RECKLESS BEHAVIOUR

Too many young as well as mature people appear to be dismissing the statistics published on an ongoing basis on the rise in HIV/AIDS and the repeated warnings on the dangers of casual sex, the principal contributory factor to the spread of the disease. Even intelligent youngsters, or brain-smart persons as they were described by Dr Peter Gentle, when he provided the Human Life International conference held last week in Port-of-Spain with an “Update on HIV/AIDS,” have become victims of reckless sexual behaviour. Dr Gentle shocked his audience when he disclosed that four male national scholarship winners from a prestige school in North Trinidad had died as a result of the AIDS disease! In turn, at the first rung of the secondary school ladder there were sexually active form one female students, Dr Gentle pointed out, who were pregnant and HIV positive. Yet the need to reach out to them, despite the stubborn refusal on the part of all too many of the nation’s young and not so young, accompanied by a seeming belief that HIV/AIDS will hit others and not them, is there.

The Ministry of Health, NGOs, schools, churches and service organisations such as Rotary must expand their efforts to reach out. They must see in every failure by nationals to react positively to their message, and in the subsequent increase in the statistics on HIV and in the incidence of full blown AIDS, a challenge to be met through a re-doubling of their efforts. A troubling factor in the non-absorption of the various messages sent out emphasising the suicidal nature of casual sex has been the clear lack of positive parenting today, and with it the inability of all too many parents to treat with the very real problems, insecurity and otherwise, bedevilling their children. In addition, there is the indifference of these parents with respect to the persons with whom their sons and daughters associate. There is the problem, too, of their being caught up in a never ending effort just to deal with the question of money for the next meal. Many of them may have left school as a result of unplanned pregnancy, itself an outcome of casual sex.

In turn, several young mothers see themselves in competition with other young women for the attention of popular young males. Unfortunately, even girls in their early teens and pre-teens are caught up in this dangerously mindless activity. As a result of this there is a need by the Ministry of Health acting in concert with the Ministry of Education to develop strategies to fit the special needs of the society and not remain wedded to standard approaches because they have been and are still being tried internationally. The Ministry of Education should consider tackling parents by way of videos and lectures at parent-teacher meetings as well as at adult education classes on a continuing basis. And because the children of low-income families are more likely to see engaging in sex as the principal method of proving themselves and their worth in the group, Government should seriously consider allocating unused suitably sized lots, where the land is owned by the State, to recognised community groups.

This done, it can assist in the construction of stands and the laying out of facilities for a variety of sports. One such area which suggests itself is Hell Yard in the Beetham Gardens. But something must be done and quickly to channel the energies of our young people into sports and things productive. Encourage them, and where their parents are young then the fathers and mothers as well, to compete in sporting activities, rather than in the mindless and suicidal game of Russian roulette, which unplanned sex represents. There is a spin-off. Rather than be involved in confrontational disputes, they are more likely to concentrate on being champions in their particular area of sports. In this way the well-trod approach — media public relations campaigns, lectures, seminars and posters — receives a needed assist. Whatever can help to arrest the spread of HIV/AIDS and the many unplanned deaths through unplanned sex should be examined and if seen to be beneficial, then implemented.