Sunday, November 11, 2007

I'm not holding my breath

I read on the Beeb that Cambodia is having problems with the nouveau riche. More specifically, the offspring of those with money, whose idea of a good time is to endanger themselves and everyone else with their high-speed antics in their high-powered cars. Does this sound in any way familiar?

What caught my attention is that the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, has staked his job on solving the problem. One of the solutions that has been suggested is to make the parents directly responsible for their kids' behaviour. Instead of making the lawbreaking unhappen with a wave of the wasta wand, perhaps even if the yoof won't respect the law, maybe they'll respect their parents.

    "He has ordered the police to detain parents if they come to collect their errant sons from custody."
If Daddy got seven days in Al Slammah every time his back-to-front bebaseball-capped offspring committed a traffic offence then maybe, just maybe, pressure would be brought to bear on the offender. It is a paternal society, after all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No - best not to, you could be holding your breath for a very long time! Really they needed to start on the self discipline bit when the kids were tiny - once they are bigger than the parents its rather more difficult. Discipline is hard work and tedious and some parents just don't do it as far as I can see - shame because the payoff if you do is so good. KTL

 

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