When times were simple and happy

I wish for simpler times.

I wish for the times when we could spend time together, without having to grab our phones to show some picture we took the week before, or a video that was forwarded to you. I wish for the times when we sat around the dining-room table and talked, joked, teased, cried and tackled problems together, not on social media. I wish for the times we spent with our loved ones and if the phone rang, we ignored it, because our families were more important. Not like today, when you grab the phone and stand to one side to finish a conversation. Have you noticed that everybody stops talking when your phone rings? Cellphones, or smart phones, or whatever mobile phone you have, have taken over our lives. Oh, and it’s rude.

I wish for the times where children could play outside, getting dirty and not wasting away in front of the TV playing Xbox and killing imaginary people for fun.

This past week, we received two utterly disturbing videos. The one was of the most severe abuse a child had to endure. Journalist Riaan van Zyl only watched the first few seconds and couldn’t continue any further. I watched till the end, merely to find out if it was local. It wasn’t. That night I went home and cried because somebody took a video of this cruelty and did nothing at all to help the children. That horrific act was posted on social media by, I suppose, the same sick, perverted person.

The other video was of two security officers. From what I can gather, they were from Soweto, sitting in their patrol car, when they were shot in the head at point-blank range. Why? Because the bastards wanted their service guns.

They can be identified on the camera that was running inside the vehicle and I hope they rot in jail and then in hell.

I know it is part of the job. But sometimes even the most hardened and cynical journalists are affected by the increased amount of cruelty perpetrated against humans and animals alike and the blatant disregard for human life.

This week, I wish for the simpler times, when lives still mattered, when we knew our neighbours and felt safe in our own homes.

Until next week, take care of one another.