Time for our fathers to come home

Are we utilising the full potential of our youth? Photo: Star

A holiday commercial for a supermarket chain has triggered an emotional rollercoaster in Germany. It opens to a scene of an elderly man receiving a message from his daughter that she and her family won't be visiting him this Christmas. The ad then cuts to the man eating dinner alone before he pulls a desperate prank on his children: he fakes his own death. The children arrive at their father's house, shocked and relieved at once to find him alive. The man confesses he couldn't have brought them together if he hadn't lied. The children agree and then the words "Zeit heimzukommen," appear on the screen. In English, those words mean "Time to come home."

The story behind the story is the real story: Germany has one of the world's oldest populations and they experience loneliness. About 20 percent of retirees over 70 stay in touch with either no one or only one person. One in four Germans that age is visited less than once a month by relatives. The government has launched programmes in which social workers visit retirees to comfort them. For many of these elderly people, death is a relief.

Different people inhabit different worlds. The percentage of Germans below 15 years of age is forecast to fall to 13 percent, among the world's lowest. The share of those over 60 is expected to rise from 27 percent to 39 percent. In contrast, the share of those over 65 in Bangladesh is 5 percent and of those over 55 is 10.9 percent. Almost 19 percent of the population is aged 15-24 and over 32 percent is aged 0-14.

Comparing the demographic profile of Bangladesh to that of Germany is like comparing a nursery to a dying garden.  Youth make up more than half the population in Bangladesh, while aging threatens to diminish the already dwindling German population by 10 percent in the next 45 years. Germany's deficit is our surplus.

That gives a perspective on life. So much of youth flows in our streets and homes, much of it spilling into the din and bustle of daily drudge. So much of it is wasted in idle squabbles, drug addiction, loitering, political showdowns, gang fights, pursuit of petty crimes, and useless motions and commotions. One country's treasure is another country's trash. 

What we have in abundance is scarce in Germany, but the principle of comparative advantage doesn't apply. Trade allows specialisation based on comparative advantage, enabling each country to consume more than it produces. While Germany is seriously failing to cultivate youth, we are wasting it like fruits grown in the wilderness. 

In this country, youth is being destroyed with a vengeance. Last week families gathered in the capital, seeking Prime Minister's intervention to trace nineteen abducted young men. Every day people are dying in road accidents, most of them young. Our prisons are crammed with young inmates. Most people arrested in connection with smuggling, extortion, murder and militancy are young. All the bloggers killed so far belong to that age bracket. Most other dead bodies recovered from fields, ponds and ditches are usually below thirty years of age.

It's symptomatic of a country where more than half the population is below that level. Most of the perpetrators of crimes are young, while most of the victims are also young. We are living in a country, which has got its youth pitched against its youth. The springtime of hope is harnessed to create the winter of despair. In that washout, we are creating the seeds of our own destruction.

Scholars, thinkers and talking heads are evermore concerned over what legacy they are leaving behind for their children. The many subjunctives they suggest elude the answer and intensify the question. Many of them have settled for the warped wisdom that has the desperation of someone groping in the dark. They are putting their gratuitous confidence in the chance that the future generations, hung out to dry, will be capable of rescuing themselves.

A wide range of animals — polar bears, burying beetles, hamsters, wolf spiders and a range of fish species, gobble their own kids. The scientists studied the sand goby, a fish whose males eat the larger eggs because those eggs take a longer time to hatch. The male gobies want to cut down on the amount of time spent caring for their young. They are in a hurry to reenter the mating game.

In all, the young in this country are lonely and neglected. And the crux of that crisis is a contradiction: fathers are building the future when children are losing hope. An absurd travel plan, it ignores the vehicles and focuses on the road. Children are the engines of the future and they are alone. Unlike Germany, it's the fathers in Bangladesh who should come home soon. 

The writer is the editor of weekly First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star. 
Email: badrul151@yahoo.com