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Voice of the Voiceless Part 2- Opinion Piece


                                             Contributors’ Opinion

We are often blinded by what we believe we are entitled to and find ourselves wanting others to conform to that which we believe. In this story, we find young people who have been parachuted into a building and neighbours who are disturbed by the behaviour of these students which compels them to police and impose their way of living on these students, creating a situation of ‘Them and Us’. We discover that one side believes the tension is rooted on race whereas the other believes its chaotic youth behaviour- I believe it’s neither. It all boils down to one simple and cliché word: RESPECT. We are looking at a situation where the differences between the young and the elderly disrupt the harmony that should be hovering in a small Cal-de-sac. In adopting greater respect for one another, an understanding of needs can also be established, but that also does not contend the notion of forced assimilation on either young or Old-I do not condone ageism. For example- the students are young and vibrant beings that want to have fun and go crazy once in a while and then the older community really wants to have peace and quiet at all times. At some point, on a different level, respect works to a certain point.

Why don’t both teams start by doing the simple things man takes for granted like greeting each other on the street and asking ‘Hey, I had a rough day, how was yours?’, lowering noise levels during the late evening hours in understanding that the next person has to either cross-night because its test/exam night or because they need to wake up and go to work early the next day?, creating a neighbourhood watch or whistle-blowing forum to alert each other on criminal activity, being considerate of the fact that the buildings are not structured the same way, and that a little racket from the washing machines or the engine noise from the safest drop-off zone that sounds for less than five minutes once almost every day, won’t do much damage to your 8 hours of sleep. How about meeting together once in a while to have a review on the relations and not just to complain or bite each other’s’ heads off but to also acknowledge good behaviour on both sides? Would it really hurt to speak to each other, understand the problems, work together to solve them and appreciate the age diversity in the community before involving the school, municipality and police authorities? Or without wanting neither age group to relocate because of the discomfort caused by the invasion? After all, “To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is even greater”- N. Funeka

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