Past one month has been least productive of many in recent past. I have been trying to resume my studies for step 2 but things have been on and off for one reason or the other. It has been a long time since I made a real post on my blog. Most of the times I pick up my keyboard to type something but the whole post is left just in the middle because of lack of motivation to write. there are quite a few political posts which I will be trying to complete and put up. Some interesting facts about Pakistan Steel Mills and other privatization stunts of these generals passed through my reading and I will update on these fronts soon.
I am trying to set up a discussion group here in Jhang. There is a dearth of people in this city who are dedicated enough to work for the welfare of the youth and the population. Well there is dearth of people of this sort everywhere but in my city there is essentially no one. There is complete lack of constructive discussion forums and youth of today are adamant at wasting there time chatting on the internet.
there is lack of sense of direction in our youth. the parents are busy in their own affairs and do not take out time to guide their children towards what is right and what is wrong. Most of all children and adolescents do not know where to look for their intellectual needs. They therefore indulge into all sort of mischief of petty kind. they end up learning all those skills that have little use in the practical world. The other day I was talking to one adolescent and that person very proudly told me that his skills included using the internet. When I asked him as to what he could do on the internet he was blank and replied, "I can surf and chat." Similar condition prevails upon all our youth of today.
We often claim with sense of human achievement that internet is a huge source of knowledge. But have we ever questioned ourselves, "What use have we made of this knowledge to make ourselves better human beings?" Go and sit in any net cafe in the city and you will find shortcuts to porn sites on every desktop. And the worst thing is that these icons remain there with due knowledge and consent of the net cafe owner. The worst part is all net cafe owners and administrators are also young guys in their teens or early twenties. these guys are themselves in their experimental and exploratory stages of their lives. How does one suppose they can control and direct effective use of internet in their net cafes.
I would like to lay blame, here, on our elder generation. They have absolved themselves of the responsibility of guiding the younger generation. There are multiple reasons for this. But one that strikes my mind is the rapid progress in the field of technology that has left our elder generation flustered. they are unable to cope with the new advances in technology and can hardly learn their use let alone set guidelines for their moral and effective use. Parents can hardly operate a windows based desktop and therefore can not be expected to guide their children on its use. Even if they try and monitor the activities of the child this will be in most part a useless exercise since the child already knows ways around that they don't.
Let us ask ourselves if this is a new phenomenon or has been there before. I think similar phenomenon exist between each generation. This is what we like to call a generation gap. But before our times the gaps were little and could be bridged without the use of accessories. A little conversation between father and son or mother and daughter kept the environment of the house very congenial. Similarly teachers were important figures and played an important part in the upbringing of the child. A child had fewer places to look for information and subsequently a lot of time to assimilate it. In the world of today all these balances have been tipped in the wrong direction.
Parents are worried too. they want control over this situation. They want peace of mind too. They want their children to excel too. And when they do not find respite in teachings of technology or consumerism they turn to religion. Since religious leaders also lack depth of knowledge this gives rise to extremism and distorted ideology. Thus we learn 'Kill them if you can't win them'.
A society in a third world country today exists in a vacuum of thought and integration. This vacuum can only be filled with effective and balanced mix of science, technology, religion and philosophy. A progress in any single field will only serve to take us farther from the target of human harmony.
I am trying to set up a discussion group here in Jhang. There is a dearth of people in this city who are dedicated enough to work for the welfare of the youth and the population. Well there is dearth of people of this sort everywhere but in my city there is essentially no one. There is complete lack of constructive discussion forums and youth of today are adamant at wasting there time chatting on the internet.
there is lack of sense of direction in our youth. the parents are busy in their own affairs and do not take out time to guide their children towards what is right and what is wrong. Most of all children and adolescents do not know where to look for their intellectual needs. They therefore indulge into all sort of mischief of petty kind. they end up learning all those skills that have little use in the practical world. The other day I was talking to one adolescent and that person very proudly told me that his skills included using the internet. When I asked him as to what he could do on the internet he was blank and replied, "I can surf and chat." Similar condition prevails upon all our youth of today.
We often claim with sense of human achievement that internet is a huge source of knowledge. But have we ever questioned ourselves, "What use have we made of this knowledge to make ourselves better human beings?" Go and sit in any net cafe in the city and you will find shortcuts to porn sites on every desktop. And the worst thing is that these icons remain there with due knowledge and consent of the net cafe owner. The worst part is all net cafe owners and administrators are also young guys in their teens or early twenties. these guys are themselves in their experimental and exploratory stages of their lives. How does one suppose they can control and direct effective use of internet in their net cafes.
I would like to lay blame, here, on our elder generation. They have absolved themselves of the responsibility of guiding the younger generation. There are multiple reasons for this. But one that strikes my mind is the rapid progress in the field of technology that has left our elder generation flustered. they are unable to cope with the new advances in technology and can hardly learn their use let alone set guidelines for their moral and effective use. Parents can hardly operate a windows based desktop and therefore can not be expected to guide their children on its use. Even if they try and monitor the activities of the child this will be in most part a useless exercise since the child already knows ways around that they don't.
Let us ask ourselves if this is a new phenomenon or has been there before. I think similar phenomenon exist between each generation. This is what we like to call a generation gap. But before our times the gaps were little and could be bridged without the use of accessories. A little conversation between father and son or mother and daughter kept the environment of the house very congenial. Similarly teachers were important figures and played an important part in the upbringing of the child. A child had fewer places to look for information and subsequently a lot of time to assimilate it. In the world of today all these balances have been tipped in the wrong direction.
Parents are worried too. they want control over this situation. They want peace of mind too. They want their children to excel too. And when they do not find respite in teachings of technology or consumerism they turn to religion. Since religious leaders also lack depth of knowledge this gives rise to extremism and distorted ideology. Thus we learn 'Kill them if you can't win them'.
A society in a third world country today exists in a vacuum of thought and integration. This vacuum can only be filled with effective and balanced mix of science, technology, religion and philosophy. A progress in any single field will only serve to take us farther from the target of human harmony.
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