THE NEW GENERATION

Feb 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The vandalism that was caused to the National Sports Hall this past week was not totally surprising. That venue has limited accommodation and if you have more children attending that the capacity, there are bound to be many left outside who will try their best to find a way in.
Yet, the measures taken to get inside surprised many.  Climbing through vents was to be expected.  But creating a huge hole in the concrete walls of the lavatory suggests that school children are now doing things which in the past would have been unimaginable.
We have all known about tunneling under fence in order to watch cricket. We have all found ways when we were young, of climbing trees to see a game. We must have seen or heard stories of school children scouting a venue to see if there are any holes in a fence that would allow free entry. These things happened and the authorities would try to plug the gaps so as to prevent unauthorised entry.
Many have had the experience of waiting outside a cricket ground waiting for a batsman to hit a six, so that they could pick up the ball and gain free admission into the ground.  Then there was the case of sticking around by the gate until after the tea session when the gateman would allow you a free passage.
Those incidents were all part of growing up. It now seems, though, that growing up has taken on a completely different dimension.  It now seems that rather than simply climbing through cracks between the ceiling and the wall, there is a preference of simply creating a huge hole in the walls of the building.
I do not know who caused the damage to the National Sports Hall. What I do know is that that hole could not have been caused by a pencil point. It would be interesting to find out just who were involved in this act of vandalism and just what did they use.I would not blame the police for what happened. The police would have had their hands full from trying to control the large numbers that packed into the hall. They would have also been seriously pressed to control those who were outside trying to gain entry.
The real blame should be laid at those who organised the event and who did not cater for the large crown that descended on the venue. Since last year it should have been clear that the National Sports Hall was too small to accommodate this activity which should have been moved to the National Park.
In addition, a fee should have been charged. We seem to always feel in this country that things associated with children’s participation in Mashramani should always be free. And by not charging an entrance fee for these events, there is usually a huge and unmanageable turnout. If a fee of one hundred dollars per child was charged, the numbers would have been reduced and there would have been greater order. I hope the organizers learn from this experience.
I also hope that all concerned- the Ministry, teachers and parents study the body and vocal language of the children who were watching the proceedings. It seems to me that every time a performer or s group of performer did something which involved the movement of their lower body, there were huge cheers coming from the kids in the stands.
Whenever a child moved her waistline or bent over backwards, the children went wild with excitement.
And they went wild with this excitement because they were interpreting every such move as being sexually suggestive when it was not.
This shows that we have real problem with our kids and that our basic human institutions- the family, the churches and our schools are failing in imparting strong moral values to our children.
I am greatly disturbed by the roars of approval from the stands whenever certain gyrations are made. I can just imagine what is going through the minds of some kids.
And yet when I saw other great dance moves by some performers, moves which are very difficult to perform and which require great skill and dexterity; there were no applause coming from the stands.
But so long as a female did something that could be classified as a “wine” or a “bend over” the children in the stands went crazy with excitement.
We need to make a conscious effort to deemphasize these things. We need children to appreciate the training, effort and creativity that go into these dances and not to only view what is being presented through perverted lens.
This training needs to begin in the home, and reinforced in schools. We need to begin guidance sessions for children not in school but at home so that children know what is appropriate behaviour and what is not and so that they can begin to appreciate art and artistry rather than only see the banal side to these things.

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