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The culture of violence

SomaliNet Forum (Archive): RA'YIGA DADWEYNAHA - Your Opinion: Somalia: Soomaalinimo - Nationalism : The culture of violence
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Sick of violence

Tuesday, March 06, 2001 - 05:32 pm
Every Somali family that i have met has left with me an impact, and this stems from the fact that our child rearing culture is one that is based on violence. I grew up in Somalia, but in my time, corporal punishment was the only method of disciplining children.

I work with many young people in a school setting, and I have realized that when the Somali students are involved in a conflict, they are the least equiped in solving their problems through peaceful means. Why?

I see many parents that lack basic peaceful discipline procedures and solely rely on physical punishment or, threats of harming their child. Ladies and gentlemen, most of those kids are already in contact with the Justice Juvenile System, and some of them may end up in jail.

When you are raising a child, expectations are that you are raising the future adult that can have a huge positive impact on society's well-being. This child is expected to be someone that can manage their anger and can resolve their conflict without resorting to violence. Somali teenagers are not equipped with those skills. Moreover, if those were in Somalia they would have been part of the killing machines that their older relatives started.

When you talk about peace, it starts in the home. We should learn as parents to approach the problems of our children in a non violent way. This means that we should treat them as humans with brains, so, we can settle problems in a rational way of discussing issues.

These kids lack many social skills that other kids take for granted, and it is the parents responsibility to alter this phenomenon. I'm sick of all the violence, but, hey it is part of our culture that needs uprooting. So let's star from the family.

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wise

Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 01:34 am
I couldn't agree with you more, you are soooooooo right, where on earth did you grow up... I have never met any somali who talks\thinks the way you do. :-))
I 've always said, Children are our future, If you wanna change the world start with them. And well! look around you. children are suffering all over the world. :-(

I have really observed some relatives of mine and sometimes get even shocked by the way they treat their children. But when I looked down on to the issue I 've realized that most of the problems lies between the father and the mother.
Most of our somali husbend and wife relationship is even not to speak of. The somali Men does not take much part in the activaties of their children ( well not all SOM men off course) Because of that we end up with a frustrated mothers with a lots of kids. The more the kids the more the violence. Sometimes I feel sorry for those ladies. much of this problem is on our culture to blame. Respect and love is all what we need.

peace!

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