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Penultimate week, I argued, in the first part of this article, that something is going fundamentally wrong with the ‘British way of life.’ I deliberately chose the phrase ‘British way of life,’ which was often used by Tony Blair, as Prime Minister, rather than ‘British civilisation,’ because while the former could be used in a narrower sense, the latter does not easily lend itself to such narrow definitions.
The thrust of the whole article is my very strong feeling that while the British are making remarkable progress in education, science and technology, and, indeed, most other aspects of human development, which are all part of the civilisation of a people, they are losing it where it matters most – the family. Repudiation of time-honoured family values – the glue that holds any society together – is impacting negatively on the youth and by extension, the entire British society.
Today, Britain is increasingly turning into a country of stepfathers, stepmothers and stepchildren, even as life expectancy is well above 70 years. The question is; where are the biological parents of these children since they are not dead? The answer is the seven letter word – divorce. I asked a friend of mine, Tom Brookes, a Welsh, recently, why marriages are contracted and dissolved within hours in the UK , and he said it has to do with choice. "When people are free and have a choice, these things are bound to happen. Sooner than later, those who get married find out that there are more handsome men and beautiful women out there, who are richer and have better jobs, and since they have a choice, they could as well exercise that freedom." He should know. His live-in-lover called it quits last month and left with their 11-month-old daughter after a five-year liaison.
Today, in the UK , four, or more, out of every ten teenagers live with their step-parents. The consequence is the increasing incidents of sexual abuse of children by their step-parents in their homes. Those who are so abused tend to carry the scare for life and most times abuse other people later in life. At the end, the society becomes the ultimate loser. Last week, Chris Langham, 58, an actor was found guilty of downloading what the trial Judge, Philip Statman, called ‘harrowing and disturbing’ images of child abuse. Though he was earlier cleared of indecently assaulting an underage girl who claimed he took her virginity in a London hotel when she was 14, Langham was convicted of 15 charges of making indecent images of children. In his defence, Langham said he looked at the images to help him deal with the sexual abuse he suffered when he was eight. A vicious circle! Britain is reputed to have the highest number of teenage pregnancies in Europe .
As horrendous as the issue of sexual abuse of children is, the rising phenomenon of gang-style executions that are carried out by youths in their teens is even more frightening. On Thursday, July 26, Abukar Mohammed, 16, a Somali-born British citizen was executed just after midnight on the crime-ridden Stockwell Gardens Estate in South London . As reported in The Sun newspaper the following day, an eye-witness who saw the murder recounted: "The boy had a pink bus pass in his hand and was running for his life. But these black youths looking like ninjas – with black bandanas and black hooded tops – were chasing him on bikes. Two had guns. A shot went off and the boy crouched by a tree. He was surrounded. There was no escape."
Abukar was the 17th teenager to be executed in London , since January, by fellow teenagers. Most of these murders are so gruesome and bestial that they would make the equally mindless acts of violence perpetrated by cult members in Nigerian universities look like child’s play. It is even more worrisome considering the ages of these murderers and the way and manner they execute their victims. There seems to be a morbid experimentation with execution styles.
While James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, Michael Dosunmu, 15, Billy Cox, 15, Annaka Keniesha Pinto, 17, were shot to death, Kodjo Yenga, 16, Adam Regis, Paul Erharton, 14, Martin Dinnegan, Ben Hitchcock, 16, were stabbed to death by members of rival gangs.
In February last year, a 67-year-old man, Ernest Norton, was stoned to death by a gang of children as young as 10, and the oldest of whom was 13, at a leisure centre in Kent. What was Mr. Norton’s crime that earned him the ‘fatwa’ from these children? He asked the five children, reportedly part of a 15-man strong gang called The New Estate, to leave the leisure centre where he played cricket with his 17-year old son. Rather than leaving, they pelted him with sticks and rocks, as they jeered, until he collapsed and died. At their ages, most of these kid-murderers ought to be in primary school. What then are they doing with guns and knives on the streets?
Unlike in most African cultures where the upbringing of a child still remains an obligation of the entire society, in Britain , it is the exclusive responsibility of the nuclear family. And then, with majority of marriages breaking down as soon as they are contracted, and most families disintegrating, most children are now being raised, not by parents, but urchins on the streets, where peer pressure is wreaking havoc on their emotional stability.
Unlike in most African and Asian cultures where one could give unsolicited advice, or even admonish an erring child, here in the UK , you do so at the risk of losing your life because the child you are admonishing may well be carrying a dangerous weapon and may not have any qualms using it.
And there is also the problem of binge-drinking. Britain is gradually becoming a nation where most people, particularly the youths, most times, are in alcoholic stupor. Alcoholism is wreaking far greater havoc on the society than any other vice. And you only need to go to any pub in town, at any time of the day, to appreciate the enormity of the problem.
The consequence? Official statistics show that more than 100 people are admitted to hospital for alcohol-related liver disease everyday. Forty-two per cent of men and 36 per cent of women aged 16 to 24 reportedly drink more than the daily recommended amounts of alcohol and are at risk of developing liver disease in the next five to ten years. The statistics also show that the number of people admitted to hospital with alcohol-related liver disease has more than doubled in the last ten years as the current National Health Scheme (NHS) figures show that four people an hour enter hospital with alcohol-induced, severe health problems.
So alarming is the situation that the chief executive of the British Liver Trust cried out last month. "Cheap and accessible booze coupled with the UK ’s ‘any time, anywhere, any place’ mentality is costing us all very dear," she lamented, adding "far too many people are literally paying with their lives."
But they are not only paying with their lives, they are also paying with the lives of other people as statistics from the British Crime Survey (BCS), last month, also show that deaths from drink, drug and dangerous driving have risen to their highest level in 30 years.
Some British, particularly the elderly, readily admit that something has gone fundamentally wrong with their way of life. When you speak with them, they are usually perplexed with the conduct of the youth, wondering where they got it wrong.
But the answer is simple. They got it wrong at the family level. As the country gets wealthier, the people become more hedonistic, self-indulgent and pleasure-seeking, and more self-centred. Redeeming values which stable families promote are sacrificed on the altar of freedom and enjoyment, even as the idea of God increasingly becomes an anathema.
These days, British pubs are fullest on Sunday mornings. After clubbing all night on Saturdays, many would rather go to a pub on a Sunday morning, and drink a pint of Larger or their favourite Italian wine, than go to church. I asked a Scottish friend of mine, Ryan Parker, the reason for that, recently, and he riposted with another question: What possibly could I be asking from God if I go to a church on a Sunday, that the government cannot provide? I didn’t pretend to have an answer since I know that most things for which many of us from the so-called Third World Countries seek the face of God in prayers are the same things – free medical care, qualitative education, food, shelter, employment, and the rest, - which the state provides and the people enjoy them as of right or the things that they no longer value – good wife, good husband, stable family blessed with children.
When, therefore, I started seeing a black woman – my hunch is that she must be a Nigerian – who has taken it upon herself to, now, evangelise the British, I couldn’t help but ponder over the significance. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she stands, all alone, in the tunnel that links the Cardiff City Hall with the Hilton Hotel at the City Centre. As you are approaching, she closes her eyes as if in deep meditation, and as your footsteps gets louder, she softly sings a two-letter song – Jesus lives.
I smile each time I see her. Who knows, it may be the turn of the "dark continent" of Africa to bring the "Good News" to the British, whose way of life is going awry, in the 21st century. But this time around, I doubt whether we will be able to give them the bible with the left hand and appropriate their patrimony with the right as they did to us centuries back.
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