Malechallengemedia's Blog

Aussi Teen Terrorists

Up and down the coast I’ve been hearing stories of teen terror. There’s Graffiti at the low end and gratuitous violence at the other. We have lost the plot with our youth.

Forget Bagdad – Forget Afghanistan – right here on home soul – 70% of Australians say they are fearful of youth behaviour, especially binge drinking, alcohol and violence. We are living in a war zone where adults and kids are experiencing the terror of teen ‘swarms.’ 70% of Australians are scared of their own kids. Bizarre!

That’s a contrast to the safety we felt while in Singapore recently. Safe streets – friendly teens – anger and rage –  non-detectable.

Perhaps we need to look there for solutions. Kids are meant to be safe – our societies are meant to be safe – free from the ravages of drug and drug crime – free from the knifing attacks we see most days in our newspapers – free from the teen rage which has no conscience.

What can be done?

Everyone I talk to says penalties are too lenient. Is that the way to go! Or the ‘restorative justice system?

Drugs have contributed enormously – so has the media and yet some reports indicate that violent video games don’t make the players violent. Meanwhile large gang attacks are on the increase. Gang rapes are more common – often involving young boys. Society seems to be devolving right down the toilet.

Talking this way sounds gloomy but we cannot deny the escalation. The USA is experiencing lower crime rates and less teen violence, what are they doing right? Can we learn from them and Singapore?

Is this the kind of world we all want to co-create? How can communities reduce teen violence and drug/alcohol use? These are the hard questions that may need hard answers.

After Singapore I’m now questioning my once dearly held liberal attitudes. Humans; like cells in the body, need to co-operate, have order and function together. When they don’t that is called cancer!Cancer appears to strike when our resistance is low—and before too long it kills the host!

But in healthy bodies the T-cells clean up the cancer before it grows into a problem!