We must teach our youth to handle intense pressure without resorting to anesthesia?

Yet again I attended a funeral house on behalf of my boss, as he was away, in Bothale, Meerigama. The 25yr well educated, rising star at a Branch of Commercial Bank died as a result of the roll-over of the double cab down a precipice not even 1km from his home. He had consumed alcohol and was out with a friend to purchase more when the accident happened while his friend who was the driver survived, by jumping out during the tumble. Needless to say the next day’s papers had the photo of the vehicle on page 3. Yet nothing concrete is done!

I was present when the body was brought into the house. He was unmarried, eldest of three and a rising star, where his father is a driver at a commercial establishment. So he would be considered to be one who made the grade, surmounting great odds of family background and economic circumstances. This boy had also recently been in a bad motorcycle accident and survived with a long period in the ICU, so he defied one chance but took one too many to meet this fate.

Is this a common direction of even rags to riches kids, who were able to provide a decent home where his family lived, which I would consider middle class? I am not sure if I mentioned this before but more than half the funerals I have been to lately on account of the constituency work are of people younger than me, and the numbers of lads in their 20’s and even teens beggars belief.

This is social problem, we must face it, too many young people are driven to alcohol, cigarettes and ganja, which I have seen first-hand (of hard drugs, I am not competent to comment) I am sure that there are statistics and unless we take steps to tackle the peer pressure, we can big good bye to a great future. Every time someone wants to enjoy something it seems to require alcohol, as a base, then the cigarettes, and bites and rest of it like drums, singing, loud music even at public areas that disturb the peace of others seems to be the order of the day.

The mother was loud in her condemnation of his friends, ordering that none attend the funeral. She blamed them for him not listening to her admonishments. It is easy to blame parents, and I suspect the mother may have even gone overseas to earn during the formative years where this boy got into bad company, as the father was out on his job. This lack of parenting may have also been a contributory factor.

We must face the fact that our society is broken, and we who spend most of our time in social service trying to help people of all walks who require assistance, should be aware of what is going on and alert the decision makers to the issues, so prompt corrective action can be taken before it becomes unmanageable.