Human beings live
together in society and, despite community, it is possible people have
differences, which is sometimes a source of conflict. Conflict is “a serious
disagreement” [1] and interpersonal conflict is “an expressed
struggle between at least two interdependent parties who receive incompatible
goals, scarce resources, and interference from others in achieving their
goals.”[2] No person can avoid conflict. This post illustrates my
interpersonal conflict concerning my family and a gang of youths in my
neighborhood.
My house is located in
a commercial area where teenagers always hang out after school. Next to my
house is a narrow street which was a clean and quiet place until it became a
meeting place for young gangsters. Now they come here, hang out every day, strew
the floor with rubbish, deface the wall, take a leak on the wall, and sometimes
even defecate on the floor. These actions result in a dirty environment. They
also make my plants die by throwing trash into my flowerpots. They completely
change our peaceful and beautiful morning with green plants and clean
surroundings into disgusting mornings with trash and unpleasant smells.
These kids study at one
of the most famous private schools in my neighborhood. Generally, those
studying at private schools are from a good and rich family. Therefore, they
should be able to find a more suitable place for meeting and should not act
like mentioned above. One of the assumptions is that they may want to meet
without wasting money on renting a place (so that they can spend more money
buying liquor, cigarettes, cool skull sweaters, and so on.)
All my family wants is
the area to be clean. Were they not to dirty the place, we would be fine with
them coming here. Therefore, we decided to turn conflict into collaboration by
letting them use this space and asking them to keep it clean. My mother talked
with them politely, explaining what we expected from them. They nodded;
however, until now everything is still the same.
After finding out
collaboration would not work, we decided to use harsher methods. My brother yelled
at them, which put oil to the fire. They left more rubbish intentionally. We
told their school but the school ignored the issue. Then, we created an online
forum concerning this problem with the hope that someone in the community might
see this problem and try to solve it. Again, nothing happened. We also thought
of telling the police. However, after thinking of the consequences that the
gangsters may hold a grudge against us and, in the end, hurt us, we did not
tell the police. We have tried a lot of methods to solve this conflict between the
gangsters and ourselves so that we can live happily together in this community.
Now we have been enduring this for more than two years.
How can we get back
those clean and beautiful mornings and be on good terms with those boys again?
Moreover, it is not just about the environment but it is about their future as
well…
References
References
[1]Conflict,http://oxforddictionaries.com[Internet].Available at http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/conflict
[Accessed 6th September 2012]
[2]
Wilmot & Hocker (2010), Interpersonal Conflict, p.11
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