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If you have ever watched, Sound of Music, the 1965 musical film directed by Robert Wise, then you would have an idea of the kind of discipline we had in primary school.
Discipline, as epitomised in this film, bears no resemblance to what the current Generation Y, go through in the name of discipline.
The youth — today — are inattentive and sloppy from their dressing, walking to how they stand when talking to elders. And yes, to some of us, decency came naturally — one had to be attentive in the presence of parents and teachers.
Today, I am in my forties, but I still stand straight like a policeman when talking to my father’s agemates. No leaning on the wall, no fidgeting.
Which brings me to police colour code, something I have addressed in this column before. The code is a simple system for situation awareness. Here goes...
White: One is relaxed and unaware of what is going on around you. You are not paying attention to the sights and sounds that surround you. Majority of the current generation are in this code, and one can see it from how they plug earphones to playing high volume music in their jalopies.
Yellow: One remains relaxed, but is aware of who and what is around you. Condition yellow does not equate to paranoia, jut that one has just moved alertness to a level of attention that will prevent one from being surprised. This is the condition most ‘bamba 40s’ are in.
Orange: You have identified something of interest that may or many not prove to be a threat.
Red: Where one is able to react in case of attack. The last two apply to security forces.
So you can imagine my reaction when I read this week that a student was shot dead at an Mpesa shop because he could not hear warnings of approaching danger as he was listening to music via earphones. Then there was the young woman who was shot dead in a matatu — she was on earphones and was slow to react to instructions from carjackers. Or the woman who lost her legs as she was unaware of an oncoming train at the port. And do you remember the son of a former Kenyan Cabinet minister who died after being hit by a falling chopper in Australia? He too was allegedly on headphones.
Most of us who attended Buruburu Primary school, Class of 1985, are attentive today largely because of people like our maths teacher who would slap you to attention whenever you failed to answer mental sums. it was worse at the parade where headmistress Miss Kasidi would cane you for not being attentive. This made us to be always aware of the surroundings — that’s on colour code yellow.
Let us teach our children not to be sloppy. Letting boys sag trousers also makes them sloppy. What time will they respond to danger in between pulling up their trousers? Let us tell them to avoid using earphones on high volume. They can use one earpiece. Let them know that places of residence are easy targets when people are vulnerable. Let us make our kids exercise. It helps to keep fit. And pay attention.
@AineaOjiambo
