Rich Son,Poor Son-A study of morals
Today, I am posting an article which is important for every young person to know about. This is an article which talks about how people from different societies adjust to people in their surroundings. I believe that this article shows us a reality of life which we forgive to accept most of the times.
By: Manasi Prasai
In a heterogeneous neighborhood one is likely to find all kinds of people .These people, when set in simple classification, are Rich Dads and Poor Dads. So, is it not obvious to find Rich Sons and Poor Sons? These sons know who they are and who the other is .In time they create an unofficial rivalry, each looking for an opportunity to browbeat the other, Rich with his latest gadgets and Poor with his street-smart ways. The Rich kid with his rich cousins and rich friends assembles on the roof of his house which he calls his fort while the Poor kid tries to use as much of the street’s nooks and corners for his line of defense of course with his own cluster of poor friends and siblings. Rich kid and his battalion has the latest toy guns loaded with rubber bullets which they shoot down generously. The Poor kid’s cluster has their legs to run or duck just in time to miss being
Hit. If they succeed in ducking to miss the bullet they all shout in glee and mockingly “You missed son of******”
“Not for long a******” comes a curt answer from above.
You must have noticed the only things they both share, the crude language and their hate for opposite class. Whatever happened to all the moral studies classes at school? The lessons of love and brotherhood, peace and friendship. I’m sure they love reading the stories in moral studies’ books and I bet they get A’s in this subject because it isn’t political science to learn morals but to follow it ……well that’s not political science either. To be just and moral and to induce examples of Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Buddha is not everyone’s mug of coffee. The moral science books contain stories with morals at the end and that’s where it ends. You close the chapter and you lock the morals…inside the book.
A French lawyer I am acquainted with asked informally to a fellow Nepali lawyer during a meeting one day, what kind of moral lessons are taught to Nepali children and who are presented as examples of moral integrity? The Nepali lawyer proudly explained the teachings of Buddha and said since Buddha was born in Nepal he was idolized as a moral human and not to forget Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, Gandhi etc etc, he went on and on. The conversation ended when The French guy said “Ok that’s good I get it, but could you explain why the leaders of Nepal are like the way they are if they had been idolizing Buddha since childhood?”…Good question but disappointingly for him he didn’t get the answer he wanted. Are we teaching our children morals or are we only making them mug up the lessons for exams? Do we really idolize Buddha and not a genocidal maniac? Should the Rich kid invite the Poor kid to play with him? Feel free to discuss…
Well,moral value is a big problem in Asia but in the western world it doesn’t exist.People don’t know how to behave with their parents or teachers.Use of slangs is a problem too for us ‘westerners’.I don’t think there has been much action taken by parents (this is where parents lack the enthusiasm to change their childrens future).Most parents don’t care what language their children speak and dont accept the reality that their son/daughter is becoming a ‘BRAT’!I am a school teacher and I have to go through situations when children use abusive languages to me and when I complain to their parents,they end the story by a simple Sorry!!
Hello!
First of all, I must say this is a fabulous blog.The idea of getting people from various nations to write articles on problems that the world is facing is simply outstanding. I might not be suitable for young people like you, but I can certainly bring in my past experiences and share my views with you people.
Now to the topic, I think children now a day have lost the values which we have maintained for decades. In our times (about 30 years ago!)People dared to ask their father for 20 bucks and today my son gets $50 from me as pocket money every month. It’s like I have to pay him for living with me! I know its wrong but what can I do: he threatens me that he won’t eat if I don’t give him that money.
I think this problem is less in the Middle East. Here children are more mannered compared to children from other parts of the world. One of the reasons could be the orthodoxy with which they are brought up. Most kids aren’t allowed to watch English films containing foul and slang words.Also, children here are more conservative compared to children in other parts of the world. We believe in learning our language properly and teaching the values which very few people from America or Asia learn.
I agree that there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor .One of the root cause to this problem is corruption in developing countries. Morality is taught to all but only a few follow to become important landmarks of the society.I think that following moral does not depend on how rich and poor you are. Moral education cannot be followed from text books -the basic background for this lies in the hands of parents or proper guidance. This gap is very huge to fill and in future, I want to be optimistic to say that by proper governance we can eradicate it.
It’s nothing to do with morality. Economic hardship and reality should be understood before you jump into any conclusion. I deem it inappropriate to blame parents or society for all the malaise in our world and the great divide between the rich and the poor. The fatalism prevalent among the people in developing countries is the root cause for rampant poverty. If we want to eradicate poverty from the face of earth, we should, first of all, educate the poor and give them the right direction. Mere talking and delivering speeches in workshop or writing in blog would not help. The thing most needed is the concerted efforts from all who can afford to raise the living standard of poor people. It may sound idealistic but if we give it a try, we would be able to tell the next generation with pride that we did it. And, Yes, we can!
I have read the comments so far and have found something interesting: people blaming the western world for Bad Behaviour??I mean, we live the way we like and who are you to judge us? Do we shout and order people to follow us? Most of the times, people from Asia and Africa try copying our life style and now you are blaming us???
-Santi
@Brijpal,
I find this very interesting:
“Mere talking and delivering speeches in workshop or writing in blog would not help…..”
Well,you say this and write in a blog?I don’t basically understand you presence here(in this blog)if you think writing in blog is not useful?Well,what ever you think,i believe that by using a blog we can help the message to get across people from around the world(this article being an example)…..:)
Tnx
Kim
This is a very well composed article.I must say,people now a days have lost their moral values and need to learn more about behaving.
Thanks
We are mere citizens with the ability to just raise these issues and bring it to the respective government and by writing in this blog, by sharing information we can come to conclution and acheive awareness among the masses.
moral values are lost in most part of the world today and there is no one to blame.People in most part of the world use slangs very often and children don’t know how to behave with guests and old people.
well written Manasi.Nice to read articles written by nepalis in an international blog.!
A very well written article indeed. I’d quite a pleasure going through this. A very good article with some morale.
Dear all,
Thank you so much for accepting the article. This was an incident that happened in my neighbourhood and got me to think about lost morales of children these days. I am glad that people discussed freely.
I do not blame any culture for bringing slangs or abuses because it is present in almost every culture, and no one culture is responsible.The abusive words I have written was spoken in Nepali and it was a Nepali foul word. I just translated it. We as adults should be more responsible when we talk in the presence of children.
The most important thing I wanted this article to express was the cliched statement “children are our Future”… if we dont teach them brotherhood, peace and love , if we turn our head when they are playing such games as mentioned in the article, they will never learn. It is one thing to let children have their freedom but completly another to let them slip out of our hand. I do not advocate punishment but a light pat on the hand is necessary when needed.
I kind of found Santi’s comment legible. Blaming the west will definitely not do. We have to understand and take up our culture instead of getting influenced by others. In order to teach morals, education is a prime necessity. Most schools in Asia don’t even have moral education higher up in their curriculum. So basically we need to promote that and its importance.
you write creatively. keep it up!