Hilary Robertson-Hickling
THE CHICKENS have come home to roost, at this time that HIV-AIDS has been ravaging our world for 25 years. We have been in denial about some of our sexual habits for generations but the truth is coming out.
A country like ours which has been built upon the exploitation of slaves and now vulnerable groups like poor young boys and girls by the powerful in our society is being forced to admit that illegal and immoral sexual activities are taking place daily. Incest, carnal abuse, rape, transactional sex, are much more common than we care to admit as the recent sting operation revealed a 14-year-old for sale by two men of 50.
These crimes are also committed in other countries but it is our response that is critical for our future. A cursory observation of a minority of Jamaican women reveals that there are women
who walk our streets in a state of virtual nakedness. Under the guise of freedom they are actually identifying that they are available for work. In some countries such persons would be standing in the windows of establishments in the red-light districts.
SERVICING THE SAILORS
These countries are honest enough to admit that prostitution is taking place. Instead we pretend that no such thing is happening here. When I was a teenager my family worshipped at a particular church on Hanover Street and when the ships were in the harbour sailors would come along to enter the brothels. The streets of downtown Kingston were servicing the sailors.
At the recent World Junior Games the condom machines in the halls of residence ran out as some of our visitors descended on some of Kingston's poorest neighbourhoods to experience the 'wickedest slam'. While black women across the world are seen as 'dark game' for any Tom, Dick or Harry we sometimes collude with our oppressors. If you look at the cable channels in Jamaica they are competing with the pornographic channels from the U.S.A. while people pretend to be dancing at various fêtes.
Who is really interested in seeing a woman's private parts in public places? I have to wonder if there are any decency laws in Jamaica. Is there anything that we won't do? Barbados and Grenada have banned Passa Passa and while people will say that this is hypocrisy and that carnival is about suggestive sexual displays we must remember that Carnival is only once a year in those countries but we seem to have the need to promote our hypersexuality all year round.
ANCIENT KAMA SUTRAS
I am glad that Professor Peter Figueroa is a truth teller and I support the recommendations that he has been making about the need to admit what is happening and to take the necessary preventive measures in terms of managing our sexuality. Some of us fool ourselves that we are the sexiest people on earth .
That is absolutely ridiculous and we cannot compete against the ancient civilisations and their Kama Sutras. In fact we would be better off spending our time to develop all of the other gifts and talents which we have been blessed with. We need to manage our sexuality, otherwise in this country and this region we will be overtaken by HIV-AIDS.
This epidemic could be a blessing in disguise as we shall be at last forced to behave responsibly in sex or die. Let us prepare our young to engage in healthy sexual activity in the context of total development in caring relationships not as a group of 21st century sex slaves. We also have to recognise the commercial workers and regulate the conduct of these activities.
Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies,
UWI, Mona.
