Important Issues Of Modern Life

IMPORTANT ISSUES OF MODERN LIFE SUICIDE TENDENCIES AMONG YOUTHS

The IITs, and IIMs, the AlEEEs; these three acronyms evoke fear, determination and tears among our peers. Pressure finds its way through the bones and veins of the youth of today. The Ills and the IIMs have become the present day Holy Grail of the youth. Samuel Skinner once said, "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." This signifies the present-day troubles of man. He feels as if without doing something extraordinary in his life, his life is a waste. Parents tell their siblings to reach great heights in their lives. They pressurize them by trying to cram things into their minds. Some plucky and string-hearted ones rise and fly away into the sky to reach great ranks and heights. However, the majority are not eagles. They come crashing back to the ground.

Present day youth feel that their lives are nothing if they do not get into a good university or college. They struggle hard, go to tuitions, ignore sport activities and bury their heads in huge books. Children merely into their 5th Grade read books and try to understand concepts of college science in order to make their future easy. However, when there are more than 5 lakh children doing the same thing to get one of approximately six thousand seats as in this time's IIT-JEE, there are only going to be a few smiles when the results come out.

Out of every suicide case, one is a youth between 15 and 24. This statistics includes all those aged people who have a terminal illness and thus commit suicide. One in 5 teens thinks of suicide. This

shows just how much pressure teens have. To get a good job and consequently good life, one has to study in a good college or university. However, especially in India, good higher education is a rare thing. Also, India being the second most populated country in the world and an amazing 40% of the people being below the age of 20, the competition in our country is cutting edge. One will also have to participate competitively in extra-curricular activities to be a success in life.

There are several causes for suicide and self-harm in our country. But the most important among them all is pressure put on the youth by their parents to do well in their exams. In the turbulent times of youth, people magnify even small ups and downs horrendously. Teens are famously known to be emotionally insecure. A rather bad experience like failure in examinations or inability to get into a university may just put them over the edge. The chances of not getting into universities have increased these days with more competition. If one scans the newspaper, one can see several cases of suicide instantly. The pressure that students go through has been going up and if one is not able to cope one feels despondent and unhappy and feels that life is not worth living. One in every twelve teens attempts suicide. Some especially sensitive children get affected by bullying by rather overly boisterous

inordinately

children and get so depressed

that they commit suicide. The easy availability of firearms also helps youth who

want to commit suicide. Some youth also have

undiagnosed mental illness such as severe bouts of manic depression. It has been found by surveys that 20% of all youth have severe bouts

of depression. If unfortunate events happen to them, they may get the desire to commit suicide.

Another reason why youth commit suicide is excess loneliness. The social attitude of youths these days is not what it once was. Peers do not easily accept a lonely person searching for friendly company these days. Introverts are rarely accepted into gangs of extroverts and even if accepted are neglected, teased or bullied to the point of tears.

Another cause of suicide and self-harm is addiction to drugs or alcohol which increases the bouts and magnitude of depression which again induces people to commit suicide. Also, if a dearly loved one passes away, it may drive youth to depression. There have been cases of people committing suicide because of severe depression because of the death of hero-figure. Also, there have been cases of people committing suicide due to an unfortunate national event taking place. Examples include people committing suicide because of India losing out in the first round of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

To prevent suicide among youth, cases of depression among youths must be found out as soon as possible. Also youth help programs must be set up in the country for youth who require help. Treatment must not be avoided by depressed youth. Several youth pull out of treatment at the slightest chance. They should be prevented or dissuaded from doing so. Also, parents should try to get an inkling of what thoughts are going through their charge's minds. Parents often do not talk to their children about their failures as they feel that it would be like applying salt to the wounds of the children.

However, they should comfort their children who at that time are undergoing a period of guilt and self-blaming. Parents should get the idea to their minds that their children can commit suicide. Several parents of youth who committed suicide had no inkling that their children were unhappy. The irritable manner of youth must be taken seriously as it may be one of the symptoms of suicide. Suicide attempts by youth must be taken seriously as youths who have tried to commit suicide once will try to commit suicide again.

Several youth have very low self-esteem and feel that they are just not up to their peers and feel that life is not worth living. They should be made to realize that each person is special and they are worth something. An example is Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam; he had a desire to become a pilot in his youth. He was unable to pass his exam. He then went to visit a saint. This saint told him that Cod would put him in a better position in his life. Later, as we know, Dr. Kalam became the President of India after a sparkling scientific career.

Life is something that is short. To make it even shorter is something that must not be called for. Cod's gift should not be taken lightly. Whatever happens, one should have the courage to face untoward events in our lives with a brave heart and straight face.

IMPORTANCE OF READING NEWSPAPERS

“Nulla nuova, buona nuova” meaning no news is good news is a famous Italian usage. It may be true in the ambience of too much news of disturbing nature pouring in from all directions all the time nolens volens. But, news is sine qua non for active life. None can ignore the milieu in which he lives. Only news keeps us in touch

with the milieu in which we live.

It gives us the insight to the

dynamics that form the environment around us, it be in local or regional or national or international level. Keeping doors shut from news renders us dead and leads to isolation from the world around us and ultimately to atrophy.

The main conveyors of news are newspapers. Though there are many other sources of news like magazines and books in print media, radio and television channels and Internet connections in electronic media, words of mouth and telephone and wireless communications etc, no other source ever could come near the newspaper in importance. It is true of the past and the present and it is true of the future also. Neither the advent of the television nor that of the Internet could affect the importance of the newspaper. The reason for this is the width, breadth and the depth of the news provided by the newspaper, its low cost and the ease of providing the news at our leisure and comfort as many times as we desire.

Newspapers are very important in many ways. They give us lots of information about various matters at various levels that are not available anywhere. Though magazines and books also give lots of information, the scope of the news there is limited to a few selected topics.

Televisions and internet connections while provide news

faster than the newspapers, it cannot have the width, breadth and depth of the newspapers and do not provide the comfort of the repeated references at our leisure and comfort apart from harming our eyes because of the glare and being the source of health hazards because of radiations.

People of all profession need newspapers.

Engineers, doctors,

scientists, professors and other professionals need them to know the

day-to-day

developments

in

their

respective

fields.

Businessmen need newspapers to keep in touch with the economic and commercial trends in the country and see the current share prices. Politicians need them to read recent political events in the country.

Others read newspapers to know how changes around

them affect their life. Students read newspapers to broaden their knowledge and keep abreast of the recent developments in various fields, be it in politics, economics, science, sports or art and culture. Newspaper is an important tool of the learning process for students.

Advertisements in newspapers are also very informative and give lots of information about the world around and recent trends apart from being very entertaining. The editorials and the articles in the editorial page of the newspapers are always very analytical and give insight to the news and their background. Reading newspapers is incomplete sans a glance to the editorials and the articles.

Reading newspapers everyday is must for both students and adults for growth and enlightenment irrespective of the class or field of their life.

For, reading newspaper everyday is highly educational, and an

important informal education in that. One can ignore this important function of the life at own peril.

ROLE OF STUDENTS IN ROAD SAFETY

Roads are the arteries of a country; they are the networks of the lifelines that keep the country healthy and intact. Stoppages in the

arteries damage the heart and lead to the death of the body. It is the same with the country. Unsafe roads lead to the damage of the nation. Safe roads are as important to the national life as are safe arteries to a healthy body. Roads are a public utility networks. The Government builds and maintains roads for the public good. Safe roads are its responsibility. It meets the responsibility through its Engineering, Transport and Traffic Police wings. But, this does not prevent the public from its responsibility towards safe roads. Actually, the role of the public in the matter as the ultimate beneficiary of the road-network is the key of safe roads in any country. Students are the future of a country. Some day, they are going to be in the helm. Safe roads are their responsibility also. They are the builders of the future of the country and their ideas constitute its direction. As citizens and the hopes of the future, they have their own responsibilities towards the country that strives to better the future for their benefit. Their responsibilities towards safe roads are one of them. They must try to raise road safety awareness in the public and help the traffic police in controlling the traffic during the rush hours. They can also be the model road users. What they need is a determination to try and provide safety in roads. Rudyard Kipling in “Diversity Of creatures” says, “Transportation is civilization”. This is a very profound truth. Without transport and the movement of goods and people, there can be no civilization and culture. The increase in the standard of living in many countries in the world in recent years has been almost entirely due to the strides made in transport especially by the introduction of the motor vehicle with its flexibility and ability to get into places otherwise inaccessible even by

railways. Danger is unavoidable in the world of transportation. There has never been a time when travel was not dangerous. L. G. Norman in his Public Health Paper for the World Health Organisation in 1962 says, “The problem of road traffic accidents on a large scale has arisen for the first time in the present century. All other epidemics throughout history have been due to the onslaught of agencies external to man, principally the protozoa, bacteria and viruses; but road accidents are because of man himself. A terrible penalty of mortality has already been paid as the cost of integrating the motor vehicle into modern life.” The three E’s, Engineering, Education and Enforcement that are the heart of the accident problem constitutes the answer to the traffic safety problem while three P’s namely Pressure, Prejudice and Politics cause the road safety measures go haywire. A good approach to the problem of the road safety must take all these three positive E’s and negative P’s into account for a solution. While Engineering is the job of the engineering department

and

enforcement

of

the

police

and

the

transport

departments, the students certainly as a segment of the general public can help Education as a part of the three E’s. Students can also partake in rendering ineffective the negative influences of the three P’s on the road safety. The role of the students in the road safety measures is limited to three functions namely model road-users, road safety educators and pressure groups for safe roads. They act as model road users in the first while as educators of the same measures to the larger public, especially the unenlightened and the uneducated in the second, and pressure groups for the same measures through powerful parents and self-efforts in the third. They can be a great source of advantage in stopping the normal

pressures

of

life,

prejudices

and

self-interested

political

maneuvers that work against the needs of safe roads. Students as the

interest groups of the safe roads certainly turnout to be great assets of the future of the country by virtue of their knowledge, experience and passion for safe road efforts. This is why introduction of safe road measures as a subject in the secondary education system of the country will prove a great advantage for the advancement of the country. Safe roads of the modern world involve road dividers, zebra crossings, speed limits, parking slots, one-way traffics, road signboards, traffic signals, traffic booths, road safety literature, and above all safe road educational and awareness programmes. Violation of traffic rules like wrong parking, joy riding, over-speeding, crossing the roads at wrong spots are the major causes of traffic snarl-ups. Students can be of immense help in traffic management in preventing these road nuisances that can lead to serious consequences by being model road users, educators to the unenlightened public and pressure groups towards the end. Pressures of money and power and political influences always played adverse role against the interests of the safe road by stalling the process of the enforcement of traffic rules. Students as a model group can play an important role in creating healthy public opinion against such holes in the due process of the law-enforcement and make roads safe for all. Safe roads assure a safe return home and ensure a happy and more confident life back home. This means happier life and less tense outside activities. Safe roads certainly enhance the quality of life. Students who constitute the future of the country and for whose benefits all efforts of the present world are streamlined must actively partake in performing their role towards the maintenance of the safe roads and improving the quality of the life.

TREATMENT OF WOMEN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

For a very long time, women have been discriminated against. All religions suffer from this weakness of rendering woman subordinate to man. According to Christianity Eve came second and led Adam to evil and women are barred from the positions of pastor. So also Hinduism or any other religion. Islam leads in this discrimination. But, ancient history anywhere in the world is replete with cases where women held high positions, leaders and respected without discrimination. In the past they could become what they wanted in life and were given education. This changed during the fifth century A.D. and continued till now. Women are awakened to their rights now and are fighting for that. Time is not far away to see the sex discrimination being completely wiped out of the human race. LAW AND JUSTICE

Greed breeds greed, and leads to ruinous deeds. People by nature always want some thing or the other. Often what people want for them may turn out to be harmful for others individually or for the combined good of the people. Therefore protection from other’s greed is an essential need of the human society. It is here that the process of law and justice come into play. Laws, law courts and legal systems were set up to see that the combined interests of the people are protected. Civilised society is obliged to obey the laws, law courts and legal systems for symbiotic existence. However, outlaws are the common feature of any society, those who live at the expense of others.

It has been believed that justice is absolute. People since ancient times have wrongly believed that justice can be made to measure to the crime committed or the good deed done. People believe that justice is very simple. They however are completely wrong as justice is not at all an easy task to do about and is a very difficult task indeed to decide and judge. Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize laureate economist of the Indian origin and former Master of the Trinity College at Cambridge University in a book on justice talks about what justice is all about in his book, “The Idea of Justice” published in July 2009. This book along its length sets out to explain Amartya Sen’s view of justice and how he feels about justice in general. This is a very complicated book and he talks about things in great detail. He talks about justice as some thing that must be separated from other things in general. He talks about justice being relative. To illustrate this, he gives an example. He asks to consider three people who want a flute: one is who prepared it, another is who alone can play it and the other one is who has got no other source of pleasure except from the flute. Each of them has his claim for the flute on different grounds. It is a very tough thing to judge who should get the flute. Justice is like this in the real world. It is not at all absolute and relative to the issue and the circumstances in hand. This is a novel concept in the administration of justice and warrants close look from experts. GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS

Government looks after the people. It has some functions to perform as it takes all the major decisions on the people’s life.

Government performs two types of functions. They are Regulatory functions and Developmental functions. Regulatory functions are the functions that are administrative. They are about maintaining the stability of a country. Developmental functions refer to the functions of the government; that is about developing the lot of the people. Developmental measures are key for the welfare of the people and the prosperity of a country, and concomitantly for the peace and stability of the nation, for peace and stability of a nation are found closely related to employment opportunities and the economic well-being of the people live there. The basic needs of a citizen are food, water, clothes and shelter. They are very important as no one can live without them. All other things come thereafter. They are the things of first priority to the government. In governance, developmental and regulatory functions go hand in hand and they are inter-dependent. Lack of development leads to dissatisfaction and unrest, causing serious regulatory problems. On the other hand, efficient regulatory functions lead to balanced and secure life style leading to optimum prosperity in the country. Developmental and regulatory functions being inter-complimentary, government intent upon the prosperity of the country gives equal focus to both. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

Infrastructure is the network of supporting facilities for life and development. Without it, no nation can possibly survive. It develops the nation and develops the style of living of a country.

The national economy is extremely important. Infrastructure plays a very important role in the economy of a country. Lack of Infrastructure means essential ingredients needed for the economic growth being absent, leading to economic retardation. Infrastructure is the very soul of the economy. Roads,

communication

systems,

electricity,

availability

of

housing, education, health care are all parts of the infrastructure. Without them, people, industry and economy cannot survive and grow. Whether it is industry, agriculture, commerce or ordinary life of the citizens, they all depend upon the common facilities available around and the quality of the process closely depends on the infrastructure available. Therefore the infrastructure available decides the style and standard of life and activities around. Infrastructure being the common facilities, it is the responsibility of the government in public domains. It is for this reason it is said that the Government decides the style and standards of life and activities in a country. Creating

adequate

infrastructure

is

the

basic

function

of

any

government, and it is sine qua non for national economy, growth and development.

RESEARCH IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS

In these days, many new things are making their appearance. There are new styles of Mobile phones, Walkman, Internet mobile phones, cars, and computers and so on. The list seems endless. The

producers of these new gadgets get excellent returns on their investments, as people do not mind in investing on gadgets of new and latest features. Availability of excess money in common man is causing this boom. Most of these gadgets are just the same products with new attractive features like the Internet facility in mobile phones. As there is lots of money involved in this business, there is heavy competition for creating products of new additional features. A few companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo with huge outlay on their own research units continuously improve upon their products and introduce new products to the market every now and then to keep their consumer base intact, lest competitors knock-off their share. Sony as the leader in electronics goods and Microsoft in computer business are known for periodical update of their products to the fast changing needs of the consumers worldwide. How Microsoft forces its consumers to buy its goods every now and then by periodically introducing new versions of its Operating System from Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows Millennium to Windows XP to Windows Vista and updating its Office Suite almost every year is a legendary tactic now that made both Microsoft and Bill Gates richest in the world. No doubt, technology and the world also benefited by this. EFFECT OF MOVIES ON PEOPLE

These days, large numbers of movies are produced all over the world. They include all sort of new movies such as Star Wars, Harry Potter movies and so on. These films make deep impacts on the people and often bring large-scale attitudinal changes in them and affect values and opinions. The changes can be for good or bad depending on the nature of the film. For example, there is a character called Yoda in the Star Wars series, which is an alien. He always talks in passive

voice. His courage and determination made the character popular with the filmgoers making them to copy him by using words such as ‘Win I do not think you will’. Other movie stars have also inspired people to change something in them by copying them. This is not a healthy development, as the copying process is not inspired by inherent quality, but by blind copying instinct. There are instances of children trying to copy Superman and jumping from high places to death. Films are meant to enjoy and it should strictly remain at that place. Following the antics of the heroes or other characters of films is overstepping the scope of the films with which those films were produced. Strangely, this foolhardy copying instinct is not restricted to adolescent youths. Instances are aplenty of fully grownup men and women suffering with this childish crush. Developing super human images of their film heroes is another form of this crush. Both India and United States have instances of popular film heroes rising to the highest executive positions of the country by popular vote. South India saw at least three popular regional film stars becoming popular Chief Ministers of their respective States in Mr. M.G.Ramachandran and Ms. Jayalalitha in Tamilnadu and Mr. N.T.Ramarao in Andhra Pradesh while the United States of America has Mr. Reagan as its President. The crushes people develop for their favourite film stars of the opposite sex are a matter of total madness of another dimension altogether. It is common to see people of all ages developing deep crushes to their favourite actors and going mad after them purely on the basis of the screen images they represented in films or on their screen histrionics though they never gad a chance to meet those heroes and know anything about their personal traits and character

except

those

fanciful

stories

presented

through

film

magazines. They develop illusions that they deeply love those film

stars and resort to all kinds of nonsense. Though such madness is not restricted only to film stars, it is more visible for film stars and inspires disgust.

SANSKRIT AND LATIN

There are many languages in the world like English, French and Chinese, which are spoken by large numbers of people. The most widely used language in the world is Mandarin, which is used by more than one billion people all over the world. Next comes English. There are also languages that have faded into oblivion and disappeared from the surface of the Earth for lack of use. Some are on the anvil of disappearance. Sanskrit and Latin come under this category. Both are classical languages and were in their zenith of their glory for long period in ancient time. All languages have their own circles of rise and fall and both Sanskrit and Latin have come full circle. Both are almost dead as spoken languages and survive because of their great classics of the yore and as expressions of scholarships in serious writings. The classic nature of the languages and the purity warranted in using them gradually rendered the languages unpopular as the stress of life style shifted to easy and comfortable life. As

the

world

has

become

a

global

village

because

of

communication and transport revolutions of the last two centuries, world needed a common language for its people. English has easily filled the slot without anybody asking for it. The global spread of English no doubt created several versions of English like American English, Indian English, Australian English et cetera. But English

remains English in all these versions at the soul. Popularity of mass media like television channels and print media, and computer and Internet revolutions helped in acceptance of English as the common language all over the world. There are attempts in India and Europe to revive both Sanskrit and Latin as spoken languages to their ancient glory. Also individual attempts are seen to infuse life to these languages by launching magazines, newspapers and television channels though commercially they are unviable. But, none of them have succeeded except for minor growths till now. They have a Herculean task before them to succeed in the present easy life style.