Alcohol link to tavern deaths

AFTER the report of the tragic incident at Enyobeni Tavern, there is a burning fire on social media. Some are blaming the “1980s” for failing to be good role models to the 2000s generation, some are blaming the “2000s” for being the most irresponsible, unruly, and difficult generation. Throwing stones and pointing fingers will not help.

One should not ignore the fact that the generational shift is natural; we are living in an ever-changing world, one way or another we may not expect generation 2000 to behave like those of the 1990s and 1980s, because the world has changed.

Who is to blame? Are we blaming Time for this generational shift? Are we blaming parents for failing to bring discipline? Are we blaming society itself for failing to come up with programmes for mentoring youth? Are we blaming basic education for failing our beautiful children? Why should we blame someone/something? Is blaming each other the solution to this problem? Directly or indirectly, we are all responsible for this tragedy.

The main problem lies in the semantic shift of “happiness”. To some people “Happiness is a four-letter word”, to others it is partying and hook-up.

Social media plays the protagonist’s role in changing the perception of happiness. As a result, teenagers no longer find participating in sports and music interesting. What they do is party and maybe study when they have a chance to do so.

They are not to be blamed, but we should sit down as a country and do an introspection of what we post on social media, on how we depict happiness on social media, because our teenagers are mostly influenced by social media.

Happiness is no longer a “four-letter word” (meaning it is no longer a simple concept), but it is alcohol, nakedness, irresponsible sex, artificial beauty, popularity etcetera. This is portrayed all over the media. The most rated music videos have something to do with naked people, popping of champagne, and artificial beauty here and there.

On social media, people are posting more about alcohol and taverns than sports and books.

To a young person who is watching this, it seems like alcohol is the source of happiness. Why blame them for going to shebeens at the age of 13 if we are the ones (adults) suffocating them with alcohol posts on social media?

On Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and WhatsApp statuses, people are advertising alcohol, and drunken people are portrayed as the happiest and most stress-free people on Earth.

As people learn more from actions than words, teenagers perceive alcohol as the source of happiness; and when celebrating something they drink irrespective of their age.

I am just wondering, with the Enyobeni incident, if parents teach their children enough to be independent? How does a 13-year-old not sleep at home and the parent has not noticed? Is it time or social factors and privilege that the youth have now? Back then every family stipulated that everyone must be home before a certain time and parents ensured that everyone was home.

It is so unfortunate that the parents we are talking about are the 1980s and 1990s generation who are still young, on their own and they still make restless mistakes.

Therefore, how can they handle their teenagers because in the societies we come from, in the society we live in, the communities, families, extended family and friends, alcohol is easily accessible?

I come from a society where parents find it acceptable to send their underage children to buy alcohol and to drink in front of them; and the tavern owners find it easy to sell alcohol to the child, even though they know very well that according to the law, alcohol should not be sold to anyone under the age of 18.

This may create curiosity in children who, after seeing their parents happy under the influence of alcohol, want to try it out.

We are at the point where, for youth, if there’s no alcohol there’s no fun; it’s a national anthem to them. However, one may ask who came up with this notion?

How did we end up being so dependent on alcohol? On social media and television, drinking is not shunned, instead people are amazed if you are not drinking. So what should we do?

Do we alienate our children from technology, social media, or from any other source of communication? And if we do, what is the outcome? Won’t they find it difficult to adjust and align to the 4th industrial revolution since everything is artificial intelligence? How much content should our social media be able to offer for an adolescent to see? How about they ban every post related to alcohol on social media?

As they say, it takes a community to raise a child. We cannot put the responsibility of raising these young ones on their parents alone; we are responsible as a community, country, and globe at large.

One of the amicable solutions to the above-proposed problem is trying to be good role models to these young people, and to post constructive factors on social media. Second, children should be taught about drinking responsibly and how to drink safely in clubs.

Third, the school management should remember that education is not only limited to the classroom, teaching is not only about suffocating learners with content from textbooks, but it is more about moulding and preparing learners for life beyond the classroom.

In most schools it is all about teaching and learning; schools are rarely catering for sports, music, talent shows, and other entertainment activities which they used to keep learners occupied with during their spare time.

Those activities are no longer available in most schools hence the only tool that learners find of interest is social media.