03 Dec 2009, Posted by justin in the category, 4 Comments

The Fall of the Monuments

Today I had a chance to get out for a walk and catch some final days of warmth before the autumn comes to a close. I often walk around the empty lake neighbouring our apartment, surrounded by a forest where many tree’s leaves are seeing the season out, changing from their bright green texture to a colourful array of brown, yellow and rich reds. Yet as I walk around the empty lake I’m always reminded of better days, and as I pass the various park benches, pathways and old monuments crumbling away, it’s very evident that the pride in this land has slowly dissipated into abandonment and neglect.

As I walked past one particular feature around this lake (as pictured above), I wondered how this once beautiful water fountain had ended up as it is now. In many ways it seems quite symbolic of Moldova’s infrastructure in general, where so many buildings, factories, roads or whatever have been left to fall apart. From a glance, it seems as though these features have been this way for around 15 – 20 years, which may coincidently align with when Moldova officially ended its communist regime. From a western perspective this seems quite confusing, because from our experience a move into a democratic government equips and empowers ordinary people with the ability to take pride in their land. But if you dig a little deeper it’s interesting to reflect on how Moldova might have ended up in the situation.

It seems to me that the problem has to do with the way people have been taught to think. Under a communist government, people were taught to do what they were told. If they were asked to jump, the only question that was permitted was ‘how high’. There were people who were told to build nice buildings, others paid to construct nice monuments in the parks, and others who were simply instructed to maintain them. To some extent it was a system that worked quite well, yet when people were left to their own devices… well, just take a look at the old water fountain and you’ll have a sufficient summary.  People who were told to do things no longer knew what to do or how to do it when set free – they were left to their own devices. Maybe that’s why it didn’t take all that long for the communist party to be voted back in.

As I was walking past the water fountain today I couldn’t help but make links of this with people’s lives. As a teacher, I clearly remember the battles I had with the changes that took place in students as they approached adolescent years – those dreaded years which parents so often brace themselves for! I often wondered why these years were so tough. Why is it that these years seem to either make or break people’s lives? As I looked at the ruins of this water fountain, it seemed very symbolic of many teenagers’ lives, where everything seemed so much better in the early stages of their lives under their parents. I wonder whether there can be subtle hints of communism in the way we raise our kids. As parents, teachers or whoever, we often have such strict boundaries for kids. We often have our own ideas on how every child should behave and what they should conform to, and everything soon becomes either black or white under our authority. Like communism, kids sometimes aren’t taught to think for themselves, they are told how to think. But the problem is, what happens when they enter adolescence – that period of significant transition. When they are told to jump, they ask how high – unfortunately from the wrong peers. They are used to being told what to do, so that’s how they operate when they are amongst their friends.

Maybe I’m making some big assumptions, but the shift in thinking that needs to take place seems obvious. Whether in Moldova or Australia, young people need to be both taught and nurtured on how to think and reason for themselves; otherwise young peoples lives can end up in a pile of rubble when controlling mechanisms are removed. Something I guess I one day will have to look forward to in parenting… I’m expecting it to be much easier said than done!