A LAMPOON OF YOUTH URBANISM






A lampoon of youth urbanism




It’s neither once nor twice that many humans have the indispensable urge to be remarkable before others, despite the methods they have to adopt to attain this state. A state that nourishes one with self-gratification and satisfaction. The bone of contention is borne out of how many of them decide to attain this splendour.

Basing on old told yarns and chronicles of parents growing up, I picked one rather interesting aspect of gallantry as possessed by some of the current 'grown-ups' ,as teenagers about two or three generations ago: The boys used to let their handkerchiefs hang from their pockets especially in public places so that notice is taken of them, clad in buggy clothes and espousing a colonial gait to betray a practiced grace …. The lasses on the other hand, like today, made a point in clairvoyant saunter and twisting in the decently long gear fashioned in a pioneered Elizabethan manner. The hair was usually neatly combed with hot broken pot pieces and oiled so that it glistened in the rising and setting sun and all that she passed by would silently acclaim by turning to behold the passing ‘breeze’ one more time… how decent at the time.

As times change however, the alteration has been for the worst, or should I say, revolutionary in ways that the girls of the passing generation, and the evolving one dress to leave nothing to the imagination… the minis, leggings… name it. The lads adopt smoking, bouncing like fully inflated plastic balls and they want to be dressed in a gangster version, and the language is dominated by slang, gestures and an accent that our parents only need serious tutoring to fathom what is being communicated by their off springs. This analogy however does not cast a microcosm of society. There are exceptions to it. The decent, well bred, learned, ambitious and self-conscious.(need I say like me?? That’s for you to decide)

This only serves to justify the philosophy that the parents give birth to the body and not the brains, and that one has to do their own growing no matter how tall their father is or was.… of course this applies to a few, but the vast majority of well-bred youths seem to boast an estimable level of decency, at least for this century.

Funny that I am rather indifferent to the cries of parents that, ‘children are not as they used to be in our time’ and the youth thought that their parents are ‘old fashioned’ or ‘colloquial’. So, my question is borne from that conflict: what is the best way to be remarkable with little injury to social decorum and disposition suicide????

OMODING GEORGE EPHRAIM…

ATTITUDES

Positive attitude to conquer youth problems

Positive attitude to conquer youth problems? I once asked an adult; a retired educator of the English language, 'what will it take for me to overcome the problems am experiencing as a youth and those am yet to experience without being overwhelmed by them?' His response was plain, 'choose the best attitude in all you do.’ Habit will make it pleasant for you to handle your problems. A build up onPythograth (a 6th century B.C mathematician and philosopher.) philosophy.

Startled, I wondered how mental activity could materialize into solutions; could a good attitude give jobs, capture drug addiction? Would it really materialize to conquer the numerous woes? I thought the old man mentally senile actually, for I needed practical advice like taking to the street when unemployed, burying worry in Dutch courage, that is , drinking my head away,... you know what I mean. 

In my expedition, I came across literature from one doctor, author and encyclopaedist George .D. Pamplona.Roger, who equally stated that a mental equilibrium is a paramount factor of health, riding oneself of worry , grudges against others, or even oneself, confidence and a sempiternal smile in facing life's struggles brings optimism and patience for the toiling. According to a scientific analysis, it was discovered that cancer affects more often the depressed or the ill-humoured. Did this mean that the ill-humoured are more prone to being overcome by youth problems?

He asserts that gaining an inner peace while plunged in the cataclysm of the many tensions is not an easy task, but can be attained in means like faith. The church indeed has a role to play, in the gospels, the inspiration from readings, one often gets consoled. In private meditations, self-evaluation and examination, a youth is able to know their capabilities, fears and weaknesses, and like the philosophy goes, knowing and accepting a problem is a big leap to solving it.

This awareness and belief play a significant role, therefore, in quenching the heat of our agitated feelings, resulting from unemployment, addiction, frustration, anger, and other problem  s we suffer as youths. When one lives in firm confidence, hope and belief that they are victors, they persevere, and it is crowned by a conviction that there is someone above them who understands their atrocities and loves them. David Padfield sums up all the youth problems as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). That the problems are the same as in ages ago and so are the solutions, only that they some wrapped up a little differently.

Indeed a good mental disposition and peace of spirit enables one face the battles of youth as they all seem to be mentally borne. According to 'The Power of Positive Attitude' by Remez Sasson, he states, 'Positive attitude helps to cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into your life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful. With a positive attitude you see the bright side of life, become optimistic and expect the best to happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening.'

With this enlightenment, I realized that the old man was sane and I was the mentally incompetent one, because many different people could not agree on the same wrong philosophy, if it were wrong anyway. With this, we will chose friends, not for stupid reasons like cheap popularity in belonging to a gang, but in modesty in order to mutually help one another develop.

Sometimes teenagers allow the people of the world to determine how they will dress. But a positive attitude will still avert the problems of adultery by desire for one in immodest apparel as many will have modesty in dress.

Mates , young newlyweds will develop character hence remember their wedding vows , love, honour and cherish their spouses, even in the most trying of circumstances of life, it would curb the problem of fear to marry, divorce or sexual immorality for the older youth already married. It yields obedience to parents, respect for authority, listening and seeking advice from parents. It could establish a communication that could avoid the occasion of collision with pant. 

I was further advised to seek particular advice in order to be knowledgeable enough in making decisions, especially in the confusion of career choice. The role I was charged with was that of creating a self that I would be proud of later, and not to solely be what others want me to be. That meditation could lead to discovery of talents that I could use to develop not only myself, but also others around me. With that, i realised that indeed our education, despite its relevance, had clipped the feathers of our creativity to the extent that we became too theoretically learned to apply the education that we spent half our lives pursuing.

I had spent so much time in the blame game, branding many bother people, things, situations, name it, for whichever shortcoming I encountered in my life. This negative tendency bogged down my incentive to fight my own battles, taking whatever failure as a blessing in disguise was never a part of me. But now I know that it is my role to change my attitude and socket for progress.

'A positive attitude leads to happiness and success and can change your whole life. If you look at the bright side of life, your whole life becomes filled with light. This light affects not only you and the way you look at the world, but also your whole environment and the people around you. If it is strong enough, it becomes contagious.' That is the theme I follow today,

If you have been the negative type being followed by a multitude of woes, be not retrogressive like I was to the old educator. It is time to get rid of negative thoughts and behaviour and lead a happy and successful life. If you have tried and failed, it only means that you have only not tried enough, but are better than many who have the ability, but have not the will to harness the resources endowed Uganda for their own engrandisation. They keep the paradox of poverty in plenty a recurring factor in a nation like Uganda.

LIFE CHOICES

The choices in life and self discovery 

Its not often that I sit down to ponder at the paradox of the choices that we make in life, their origin and how we end up eventually. However, it occurred to me one day when I was faced with a scenario that I feel worth sharing. I am a student volunteering as a part-time tutor of English language in one of the schools in the country (Uganda) and I did a combination that had history, divinity literature and economics. One day I returned home and found my mother with one of the qualified teachers at home. Little did I know that she was my visitor and when I sat to talk to her, she told me to draw an art piece that she would use. It was general family knowledge that my average mark in art had been 35% and here I was with a task to draw!! Ironically, my mother who knew my weakness kept egging the lady on and saying that she thought I could do that which was before me. I kept silent. Later that day, I had to find a friend that had excelled in art to draw the piece which I took to this lady. "this is nice!" she exclaimed. "I will keep disturbing you for more..." she added. Now look what my mother was putting me through! 

This may sound weird but in real life, there are times when parents run the lives of their children even to directions that they may not be suited for just because they want them to be a particular kind of people and they ignore the fact that they could be wrong for once at least. Funnier to note is the fact that some children will swing to this rhythm until later they discover what they actually want and yet the time for effecting a real difference has long lapsed. Moen, a friend of mine, whose father owns an architectural firm was determined to be of a similar trade as the dad for he had been involved in its work often times. The conflict developed with his interests in school in that he seemed to gravitate more to the debating society and the writers club. He was not only ardent but also proficient in these societies. He even preferred to do technical drawing, mathematics, physics in his high school. However, all his free time was spent in the faculty of the arts chatting with the literature, history and divinity students. He never enjoyed much of what he did. Lo and behold!!, today he is doing a diploma in law. I still wonder where the architect in him went, or should I say the architect he had wanted to be, in order to carry on the family business. He is one among the many.

Objectively, I think that it is only wise that parents leave their children to have some bit of soul searching and self discovery and not plant decisions in their way that may end up making the children's lives but a misery. In an interaction with a gentleman that runs a shop of music and movie equipment, he told me that he had done a degree in environmental science and took it to his parents for it is what they wanted and not his desire. His passion is in music and his hairstyle is a signature of this. If all parents do not desire such, then they should carefully guide and talk to their children from informed perspectives based on the interests that their children seem to subscribe to.

If that lady had brought me a task of writing a poem or composition, I would have been more than glad to oblige and I would fire at all cylinders to do my utmost best for it is therein that my interest lies unless of course I discover that am good at something else or abstract art that can not appeal to the human eye...., all am trying to say is that I have never been good at it and I realize I am good at something else for all humanity is endowed with different talents ... thank you..

 OMODING GEORGE EPHRAIM

EPHRAIM

the author of this blog is the one that appears in the picture therein....sip from his drops of thought...

DREAMING

DREAMING…..Limmerick

My dreams rise before me

Long nights stave off loneliness

On my back I move to the furthest of places….

My projections are real and limitless

I am senseless in my efforts therein.

Not sentiment, emotion or fear stands in my way

I wonder away far far away……

I behold the most heroic of welcomes there.

All bow to me and all I need I get

That’s not just as good as it gets

Respect flunks me,

Beauty loves me

Wit seems to be my breath

And death so far away…..

How I wish this were not just a limerick!!!!!!!

HUMANS

Today I wake,

My heart sings a rare melody

Life seems to be a song that I do not understand

It makes its own rhymes

 

 

, rhythms and I remember…….

 

A grave world surrounds us.

It craves to suffocate us, fleece off us

Suck out all the being that there is in us

I live, waking, wandering, and hoping

That am able to survive it.                                               

 

Come to think of it…..

What component of the world is the villain?

Is it not humans that make the world?

 Our own kind subjecting us to anarchy?

Us subjecting our own kind to anarchy?