Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom comes, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
I started this week’s piece with the customary benediction, and I ask the Lord to keep us from doing anything bad because some of the things we do are so extraordinary, it appears that students are the most tempting people in the world.
However, anything we do in the name of freedom will work against us. Death is the result. Unfortunately, people in their 50s and older are burying our generation.
For the reason that we are merely careless and overexcited.
I think some of us are abusing this bible verse in Ecclesiastes 11:9-10. Young people, enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. Do what you want to do, and follow your heart’s desire. But remember that God is going to judge you for whatever you do.
Don’t forget to read the last part of this verse.
It should be known that academic freedom is essential for universities to fulfil their core scholarly mission.
Moreover, it is a precious privilege reserved for the very few. Those of us who have it should defend it, nurture it, and use it with care and seriousness. Yet, academia abounds with accounts of members invoking the phrase “academic freedom” in ways that are selfish and frivolous.
Following the privileges given to university and college students, students have used those privileges to practice immoral acts that are forbidden and condemned in our African communities and even considered illegal by the law.
Unlike secondary and primary schools where association with the opposite gender is limited and minimised, association in universities and colleges is highly considered right.
Imagine a parent warns her daughter before reporting to school, on the first day of admission she gets a partner and at that moment she violates all the advice given by the parent.
But I have a question, where is the advice we are getting?
Is it falling on deaf ears? I don’t know. But do we have hope for the future as a young generation? Certainly not, because we just don’t care about ourselves.
It is said, people perish due to lack of knowledge but don’t we have knowledge?
I doubt that, we are just not thinking and we should be thinking.
Fellow students, we should be ashamed of ourselves.
What caught my attention, a few days ago, was the trending news that 47 percent of University of Zimbabwe students are HIV positive. Whether it’s new or old, I don’t have a problem with that but we should just be ashamed of ourselves.
For clarity’s sake, the circulating statistics were recorded in 2016 and they were circulated after a recent study by the Health Research Unit Zimbabwe found that, at least, 20 percent of youths tested positive for Ƨǝxually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
The research conducted between 2020 and 2022, tested young people for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis in 16 communities including Harare, Bulawayo, and Mashonaland East provinces.
The study also found out that one in five young people, aged 18 to 24 years, tested positive for at least one of the three treatable STIs.
And the stats provoked social media, they opened our eyes and minds that students are ‘horrible’.
Without dismissing the 47 percent statistics, if we were to conduct some tests on students at the universities right now, we can get the sh0ck of our lives.
We are just horrible!
The 2016 statistics that half of the University of Zimbabwe students who underwent voluntary HIV testing were positive, it’s a revelation that forced the institution to limit inter-residence visits between male and female students.
I once wrote something about students cohabiting at the campuses, something which I discouraged. All these reports emerged due to students’ reckless ƨǝxuɑl behaviour and Midlands State University was also singled out as the major driver of the HIV prevalence rate from 20 percent in 2014 to 23 percent in 2015.
The grim statistics of ƨǝxuɑlly transmitted diseases within the institutions also forced the authorities to be strict. No one would want to promote pr0miscuity by allowing students to enjoy mɑrried lifestyles by staying with their girlfriǝnds in the halls of residence.
While I can acknowledge that this is an adult institution, I don’t think it’s good news for us to encourage the cohɑbitɑtion of male and female students.
Sadly, the results still come, rina manyaga hariputirwe.
Fellow students, we have turned colleges and universities into Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities mentioned in the Bible to have notoriously sinned against God. They were destroyed for their sins (Genesis 19:24).
The two cities on earth that are Sodom and Gomorrah are universities and colleges.
If you are a parent, and your daughter or son is in university then make sure you visit him/her. If your son is calling daily, weekly or monthly asking for money that you are not sure if needed, then there is something you need to know. If your daughter is quiet in college, she doesn’t ask for any pocket money, and has no authentic income of her own, you might want to just check if she has a sponsor.
University and college students are usually known to l0ve enjoyment and if you know that, won’t your son be part of these lifestyles?
I once recommended that students also make time for prayers. There is power in prayer.
Let us repent and turn away from our wickedness so that we escape this end time of eternal torment on fire. The belief that getting a job as a graduate is kind of easier when you have your certificate than being illiterate, makes almost all the parents send their children to college both the rich and poor parents.
But instead of going to college, studying hard, graduating with flying colours, and getting a good job to repay the trust their parents have in them, some engage in something else while there. One of the things these students do is live as a c0uple while at college. A lot of good fortunes have been aborted, glory wasted by students all in the name of academic freedom.
We need to stop these acts and save a generation.
May God forgive all our trespasses.
— HMetro
