Youth violence

Monday, September 13, 2010

Youth violence

Reduce the age of minors from 18 to 15 years, so we can send the delinquents to jail sooner. Shut down the vocational schools, which have failed to rein in rogue students from causing public harm through street violence. Punish the parents also, for failing to keep their children in line.

When a popular TV news programme posed these ideas for public response last week, following a series of street violence from vocational students and subsequent sensational media coverage, the support was overwhelming.

No surprise there. The terror of street warfare among rival vocational schools has been prevalent for decades, while the degree of violence has escalated. Meanwhile, media sensationalism is no help in shedding light on the root cause of the problem of youth alienation and violence.

It's not only about this perennial problem of rival student gangs. Mention any youth problems _ from brawling, daredevil motorcycle racing, to rock-throwing at cars on highways _ the standard response is to blame the kids, the parents and the schools.

We refuse to look at the social values and structural inequality that breed youth alienation and violence.

We refuse to look at our society's failure to provide these hormone-driven male teenagers with creative outlets to relieve their energy and to foster self-esteem outside of academic achievements.

We refuse to look at the cut-throat education system which is turning kids who fall through the cracks into losers, crushing their sense of self-worth, and forcing them to rebuild their egos in destructive ways.

We refuse to look at the education policy which perpetuates inequality between the vocational and academic streams. The policy-makers' total neglect of vocational education has resulted in its utterly poor quality, which fails to offer these students decent job prospects and hope for the future.

And we keep asking why these youths are so angry and why is there no end in sight to this inter-school rivalry and violence? Is there any hope for change?

Don't bet on it. Had it not been for a frown from the cabinet, Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat and other Education bigwigs would have sent the troubled teens to the restive South!

It's crazy, isn't it? Our society is quickly turning grey. We need to nurture our 10.6 million youngsters into quality human capital to shoulder the burdens of our ageing society. Yet, we are doing just the opposite.

In this competitive world economy, we know our country will lose out if we fail to produce a skilled workforce, yet we allow cultural values that look down on manual work to paralyse vocational education. The class element is starkly clear between the academic and vocational streams. Given the need for expensive tutoring and admission fees, only the better-off can afford university education. The poor kids have no choice but to head to vocational schools, where tribalism is fierce, in answer to the boys' ferocious hunger for identity.

If we hope to end youth violence, we should ask what we have done wrong to push our children onto self-destructive paths. While many young precious lives have been lost in senseless violence from inter-school rivalry, many more have met untimely deaths from drunk driving and Aids.

We should ask if we are part of a system that is killing our boys when they pursue the reckless path of alcohol, drugs, violence and unsafe sex _ because of the wrong ideas of manhood we have put in their heads.

Can we blame them completely, when these youths are just trying to gain acceptance from their peers, when we fail to provide them with other sources of healthy self-esteem?

Youth violence is a symptom of youth alienation, hopelessness and a failed education system that perpetuates inequality and robs the young of any hope for a good future.

Unless we tackle the root cause of their alienation and hopelessness by giving them better life opportunities, we must continue living with these social time-bombs of our own making.

Read comment

Comment 1

jingreet®

date : 15/09/2010 time : 23:34

"We refuse to look at the cut-throat education system which is turning kids who fall through the cracks into losers, crushing their sense of self-worth, and forcing them to rebuild their egos in destructive ways."

This is a really insightful sentence. Thank you Sanitsuda for writing about this.

Comment 2

adamt64®

date : 16/09/2010 time : 03:41

How about sending the tyrants who teach the youth to solve their problems with violence to prison first? Students learn that violence is appropriate from teachers who use corporal punishment every day in the majority of Thai schools. Corporal punishment is a violation of the law, yet that violence is ignored, and instead the youngsters are blamed for the degrading social conditions among the adults, who are lazy, drunken, on drugs, packing pistols, soliciting prostitution, and stupid. That's not exactly conservative and prudent.

http://www.unicef.org/thailand/media_14082.html
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/list/41list-thailand.pdf
http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1504_1218183485_child-protection-act-of-2003.pdf
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/type,LEGISLATION,,BGR,44ad32014,0.html

Comment 3

rmigo®

date : 16/09/2010 time : 20:51

You said the magic word "identity". Over the years, our society do not have a role model for our youths to emulate. For example, Filipinos have Jose Rizal; Indians have Gandhi.

Looking around, I can only see bad examples of irresponsible leaders ...

Comment 4

mr.john®

date : 16/09/2010 time : 23:12

Good read. Thank you K. Sanitsuda.

Comment 5

rubyridge®

date : 17/09/2010 time : 00:11

It's not their fault, it is society, re-educate how often do these liberal solutions have to fail.
Shut the schools and conscript the offenders (different units) - you will only need to do one and the rest will fall in line

Comment 6

spiceman®

date : 17/09/2010 time : 23:11

A person reaps what he sowed. If one sowed love, he will reap love, but if he sowed hatred, he will reap hatred.

It's too bad, Buddha never teach Buddhists to love one another. And without LOVE, HATRED prevails, and we wonder why strangers murdered strangers.

Comment 7

smiles999®

date : 18/09/2010 time : 05:36

Hi, students' unrest and violence is NEVER in relation to age !! Hence the base statement -- of reducing the 'minors' age from 18 to 15 is absurd and aboriginal ! All what is written is garbage..as there is no information on the social status of the students in unrest and violence ! The BP crew is anemic to provide researched findings on the students' background, which leaves us readers dumb as to how students can have guns and weapons ! Out of 100 such students, what is the background of the parents, family status, earnings of family, violent family background, average level of family education, overseas travel of family members etc.etc. How could Mercedes kid who virtually drove in rage and killed a person, get a bail !! This is a big challenge to the craving for freedom press who conveniently avoids the truth ! Whatever be, it is a shameful suggestion that the minor's age be reduced, and stuff the unwanted in a 'kook' ! This is not a solution, as the problem will continue. It is not that I have a solution: but would suggest the press, educators, students, tour the neighboring countries...see, study and analyze, and build a model suitable for Thailand.

Comment 8

josh®

date : 18/09/2010 time : 08:12

You nailed it Sanitsuda. But its also family economy. I grew up in the poor family with 6 kids.In the year of 1975 my parents(dad & stepmother&they both were teachers). They could not effort to sent all the kids to college to better our educations and skills. sometime I didn't have lunch money while a was attended high school, and had couple of uniforms to wear. it was hard, I felt abandonned, nobody care and grown up angry. what is average thai family economy now? government should look in to this issue, and help out poor kids: create lunch program and after school activities or something. we can not let this goes on. Its sad, very sad.

Comment 9

cmangrid®

date : 18/09/2010 time : 15:36

To a dregree this problem with young men who are not academic is a world wide problem but the extra factors turning frustration into violence in Thailand are:
1.The example of violence on the streets and TV particularly the Red and Yellow shirts in the last two years.
2.No avenue to express opinions or question in the thai education system brews frustration and disatisfaction into violence

Comment 10

willdai60®

date : 19/09/2010 time : 03:55

Obviously there are youth culture problems associated with most modern day societies.
How we deal with these problems to find an effective solution is a debate that can go on for a very long time.
I the UK there has been a growing dissent among the youth since the 1950's, possibly as a result of the baby boom era and the removal of hard line punishments for criminals.
The baby boom era saw a massive increase in population, and along with this comes the realisation that male youths have something to prove in order to stand out from a crowd and peer pressure from their close friends.
The progressive lack of hard line punishment also resulted in a 'what the heck', attitude among the youth of that day as they realised that the only thing that they would be punished with is a short jail sentence, in an ever improving hotel like jail sysytem.
The influence and abundance of drugs in the society in the 60's and 70's gave rise to more kids being brought up in families often only to permissive of the drug culture. These kids born in the 70's are what hve now grown up to become the parents of today, with even lower family values, which is only too often reflected in the ever lower values of their offspring.
This in my opinion is what has been the main cause of problems in the UK.

However, in Thailand as far as I am aware, this similar problem is more recent than in the UK and Western World ( I may be wroong ).

So what are the causes of this epedemic of youth misbehaviour, in a country which has such strong and widespread belief in Buddhism, and all it represents in leading a wholesome and peaceful life.

Maybe it is the way that successive corruption amongst the country's leaderships has gone largely uncontrolled and unpunished.

Maybe it's the way that the male population has to watch their sisters , mothers and other female friends act in such degrading manners for the amusement and sexual gratifications of the farang perverts ( not all farang are perverts by the way ), in order to sustain some means for their families back home to survive the abject poverty that exists in much of Thailand's social structure.

Maybe it is the also the lack of commitment mainly on the part of successive Governments, to provide a well structured, balanced education system to one and all. They do not particularly encourage the learning of IT skills or English language in many areas of the North, and therefore the males in these societies have nothing at all to look forward to, other than to work on the farms as their predecessors have done for many generations.

By addressing some of these key issues in Thai society ( i am not saying they are the only issues ) then maybe , just maybe something can be saved in the Land of Smiles, and it will continue to be a country that people will love to visit and enjoy it's friendliness, rather than a country battling amongst its own citizens. ( Compare with N, Ireland ).
Thank you Bangkok Post for letting me as an individual, freely voice my opinion, which is the right of any individual in any fair democracy.

Comment 11

saharat®

date : 19/09/2010 time : 06:13

Excellent article.is very well written. most of the teachers i spoke to have said many young thai's do not speak pasa thai correctly.but instead prefer to use street slang.and a large portion of the blame is the greedy self serving criminals appointed to government office.

Comment 12

paulc®

date : 20/09/2010 time : 15:17

The age of a minor was set at 18 when the youthful transgression were much less severe. Now we have 14 and 15 year olds committing armed robbery, murder and assaults. It is reasonable to adjust the punishment to fit the seriousness of the crime.

Comment 13

nestordfermin®

date : 24/09/2010 time : 14:22

They (violent youths) are the the products of the failing education in Thailand. But who can blame them for the inequalities in almost every kind of society here? One cannot be contented with just going back to the farm while those unqualified millionaires' boys sit in the school or "universities."

Comment 14

mae-duna®

date : 24/09/2010 time : 21:55

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And to prepare for this I was looking in the internet for useful information. On justlanded.com I guy wrote a about his good experiences with a company in German with the name HeSA Germany. The comapyn is specialized on supporting foreign students. I visited their website and I was really happy what I saw. HeSA Germany offers exactly that support I need. Now I am getting advise which admission requirements I have to fulfil, how I do it, which documents I need, where I get them from. Currently they guide me trough the whole application process. They will also do the whole application process for me. That means they organize all documents, do all correspondence with authorties, translations ....

From my experiences I can really recommend them. If one is interested here is their adress

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Comment 15

mae-duna®

date : 24/09/2010 time : 22:00

I think or I hope to become an immigrant next year:-). I wanto to study in Germany and so currently I am preparing for this.
And to prepare for this I was looking in the internet for useful information. On justlanded.com I guy wrote a about his good experiences with a company in German with the name HeSA Germany. The comapyn is specialized on supporting foreign students. I visited their website and I was really happy what I saw. HeSA Germany offers exactly that support I need. Now I am getting advise which admission requirements I have to fulfil, how I do it, which documents I need, where I get them from. Currently they guide me trough the whole application process. They will also do the whole application process for me. That means they organize all documents, do all correspondence with authorties, translations ....

From my experiences I can really recommend them. If one is interested here is their adress

www.help-to-study-in-germany.com

Bye Mae-Duna

Comment 16

kena®

date : 26/09/2010 time : 15:54

Sunitsa and many response posts are on the mark. Two stand-outs: Lack of decent roles models. Where in this land of more katoys per sq.M than any other country, can a boy find a wise, mature, non-superstitious, non-whiskey drinking, non-bribe taking, non-hypocritical role model who always tells the truth? Do you know a Thai man who remotely fits that description?

The other problem is the gross influence of crass TV (soap operas) and videos which damage the psyche of young people. In any video store in Thailand, are there any selections which cover real science (not science fiction / not hocus pocus) or nature or encouraging inventions? No, there's only comedy, violence, vindictiveness, revenge, sex and more violence. Great influences for a child learning about the world.