Kidnappers may be missing their target if they think some children at home and abroad would sell their father’s house rendering the whole family homeless. A video of a man instructing his children and wife to sell the house to save him from more torture in the hand of kidnappers was too heart wrentching to watch. Under such vicious treatment and duress, most men would say the same: please sell the property and pay the kidnappers!
It is difficult to sell a house so quickly, even in an auction or short sale. But the kidnappers are willing to wait until the house is sold while the father undergo torture. While waiting, the members of the family go through some sad reflections. In the first place, kidnappers are bandits whose word, promise or agreement cannot be relied on. Many have killed their victims after the ransom they ask for has been paid.
If the father is ever released in bloody and poor health, he and his family might be homeless for life unless he has the means of starting all over. Even worse, the father might have been lured into a compromising or lascivious position his family would not have approved and might be shameful of. Unfortunately, most victims exposed to kidnappers only have modest savings since the wealthy ones have securities and more protection from the Government.
It is not only in African countries that lives are lost wantonly; in many countries lives are no longer sacred. In the ghetto areas of Europe and Americas, people go to bed with the sounds of gunshots in their neighborhood. Mothers, fathers and children organize against harming their loved ones. Even if you are rich, you may not be immune to the atrocities of bandits and kidnappers around. But kidnappers like picking on the people with the least resistance.
Many unknown people have been wasted in the hands of bandits, kidnappers and political thugs because their demands were simply impossible to meet. Someone in the neighborhood that parked his Mercedes Benz in front of his house because he could not afford to repair it was bounced on. When he could not produce the money demanded after informing his “visitors” that he could not even repair his car, he was thrown out from his balcony to die.
It gets worse. Some children of the rich arranged with friends and kidnapped themselves to extort money from their fathers. One of the “rich” kids went further and conspired with kidnappers to detain his father for money to be shared equally by all of them. When the father could not produce the money they expected, they killed him. The son cried out that it was not the original plan to kill his own father.
Many parents deny themselves some comforts to provide adequately for children that think they have rich parents. Around some neighborhoods, the fathers have gone as far as writing: Not For Sale boldly on their own houses. A father was asked why he would take such desperate action, he said his son and the girlfriend were making some arrangements to sell his house while he was still living there, alive O.
May God bless us with good and morally upright families. It is not enough to teach, they must heed. Imagine some of these greedy and selfish children getting a message from kidnappers and bandits that their fathers are in custody and he would only be released if they sell the house and send them the cash. While some children would reject such requests out of hand, some bad children would do the same out of selfish reasons. Chai, God forbid bad tin!
Most children only appreciate the discipline they get from their father and mother after it helps them accomplish their goals. They are more grateful when they become parents themselves. Their children get tired of hearing their fathers praise their grandfather for the training they received while at home. The children would not take any of those training they call abuse today. They might call American Police instead of kidnappers reporting their father for abuse.
While older children that benefited from their home training become successful and leave home to start their own families, their younger siblings at home get spoiled as the parents become older and wealthier. Many reject the discipline their older brothers and sisters received and call it abuse. Some of the mothers are sympathetic and comforting, begging their husbands that times have changed and must take it easy on the kids.
These interactions create some distance between members of the family. Whichever way it ends, the father becomes the culprit. The same father that was praised for bringing up good successful children. Hear fathers talk to one another about how the mothers get all the credits while they are ignored. Mothers are the ones rewarded by older successful children and get all the tickets to go on or come for vacations.
Since the mothers spend more time with the children for one reason or the other, the fathers are left alone at home with the younger siblings that refuse to leave home waiting to kick out their fathers. Thank God, it is not easy to kick out a man from his home in African countries, communities do not tolerate that. The authority of the father in Africa is enormous and respected. The children that want to kick him out, are fighting against the odds.
Outside Africa: of all men, Black men are the most disrespected and easiest to kick out of their homes. Another lady begged all fathers to save something for themselves in their old age after she saw what happened to her own father at home.
You know what? It was the same message to mothers in those days to save some money from “market money” in case they might need it later in life. A man once lost his reliable job. He was surprised by the amount of money his wife saved off him. The same savings from the wife carried them after he lost his job. Nothing can destroy a loving wife, her husband and the productive children.
Today, we all have to prepare for our old age by saving but nobody expects or prays that their house, savings or life would be demanded by kidnappers, bandits or political thugs!