He pushed past me, hastily. '' A busy young man, aren't you!'' I scolded, playfully.
'' Sorry! I just need to get going before the store closes,'' he reported, solemnly.
'' What store?'' I curiously inquired.
'' The one that sells the play station 2 CDs. I want to get this awesome war game. I've been dying to get it. Bummer, I cannot get it in Saudi Arabia. Everything's banned there, and it really sucks,'' he wailed.
My cousin is 14 years old. He's handsome-looking. He has soft, wavy light brown hair that falls off his forehead. His knees and elbows are knobbly. His shoulders are somehow slender.
Yassin, my 14 year old cousin, as well as Ahmed, his older brother, and Salma, their younger sister, are living in Saudi Arabia. They stay in Egypt for the whole summer though. It gets really cool hanging out with them and catching up.
'' Wait up, I am coming,'' I impulsively announced.
I strode to catch up with him.
We climbed in a taxi, heading to the store that Yassin has been yearning to visit!
'' So, what's this awesome game you can't stop dreaming about,'' I teased.
'' GOD OF WAR!'' he exclaimed, excitedly.
'' It's the best game ever. I have been dreaming about getting back to Egypt to get it; it's banned back there. Life there is pretty dull. You know, I get back to Alexandria, watching great movies and doing what I wasn’t able to even think about there. Back there, you gotta shop with your family or even cruise around with a daddy taking you by hand,'' he grudgingly whined.
Well, frankly, his words disheartened me. I've always been concerned about how young kids are nurtured to understand Islam's core. It gives me a hard time knowing that he grew up experiencing contradictions, failing to get empowered by his Daddy, my uncle. I am not arguing whether life in Saudi Arabia is ok or not, but simply about how he grew.
His Dad works as a sales manager. He's my uncle and I truly respect him, but I just cannot help being an observer. I mean, when they're back in Saudi Arabia they pray all the 5 prayers in the Masjed, they scramble early from home to attentively hear Friday's speech, and they play it by the rules! But it all comes to a harsh tumble when they pay the glamour another visit.
'' Oh and why is it banned back there,'' I asked.
'' Because it's FORBIDDEN,'' he shot back with a gleeful grin.
You see, that's the problem. Kids don't get taught to be held responsible, to rationalize. They are left to the swirling influences of different parts of the word. You know, it's like when you place so many fruits in a mixer. When you click on the button and wait for all of it to get juicy, you cannot tell how it will eventually taste, because it's made up of so many things!
He had a neat Vans on. He was murmuring English songs to himself. Amira, his so called girlfriend, became his solace in times where nothing seems cooler than blowing off strands of his hair off his forehead!
So, here I was, eying my cousin who was sprawling loosely on the taxi's frayed couch with his head wearily tossed back.
I poked him lightly. '' We're there, Yassin,'' I reported.
The young man was literally leaping his way to the store!
'' Do you have it? God of war?!'' he asked, impatiently.
'' Yes,'' the sales man answered casually.
Yassin clutched the CD cover excitedly, twirling it in his palms, eying all the cool visuals.
'' Whoa! Wait,'' I disrupted his excitement.
Let me check it.
The game had explicit violence and gore in it and many other precautions, making buying the game more frightening than doing drugs!
So it's banned for a reason, I realized!
Well, so let me break it down. The game is inclusive of violence. The country banned it for a reason. Awesome, respected. Where's the trick? It lies within abiding as a result of necessity and not awareness and understanding. This literally sickens me, because I strongly advocate being a truly solid influence as a Daddy to pass on the sunshine to your lil' kids! I vote for banning it, frankly. But I'd rather empower those whom I am held responsible as a grown up in front of them so they can voluntarily and confidently refrain from buying the all new Silent hill game or God of war which includes sexuality and gore.
I was not entitled to stop him from handing out the money. I just observed. I came to terms with the many influences lurking. He hears people talking Islam, he goes back to a house where the internet serves as a gushing source of influences, and he watches TV, eying the hurtful influence fearlessly. It's a big round hole that sucks you in. And the unfortunate thing is that your loved ones are usually the ones who shove you downhill, unaware of the consequences, because they've been told that a Disney land lies at the bottom!
'' YES!!!'' he screamed happily, gripping the plastic bag firmly.
Even though for him it looked like nothing more than a plastic Cd cover with the key to hustling boredom into a tight closet for the next few days, for me it seemed to be like a moving bomb, dripping toxics.
We grow to shake hands with many encounters and learning situations. They mold us and they eventually become who we're. Our habits and all that we're come down to what we observe and eye excitedly in this full-of-meanderings journey.
Yassin and I rode a taxi back home. He went to his house and I did. He played the game and I watched this excessively cool TV show, entitled,'' house.'' I got influenced and he did. For the next few days, you may find him walking around with a knife, squealing and fighting nonexistent enemies. For the next few days, you may find me limping, because I may think that it's cool being a Hugh Laurie, or playing all rational and cocky in case of a wiser imitation!
Maybe one day I will have a son or daughter. How challenging raising them will be! I am strenuously learning, seeping in what I believe in the most upon qualified observations. With all the madness running in streets, it sure will be a challenge raising good men and women with a dream of innovative and authentic religious representation and worldly success.
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ιиѕριяє∂ ву: The situation highlighted.
