By FIDELIS SUKINA
Violence runs rampant because of negligence to stop the
spread of it.
The latest of incidents to happen in PNG is the so called
cult practice and school fights by our young generations.
Just on Monday 6th October 2014 I saw a headline in
the National Newspaper about some school students from Port Moresby, six from Gerehu
Secondary and a lone student from POM Grammar, acting drunk and disorderly at
5-Mile next to the National Broadcasting Corporation.
I say this is not uncommon but truly has reared its ugly
head yet again, rough students continue to administer underage drink ups, and
seemingly it’s increasing each year,
The report stated that five of them were female Grade 9
students.
Acting officer-in-charge Anna Wills at the Boroko Juvenile
Justice Centre said some of the parents of the students were policemen who
turned up at the Boroko Police Station to get their children that Friday and
were advised to go to the center.
She said some children were confused and needed to be
directed constantly on where to go and what to do.
“There’s always peer pressure and parents’ negligence that
makes these children to act like this,” Wills said.
Why are students doing this, while their parents aren’t aware?
It’s sad that some of the students were the children of Police Officers.
What is society doing about this? Students need something to
keep their mind off this thought of drinking beer at such an early age.
Another recent issue is the school fights; growing up in
Port Moresby as a high school student I was involved in some of these so called
school fights and I tell you it was peer pressure and we felt we needed to be
in the circle with the rest of the boys defending our school, to think of it,
it was testosterone being a man defending what was your pride the school.’
Well that’s what I think, but through and through, PNG is a
country where we practice mediation and reconciliation, what we have come to
know as “outside of court dispute settlement”
And most of these fights were settled that way, but after
all those mediations and the breaking of bows and arrows as well exchanging of gifts,
we still continue to fight.
And now students have gone to the next level, using social
media to promote their caliber and threaten their foes
In a report by EMTV some time ago the use of social network
has aided the fueling of these school fights,
Student ring leaders posting on Face Book with homemade guns
were being praised by their peers, some even put comments praising the student
that was in picture.
Groups were being created to support their ridiculous cause;
they even openly debate and ridicule each other of Face Book.
This has gone extreme and to think they are just in
Secondary School, kids got a long way to go, what a way to start your
adolescents,
This is the type of behavior that is keeping our nation from
being at peace, students the future leaders throwing their education away to
drink and cause havoc,
What should be done about this? It all starts with the
family and at home; how the children are being looked after, remember your
first teachers are you parents,
But then again it’s about the society you’re bought up in,
we
are all born into a society that exists, and for those that see violence and
underage drinking as a simple norm that no one really cares about, they are the
ones that need to be identified, to be changed and turned into peer educators
for peace and gutpela sindaun
If this generation can be spared a future from violence and
hatred than we should look forward to a brighter Papua New Guinea,
I think one of the key areas is keeping the sports
competitions between schools alive and strong, like back in the past.
Where has all the competition for schools gone? I remember
growing up in Port Moresby with the Pinkini Sports at the Sir John Guise
Stadium back in early 2000, were we played Soccer from Under 8 to Under 18 in
our primary and secondary schools. And the famous inter-school sports carnival.
And of course the schools rugby
league completion, the last time I saw students playing was back in June this
year at the Unagi Oval, it was a sad site. The students were playing without
proper jerseys, and some didn’t even have coaches with them,
Frankly there is no support by the
adults and business houses toward promoting competition with schools, maybe if
they played together in the field, they could develop a communal understanding,
Kids these days are looking for
peer activities, why not give them the competitive edge as well, and with a
guiding adult I’m sure they would be respectful to him and themselves
Playing in a team is about playing
for each other, and for the competition, if you know someone in your completion
I’m sure you would wave at him, or pass a Hi! To him
If they respect themselves they
would respect their opponents, I know with sports violence in PNG, it’s a long
shot, but if we can nurture the students, to be in their schools and perform
their best and not causing violence it would be a break through.
I would not encourage teams from
provinces, it’s not good, it encourages fights, playing in schools is where the
diversity is, that’s when you would call someone from another province your
brother, that’s something new for a start and going all the way through till
the last game is the best thing to experience,
Plus sports encourages sober
habits and team work, perhaps with that team established, other organizations
could tap in and use the team to advocate for a better society through sports,
they could be the living testimonies of their plight.
Young adults and students love
sports, in PNG that’s like one of the past times, playing sports, and with a
well-organized competition, a respected adult as coach and a team to play for ,
I’m sure we would limit the school
fights and unnecessary drink ups,
It’s like the adults don’t even
care what their son is doing outside of school, only God can read minds,
parents cannot, ask questions and try to help kids understand, or support them
to do something like sports that can keep them away from underage drinking and
violence.
