Who Breeds Vandals?

By Ngu Tekwe Samuel

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines vandalism as the crime of destroying or damaging something, especially public property, deliberately and for no good reason. A vandal is therefore a person who commits acts of vandalism. We are witnesses of past and recent acts of vandalism especially that which happened in Cameroon a couple of weeks ago. It is easy to condemn those we saw at the scene, especially the youths. Perhaps it is more appropriate
to ask who is really responsible. Are there other forces behind?

Maybe the best thing is to look at those involved in these inhuman acts. There are orphans who might be victims of AIDS, those who lost their parents at early age through other disasters, those whose parents lost their job in one of the State Corporation or private companies, or why not disgruntled unemployed graduates.

Who takes the statistics of such children and who cares for them? Children from single parents might have missed the love of a mother or the control and love of the father. The society too may fail in its duty to provide what they lacked in their homes. There are children from problematic homes where parents have no respect for one another. There may be fighting as well as the use of vulgar language. Parents may have no common plan for their children’s future.

Children of widows and widowers may be sickly and poor and lack basic care. Some parents soon depend too early on their children who are not yet viable. Children that push the truck and off-load vehicles try to fend for themselves too early. If high taxes don’t make them penniless they become acquainted with street life at an early age. They have lost their innocence already.

Children from wealthy homes may rarely feel the presence of one or all of the parents. Left to the
care of the baby-sitters they can give society half-baked training. Most of these house helps are
victims of trauma from poor homes and they pass these lapses to so-called well-to-do homes. The economic situation of our country and the high death rates can only populate the nation with youths that are already delinquent.

The next stop for the lucky ones may be the school. What are the conditions of the teachers that might make an impression on them? How long is the teacher with them? How many of them does he teach at a time? Imagine that you have a class made of the categories of children given above. The few that find themselves in the hands of some teachers may not receive the best
treat. While some might be abused further because of their vulnerability, others would be too traumatized to learn. Are there provisions in our institutions to cater for the recalcitrant dropouts?

When they have lost their homes what next? The society says it is none of its business. Nobody bothers about the food, health, employment and marriage that the adult world is supposed to bequeath to these children. If no one listens to them and cares about their plight
what happens to them when they are about thirty? The lawmakers or enforcement officer comes and clams down on these wayward lads without asking themselves what actually went wrong that they behave the way they do. We are so eager to harvest from where we did not sow. Where were these laws at the time the children needed formation and molding? Should the law not mould rather than punish?

Where is the government that is supposed to regulate the welfare of the children, their parents, and guardians? When the youths are deliberately sidelined, that is not given due attention with regards to their existence and well – being, we can only reap what we sow. Mission schools do a lot but this is only a small percentage. Why is conduct not given a priority in preparing the youth for their future in an environment that is already rotten? In some countries the state pays those who are unemployed. The law protects the young, sometimes even against their parents when they prove unhelpful. The worse thing the state can do is to turn a blind eye to the plight of the young or to be heartless when they are desperate. It gives them the feeling that they do not belong; it is their country. Then, why were they born here? For a young to curse the day he was born is not good news for the nation, his parents and the society. Is calling a deprived child vandal making him more cultured or traumatized? I hope the man who does that will have a comfortable seat in God’s Kingdom. But he has an axe to grind in order to be freed from
condemnation.