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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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A paradox
by Rikki A paradox is a response, to the article we published about freedom in our last week's issue. Freedom according to the Oxford Dictionary is a "condition of being free or unrestricted." According to RC, however, freedom differs according to your nationality, social status and race, because according to him one's behaviour must be dictated by "prevailing social norms, long-held customs and traditions..." How free of restrictions is freedom itself? I mean if freedom is to be free of absolutely anything then how come it must have its own preconditions? It completely takes away the significance, the sense, the purpose and bearing of the word 'freedom.' I have absolutely no idea if key societies are prevalent in Sri Lanka and have no understanding of their exchanging of wives, so to speak. However I do know that just because your parents tend to not respect sexual and moral "social norms" does not necessarily mean, that you "go around the popular night club circuit and dance away" your "worries intoxicated in heroin, marijuana and ecstasy. I think RC has got his ideas mixed up, not unlike most other average Lankans who hold forth culture and tradition. They are angered by the fact that they do not submit the same income tax at the Inland Revenue each year. They are frustrated that they cannot ever be let loose. They are envious of the privileges that are not accorded to them. Well this is a capitalist society, so the sooner. You get used to, it the better. The writer also says that there are a lot of drunken brawls in clubs, often ending up in "blood letting and murder." I will not debate this, but I will like to say that it is usually the 'connected' who start such skirmishes in an effort to show off their power, and they of course do not get into any sort of trouble with the law. And while everyone seems to have a problem with having a beer or two in a pub, no one seems to have a problem with the men who get roaring drunk on cheap arrack and kasippu at the nearby tavern and beat up their wives and kids when they get home. If domestic abuse received half as much as the attention drinking in a club does, there would be serious reduction of wife beating. A teacher employed by an international school, says that it is the children of international schools who engage in the "club culture" of taking drugs. This is just another kind of stereotyping. I have nothing against public schools, but hey, those kids do drugs too, and I personally have been told by my pals who schooled in government and semi-government schools, of how they light up a little grass while in the classroom And no, they are not any politician's or other influential big guy's kids or relatives and they never got kicked out of school. In most cases the only difference between kids who go to international and public schools is the colour of the uniform. The teacher goes on further to say that they spend around twenty-four grand each day as an allowance alone. Considering the number of children going to international schools all over the island these days, there must be an extremely large number of families earning around a hundred grand in dollars. The fact of the matter is, even the child of a lower middle class, no lower class family could afford to buy him/herself a joint. All he or she'd need is about twenty bucks or up to seventy bucks at the most. She also says that international school kids are stressed and hence find drugs an escape, to get away from it all. I will most certainly not disagree, but then just how much more stressed out should public schooling children be? After all they have to pass their scholarship examination, get to a national school, pass their O/Ls with half a score of A grades and then go through the brain churning mental agony that is Advanced Levels studying a subject they have no interest in, striving to become someone they do not want to be. I would not at all be surprised that there are meth (speed) users among those who study sleeplessly in an attempt to 'memorise' as much as possible. RC also quotes another gentleman as saying that "the objective of schooling is not the passing of examinations and acquiring professional qualifications..." This is true enough. It's just really sad and pathetic that though every one sprouts this in one form or the other, none of them actually ever adhere to them. Instead, what all parents these days want from their children is to 'pass examinations and acquire professional qualifications.' Just think of how many parents would let their kids cheat on major examinations if they were sure that their children would not get caught as long as they passed, or the number who help and even encourage their children to get themselves qualified via a scanner and a printer? All I am saying is that you cannot stop someone from going to a club just because you do not agree with it. If you do not like club culture, then don't be a part of it. For what is it to be free if in your heart you are not free at all? Is it a paradox we must live with? I think not. |
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