels with sexual mates they are not married to, to have at least the best ten minutes of their lives. In fact my point would clearer if it is related to the minister who on attending an HIV/AIDS conference made twice in the process with another elderly woman at the same conference. What a shame. This would tell you that the elderly are as undisciplined as the youth.

Now, I do not know if bribery, corruption and embezzlement of funds fit into the category of undisciplined behaviours. On a second thought I think I am 99% sure that it does. The 1% left is given off due to the wear and tear of mine brain cell as a result of over thinking. Bribery, corruption and embezzlement of funds is a major characteristic of the elderly as power failure (lights off) is a major characteristic of Mampong- Akuapem, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

The use of abusive words, hot exchanges and insults are other traits of the elderly that cannot be over looked. This point cannot be emphasised without going into the parliament house. This is a house that is mostly respected and those who find their way into this air- conditioned room are termed as honourables. Not with me though. This is a house where people argue like two useless me fighting over another useless woman. They use all sorts of abusive words that the rapper Marshal Matters (Eminem) will not use in his lyrics. Further more the 2008 campaign trill is a good example to buttress this point. The instances where abusive languages were used on the political plat forms are so obvious that anyone who can not recall them must have had his or her chambers of memory vacuumed.

Other instances such as pilfering, stealing, arm robbery, lying, pornography and so on are all forms of undisciplined behaviours that the elderly engage in. These will not be elaborated because a 5 year old can point out his or her parents as been involved in some or all of these behaviours.

On the solutions to indiscipline among the youth, the elderly advice that reading is the antidote to this problem. I want to state here that if the elderly were so involved in reading, why would some of them if not all at the parliament house approve of the ex gracia for the president and other state functionaries without reading through the proposal. They should give us a break.

It is often said that the youth are the future leaders, but I say that the elderly are the present leaders and must live lives weathy of emulation.

DENNIS GOOKYI
([email protected])

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