My Generation: Our peers and the older generations

My Generation: Our peers and the older generations.

A challenge we face also has to do with the views of our peers and older generations. This is usually in regards to the negative views and ideologies they have.

For instance they believed and think that certain things that people will/and have studied have no place in the society simply because they consider them to be a “white” people thing or only for the “first” word countries however in the world we live in today that is a very unintellectual way of reasoning. 

I know someone who was being hounded due to the fact that he wanted to study aeronautic engineering and by hounding I really do mean the whole nine yards where he was called words and being insulted for being stupid and a fool. Long story short he opted for something else as people usually do in such situations.

However I thought about it and thought about it this way, if he studied and graduated he could have easily gone back to his country (Tanzania) and taught others. There are military planes and other commercial and private airlines within the country that will need to be serviced and maintained. Let’s face it paying a foreign contractor to do the work will be very expensive. It is an untapped market that could easily flourish and bloom into something bigger and very profitable.

This is a story of one individual but in reality there are many youths who have all this discouragement around them which in turn will impede their personal growth but worse off this will be a deterrent to the progress of a society as a whole and it will cost us financially to outsource such these services.

A lot of African cultures if not all are of a collectivistic nature and although this has its merits when it comes to personal growth this is the worst system to have grown up in. Case and point I know people who have not gone to further their studies simply because they are older than their other cousins and the care of their siblings is left to them because the parents simply say they are old now and they did their part with the older siblings (not financial aspects). In truth a parent’s responsibilities to their own offspring is not supposed to end until that child is able to stand on their own two feet. People who won’t leave home because of they will be made to feel guilty about abandoning their family. Unfortunately this means that the person will never have self-growth. There comes a point and time in everyone’s life that your first priority is yourself, unluckily for us though, who have lived in our very collective family dynamics.

“An older person always knows best.” WRONG. This train of thought is why we can’t get hired or it ends up in us getting fired. It is note worth that a lot of the youth in Africa are starting up companies, own and manage companies but a majority of the companies and people you will deal with are a generation or more older and they think they know it all because they believe that they did something that worked or used a certain method then that will always work and be that way. The world is ever changing and something that worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today or tomorrow. Questioning someone older is considered rude and wrong but without doing so we will again never progress. There was a point and time people use to fish by throwing sticks of dynamite however why don’t we do that now? It’s outdated and we have found better ways to fish. People’s train of thought has to evolve and progress as well. Just because someone wants to do things differently or has ideas that are contrary to your own doesn’t make them less right or their methodology less accurate. Thinking that due to a person’s age and years of work under their belt they are always right is a mistake. If I was to ask one of my mother’s peers about the best way to advertise to my generation she will talk about billboards and things that worked in her generation. Tell them about social media and activations they will have a blank look on their face (tried and proved). Not saying that they are all like that but I’m sure we have all come acroos people like this.

 This kind of ideology “An older person always knows best.”  is another problem we have in our quest to better ourselves.

Jah Bless

My Generation

Throughout the span of my 20’s thus far, there seem to be misconceptions to do with my generation. People our parents’ age seem to think that we have it easy, as if some force in the universe magically cleared the path for us and yet that is far from the truth. Every generation at any given point and time of history had their own hurdles, challenges, trials and tribulations to overcome and as always the solutions are easily identifiable after the fact and not during. Typical of our species. Unfortunately it doesn’t help when people are nagging at you about it. As such I will be talking about some of the things that my peers and I have faced and/or are facing in the “My generation” saga.

Jah Bless

My Generation : Getting work/job

Getting a job/work.

People expect that since education has gotten “better” and that a person possesses a degree, find employment or even self-employment is easy. Just show up with your CV and degree and the doors will open like the sea parted for Moses.

The reality however is even with a degree there is no gurantee. So many other factors come into play for instance the degree you have, university you went to, industry you are trying to work in even the country you are in and one’s nationality (in some places being a foreigner is helpful in others it’s a deterrent). However with all that said there is one thing that I think is a pain and that is a person is “under qualified” or “inexperienced”. I notice that for some jobs advertised (these aren’t high level positions e.g. assistant jobs, low level and mid low level entry positions etc.) require you to have at least some years’ experience in the field. My question is this then, if every job a person applies for requires them to have experience, it means that a person needs to have experience before they can get work so as to gain experience???????? It doesn’t make sense to me. How is it expected for a fresh graduate to have experience or at all gain it when no one is hiring someone without experience? The fact that a person went to college or university means there are certain skills they picked up during that time which will enable them to at the very least be competent in anything they do. So why not hire someone and train them? Some people will think that’s what internships are for, or that people leave for greener pastures, let me address those points.

First a lot of the internships we get are unpaid which in this day and age is a problem. The economy system and structure is shit to begin with but what makes it worse is the mentality surrounding us. Since you work then people (usually your folks) expect you to have money and they don’t understand the concept of you working for free and even if they understand it I believe and feel that it’s very heartbreaking for a person to ask for an allowance to cater for transport to and from work as well as lunch. At the very least a person should be able to break even. Be able to afford to get to work and get lunch for the month.

The other problem is the duration of the internship. How long should an internship last paid or not? From numerous sources it is said to be no more than 3months but unfortunately some employers drag this out longer and take advantage of people who don’t know this. Also I should mention that some countries have made it illegal for a person to work somewhere with no remuneration. But I am getting of topic a bit by going into law, work ethics and work politics however it is something to think about. The laws and labor offices are supposed to be the guardians here but when the infrastructure for them to do so and even policies within a country are lacking, there isn’t much an individual can do.

Another interesting thing I notice is that apparently even though a person is a fresh graduate it’s possible for them to be “over qualified”. I don’t know whether it’s a trick or a strategy but I have noticed that some jobs as for people with certificates and diplomas and when a person with a degree applies they are considered over qualified. This also happens with people who have a Master’s degree. I thought the whole point of higher and tertiary education was so you get credentials so as to work and yet you are told your credentials are too good for the job available (I mean you did apply for it so I’m guessing you must’ve seen the merits of doing so).

Incredibly though in our developing countries where they want people to have so much experience, it wasn’t so for our parent’s generation. Back in the day they didn’t go looking for work after University as we did because jobs were waiting for them.

The population wasn’t as high as it is now meaning the work place wasn’t over saturated with as many “qualified” people as it is now. There were also not many people who went to University and got higher/tertiary education thus they were very much sought after which is very different from present day. Think about it how many of our parent’s friends and/or relatives that are well established had to study up to a Master’s level? (Depending on the field of expertise of course). These are the things that seem to be overlooked when people are hounding you about working and so on.

I’m sure there are many other aspects but these ones stuck out to me.

Jah Bless

Chronicles of The Sensual ; The football Game

Once again it was football/soccer season and as always her boyfriend was going to have a night out with the boys. Unbeknownst to him this was going to be the most memorable and excited game he’d ever watch. As he was about to leave she approached ever so seductively, “Sweetheart I know you have plans but I have a counter offer,” she says. How about you stay home and for the duration I will blow you away. Puzzled he looks at her and reminds her that a game lasts for 90 minutes not to mention half time. She just smiles and bats her eyelids, I know. Curiosity got the better of him. He hardly remembers the score let alone who played. 

When she was retelling the story I was skeptical as we all would be however she mentioned that the point wasn’t to make him have an orgasm it was to play. And for the period of the game she played with him to the point where he begged and squirmed and pleaded but she wouldn’t let him get to his climax. Slow torture as one would put it. Excruciatingly slow torture for as long as one saw necessary. Again I am amazed at this story but even more amazed at the lady who pulled it off, the patience and tie she must have needed and the dedication to her art. All I can do is salute her.

Jah Bless

Chronicles of the Sensual : A Scarf, A Rose and A Bandana

So there I was unaware what that night held. The only thing I knew for certain was I was told to get into the shower and not come out until I was told. I was even given everything I needed to change into (he picked very interesting clothing from my wardrobe) and do my hair. I had many questioned for him as always but he gave me a hug and a kiss and said, “Young lady sometimes it’s good to just go with it.” The mischievous look in his eyes and that cheeky smile was more than convincing and I did as I was told. I got out of the shower to find a candlelit dinner waiting. We talked for a while and went out on to the balcony where to my surprise he kept enticing me but never going all the way however I have to admit after the surprise he had he could’ve had me right there and then and I wouldn’t have had a care in the word who saw or heard me. He told me he had 3 gifts for me, he had already given me a scarf that he tied  around my neck, as we are  heading back indoors ,he takes a bandana out of his pocket and uses it as a blind fold.

He then led me to the bed, boots still on, lay me on the bed and took the scarf off my neck (that smelt like him) and tied my hands together over my head. Did I mention that the candles were scented? He probably lit them for some time and shut the room because I could smell the Jasmine and a hint of vanilla. I’m lying there in anticipation not sure where thins will go cause yes what I was wearing could easily be taken off to expose my front from top to bottom (and yes he did take it off). I hear him breathing heavy, feeling the want in his voice and I’m expecting him to jump me but then I feel something crawling up my leg all the way to my nose and I take a deep breath and it’s a Rose. My third gift he says. What happened was unexpected. He put his lips close to my body so I could feel his war breathe on my skin but not once did his lips touch me instead he used the rose to stroke me. Fast and slow, hard and soft on every part of my exposed flesh and at some point I felt those soft petals made their way to my already blood pulsating lips and made me quiver and shake with climactic glee. As I lay there breathing heavy feeling squeamish I thought to myself that I only thought roses were beautiful to look at.

Jah Bless