It was announced in the local media that the minimum age drinking limit is to be raised to 18. There are certainly very good reasons for this measure to be introduced and it is high time that it is considered. This suggested measure uncovers more than what meets the eye and is just the tip of the iceberg of a much wider and stronger societal underlying problems. The prevalent societal trends provide a clue to the problems.
Many blame young people themselves, yet anyone who is able to function effectively in life had to be taught first. Due to the acquisition of material goods without being taught to work for them, children often automatically expect to receive what they have not earned. One asks, how many children are waited on hand and foot at home? Are we teaching our children to do the washing up, vacuum, keep their rooms tidy and do their own beds? Youth without discipline at home resent discipline at school. Parents who are overindulgent and cannot say no to their children are making them prone to rebellion and bad behaviour.
Permissive parenting is producing a young narcissistic generation accustomed to being taken care of – a generation who feel it is their right. The overall sense of entitlement is reinforced by the general pattern of European society in which citizens are given generous benefits such as free health care, childcare and housing benefits. Both in Europe and in Malta, the level of government service has been the case for generations that people have come to expect it. This then drives the overall sense of entitlement many European and Maltese feel. This is the reason that when there is any threat to government programmes in Europe protests erupt.
Indeed, young people need role models to follow and the best role models are the parents. The examples given at home and school have their effect on peers. It seems that our society is never happy with what it has and having the latest trendiest and latest technology at hand, whether it is a mobile, laptop or android. Relatively speaking, Maltese children are also expected to grow up faster than nature allows them and are missing out on their childhood with the constant expectations being placed on them due to our competitive educational system. These pressures are having a telling effect
Binge drinking is a phenomenon among many young people all over Europe and a typical scenario would be as follows: Young girls and boys as young as 12 flock to Malta’s entertainment mecca, drinking shots of alcohol mixed with liqueurs and girls socialising with males is surely not a healthy concoction. The results speak for themselves statistically-speaking as a large percentage of teenage mothers is quickly rising. Society at large in turn, makes it relatively easy for these pregnant young women to ‘move forward’ in life as benefits are provided in cash and in kind to help them. The state’s social contract allows subsidised accommodation, free health care and cash payments, among others.
Added to the above, there are no costs associated with marriage or having to seek employment, which many times is part-time, precarious, strenuous, paid at ridiculously low rates and undeclared. All this money to subsidise our pampered generation comes from the taxes of people in gainful employment. What is being said here is that one should help these youngsters but at the same time, the state should not encourage and reinforce a trend where teenage pregnancies become the order of the day. Moreover, the longer the government acts to introduce measures to tackle the exaggerated alcohol intake, the more serious the problem will be. Young people are not only finding it easy to drink as much as they like but are also finding it easy to ‘cover up’ the negative effects that follow with their expectations and entitlements from the State.
The entitlement cycle continues with each government cave-in. The entrenched sense of entitlement forces governments to deliver what citizens demand and new and stronger expectations continue to grow. Governments are being regularly voted in and out of power depending on whether a politician has delivered the goods.
The predicament in Europe and Malta is very dangerous as people want jobs, benefits and they want a leader who will make it happen. They want someone in power who will take care of them and pamper them. People get easily frustrated, exasperated and disillusioned. This is the case when looking at the discontented, disillusioned European jobless generation mushrooming to tens of thousands of people in Spain, Italy and other European countries. We are seeing an influx of young Europeans from these countries coming to Malta seeking jobs as their countries are not offering the jobs they need, as thank God Malta is not in the dire predicament like most of the EU. Modern European history is also rife with dictators coming to power in times of despair, which is another danger that a pampered society can lead to.
The overall trend of pampering our youth is not just what meets the eye by way of alcohol intake, teenage pregnancies and pressures on governments to provide but a repetition of history. The forces being set in motion are gradually setting in place the stage for a new charismatic leader to electrify Europe and deliver the lifestyles European youth desire. Throughout its history, Europe has repeatedly given power to one man. History is replete with European rulers such as Justinian, Charlemagne, Otto the Great and Charles von Habsburg to the more recent Francisco Franco, Tito, Hoxha, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler.
Anthony Zarb Dimech
birkirkara