Recreating Sodom and Gomorrah

22 Oct, 2017 - 00:10 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Clemence Machadu
Howdy folks! Have you noticed how our streets are no longer safe for children anymore; how they have become fertile breeding ground for risky behaviours and moral decadence?

Surely, children are innocent souls that cannot be exposed to market failures and negative externalities created by selfish interests that are driving just about everyone chasing the elusive dollar these days.

Children should be off-limits, please!

It is a fact that unemployment is high in the Republic just as it is an obvious fact that youths are the main victims of this. Finding themselves idle everyday and with nothing to do, young people often resort to roaming these polluted streets just to while up time.

Therein, they find all sorts of traps to gullibly fall in; it is quite an infested minefield. Ndomavanononga mawonde akatsvukira kuzhe nyamba akawora mukati.

When they set their eyes on one corner of the street, they see pornographic discs being sold at two for a dollar.

And on the other end, mbanje, illegally imported junk whiskies and skin bleaching creams; not to mention the highly intoxicating cough syrups and all other “passing pleasures of sin” as the writer of the biblical book of Hebrews would put it.

And the inclination for them to indulge in such catalysts of escapism is quite overwhelming as they desperately seek to run away from the unpleasant realities of their circumstances.

But it’s not just the unemployed young people we should be worried about; it is the innocent schoolchildren as well.

Think of that Grade Five pupil who walks across town everyday going to school and is seeing all that happening, all that decadence being paraded and mass-marketed in broad daylight.

The next thing they buy the pornographic material using their lunch money and watch it Nicodemously when they get home. And after watching, don’t be surprised to see them in the Avenues area of Harare, looking for prostitutes to try and practise what they have seen.

Do you think the prostitute will have the morality to refuse their money when they are doing something illegal in the first place? Havaregi mari ichiinda.

But the poor pupil is left exposed to sexually-transmitted maladies and much-radicalised to be left with little to no focus on books. Chinenge chabaya chikavhunikira!

They will tell their friend about their new experience and tell them it’s such a cool thing to do. And the friend will be peer-pressured into trying it out.

It will go on and on like that, spreading like a veldfire. And what do we have in the end? We might actually succeed in recreating Sodom and Gomorrah.

Folks, our streets should just be disinfected of all such diabolic materials. Drugs should be flushed out from Fourth Street Bus Terminus, Harare, among other areas.

Marijuana should not be sold on the street corners like airtime recharge cards. Both male and female prostitutes should not just be allowed to solicit and lure schoolchildren in broad daylight.

They can’t be licensed to kill like that.

We have a responsibility to nurture a society of high moral standing and an environment conducive for young people to unlock their full potential and work hard without any setbacks.

We might be wondering why corruption is such a menace in the contemporary society; it’s because corruption is now part of the “curriculum” of the day.

Our children breathe, eat, drink and sniff corruption from the cradle and it has become part of their culture, thanks to the streets. Surely, this should not be tolerated.

The future we want to see tomorrow is created today, and what are we creating by radicalising young people for 30 pieces of silver?

Do you remain with a clean conscience after pocketing a dollar from a Form Two pupil in exchange for marijuana?

Imagine if it were your child.

What has happened to that spirit of ubuntu whereby the adults look after every child, whether they are yours or not?

You see folks, the above is part of the reasons why I applaud the recent call by President Mugabe to remove illegal vendors from the streets and to restore order and cleanliness.

The argument that jobs are difficult to come by and illegal vending must be allowed is flawed, folks.

Do people stop eating because vendors have been allocated stands somewhere out of town where they can conduct their business systematically? Certainly not!

People can still go there to buy madomasi and other vegetables in the same way folks go to Mbare Musika, Highfield Market and Domboshava Market.

Folks, we can’t solve one problem by creating another.

We can’t create jobs in the middle of Jason Moyo Avenue and Robert Mugabe Road. How will motor vehicles move?

The problem with most illegal street vendors and dealers in town is that some of them are the ones who also sell drugs and other substances that promote risky behaviours amongst our youths, apart from the harm they are already causing by their mere presence where they are not supposed to be.

I alluded to that in my instalment of August 27, 2017 titled “So much for protection”.

But coming back to the call by President Mugabe, I think that should be applauded as we have started to see action being taken, with tables being turned in the streets.

I know such calls are difficult to make, especially when elections are imminent, and President Mugabe was really selfless in making the genuine call.

It is now hoped that the police, municipal agents and other relevant arms running with this programme will not be moved from doing what they are supposed to be doing by corruption.

We have a job to do for the sake of our children, folks.

Our towns and cities should be disinfected of substances that promote moral decadence and risky behaviours.

Later folks!

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