Outrage continues world-wide over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian school girls and the supposed intention of selling them to strangers who want wives. The thought of losing their children horrifies parents, but the media hype given to the abduction of these teenagers focuses more on the removal from their educational environment than it does on the removal from their families.
What motivated the abductors to take the action they did, knowing full well that there would be national and international repercussions and most likely an assault on their lives, and secondly, what concerns the United States about an incident in Nigeria that does not even remotely affect the life of American citizens? Unfortunately, the nature of Western thought focuses on effects and/or symptoms rather than causes; therefore, the resolution of an issue such as this becomes fleeting.
The focus on effects rather than causes can be seen in the manner violence in the American educational establishment is addressed. High school students have gone on shooting sprees, stabbing sprees, and desecration sprees (urinating in the hallways, putting oil on door handles, and defacing the walls and lockers) in their high schools. The response to these events usually calls for heightened school security and a movement to remove the instrument of destruction from society such as guns and knives. Perhaps to prevent future desecration of schools a suggestion will be made to remove penises as well; however, the real issue—what is causing our children to behave in an erratic and life threatening manner, does not receive much attention; this essay will address that oversight as it is germane to the issue of the abducted Nigerian school girls.
One million American grade school children (mostly boys) receive the drug Ritalin on a regular basis. Three million girls suffer from depression. In evaluating which colleges their children should apply for, college psychiatric facilities receive increasing consideration by parents. Ten million American women (10% of the adult female population) suffer from debilitating depression. World Health Organization figures indicate the number one health issue in England, the United States, and Canada is mental illness. The Institute for Mental Health stated that at any given time more than 20 % of Americans suffer from mental illness. A reasonable assessment of the preceding information would conclude that America has a severe mental health issue.
Those with mental health issues, (at least among those who have been acting erratically in our high schools), tend to have feelings of isolation coupled with little understanding of right and wrong action; two effects resulting from the lack of a normal home environment. Fathers provide ethics and structure while mothers provide nurturing love, the result being reasonably well-balanced children with a sense of belonging and an understanding of proper behavior; however, as we shall see, this source of loving care and direction has been removed and our children have been left wanting.
Only 18% of American children the age of 18 or over live in a household with both of their natural parents, the remaining 82% of children live in homes that experienced enough family discord to cause separation or divorce. Twenty four million children go to bed at night in a home without a father in it. Ninety percent of America’s 2.4 million prison population comes from broken homes as do 95% of the one million children in street gangs. Single parents usually have to go to work with the result their children go to pre-school, in school, and after school programs, environments lacking in the nurturing love found at home, and devoid of any religious and ethical instruction.
Regarding the education of women—the focal point of the abduction—the issue is not whether women should become educated, but what kind of education they receive and who provides it. The goal of childhood education is to teach children to read write, count, and express themselves in such a manner that they can relate well with others and become responsible functioning members of society. This level of education should be accomplished by high school graduation at the latest; anything beyond high school is vocational in nature.
What is the purpose of having a vocation (in this essay I am including a study in all the professions as vocational education)? The general answer today, or one that expresses the general value structure of society, came from a young manicurist who said the following to me: “I’m going to college to get an education, get a job, make some money, and be somebody.” That statement exemplifies feminine thinking; college, education, job, and money serve as vehicles for satisfying the ME—being somebody. Devotion to the family, tribe, and race are not referred to; excelling in providing nurturing life to humankind no longer receives approbation. Making money is the key indicator of worth to society and worth to oneself. It is this thinking that destroys the home environment and creates the conditions causing our youth to behave erratically and ending up on drugs, in prison, and/or shot dead in the streets.
Perhaps those who kidnapped the girl students see the change occurring to their country and the cause behind it; perhaps they see that the next step from single sex education is coeducation and the teenage pregnancies and unwed motherhood that develops there from, and perhaps the leader Abubakar Sheku is aware of the African Proverb: The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people. Certainly the ruin of the West began in the homes of its people, and the ruin of Nigeria has already begun in the homes of its people as the Western culture has begun to erode the native culture.
Kidnapping innocent children is a radical undertaking; however, witnessing the destruction of the cultural heritage of a nation is something that motivates men to commit radical acts and die for them. What else is there for a man to live and die for but his cultural heritage? In America we pay soldiers to kill people who in no way affect their cultural heritage. Killing people for money has a negative effect on the psyche, and when these soldiers come back home they kill their wives, neighbors, and themselves. Those who do not do any additional killing are added to the ranks of the nations mentally ill.
There is much more that can be discussed here concerning the resistance to Western culture in Nigeria of which Western education is a part, and perhaps future essays will elaborate on this issue in more detail; however, I hope that at least one facet of the issue was brought to light as a result of this essay.
Another question asked at the beginning of this essay, was why the interest on the part of the United States in an incident that not even remotely affects its citizens? Could the fact that Nigeria has the largest oil reserves in Africa have anything to do with American interests in their domestic affairs? As I write this essay American drones are swarming all over Nigeria. All that expense for a few hundred schools girls? America has killed many multiples of a few hundred by accident in its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our international interest focuses on oil producing nations. Iraq, Iran, Libya, Egypt, and Nigeria all have large reserves of oil. The few hundred school girls serve as an ostensible concern that has a publicity garnering effect and hides the true involvement of the United States in Nigerian domestic affairs.
E.G.
