I remember a few days back listening to the radio on my way to work and the deejays were discussing about an underaged disco party which starts from 8.30pm till 4am in the morning. I'm not a party animal, in fact, I dun party. The only times I stepped into a nightspot was going to Hard Rock Cafe in KL and Singapore with friends and for a DnD. Yeap, as dumb as it sounds, my old company decided to have a DnD at Hard Rock Cafe Singapore. Suffice to say, I left as soon as the event was over.
Also recently, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) started routine checks on teenagers loitering in public areas after midnight or something like that. What are we trying to tell the young? It's ok to party till 4am but not to loiter after midnight? I guess the kids going to these parties need to have a written consent from their parents to be allowed entry or better still, they must be accompanied by an adult to be allowed entry.
Kids being kids, will always clamour for more freedom and trust from their parents. I was the same when I was a kid myself. The first time I went to catch a movie with friends was when I was doing my pre-university studies. That was when I got my motorcycle licence, after much clamouring, pleading and a little devious plan to go to the furthest school possible. Anyway, parents are unlikely to give that much freedom to their kids, not because they dun trust their kids, but probably out of concern and distrust of the world at large.
A friend of mine, wanted to take a trip up to Terengganu for a 2 days 1 night trip. In fact, the 4 of them had planned to take a road trip along the East Coast of Malaysia. All without knowing what the road conditions were like. When I drove up the Cherating last December, I had illusions that the road will be like 20 meters away from the beach from Mersing all the way up to Cherating. Boy, was I wrong. The first time I saw the beach and the sea was 50km from Kuantan. Most of the rest was lined up by trees on either side. Unlike the NS Highway, there were no real rest stops along the way, so we had to stop at the few roadside stalls selling drinks. Not the most sanitary ones you would find. Flies all over.
Anyway, I told her what to expect and did discourage her from the trip. It was too far and she had too little time to enjoy the trip, it would have been a waste. In any case, her mom wouldn't have allowed it. Call me sexist but I don't believe it's safe for a group of girls to go on such a long trip. I guess it's just my paternal instincts, but if my daughter wanted to go on a road trip anywhere outside of Singapore, I would have said no myself. Being young, idealistic and full of exuberance and enthusiasm, she was chaffed at my insinuations that girls need protection from the guys.
Well, like I said to her, statistics show that most robbers are men and most robbing victims are women. Same goes for sexual offences. Yeap, men are the bad guys, some, driven by the need to provide for their family, read women and children, and unable to do so, they turn to crime, knowing full well that they can easily prey on women. Some are just hedonistic. The fact is women are more susceptible to being victims of crime than men. Women claim to be just as strong and just as tough, but when push comes to shove, they are still the weaker sex. Those who want to dispute, answer this, why has there been no women contesting the World Heavyweight Boxing crown or why women can't match up to men in the 100 metres dash?
The bottomline is that most parents would rather have their children be safe and bored than have their children have a taste of life and be exposed to all the elements, bad ones notwithstanding.
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