T&T: Why a deputy is not essential

Child Rights Activist, Gregory Sloane Seale, is appealing to government to put more measures in place for the youths of the nation, since a large number of them are living with the HIV/AIDS virus. HIV/AIDS is becoming the leading cause of death among 15-44 year-olds in the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean. Infant and child death rates have risen sharply and 14 million children worldwide are now orphans because of the disease. Statistics from UNAIDS show that by the end of 2003, some 3,600 children in TT had been orphaned because of the HIV/AIDS virus.

Everyday, almost 2,000 babies are infected with HIV during pregnancy at birth or through breast-feeding without effective interventions.

About one third of the infants born to HIV-positive mothers contract the virus, but most of these infants will die before their fifth birthday.

Even though this is a worldwide overview regarding HIV/AIDS, this may soon become a stark reality in TT and the rest of the Caribbean. Statistics from Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), showed that by December 2002, there were 20,000 youths under the age of 15, living with the HIV/AIDS virus in the Caribbean region.

This situation has arisen because of two problems: 1) the laissez-faire sexual morality of T&T males -- too many men think it's fine to have a "real girl" and also to have "a thing on the side." Too many men who think a freeco is their right and privilege. 2) the males who think that they can be hired to perform sexual acts on other males without paying a price. The mindset of the Caribbean male in this respect is at as long as he's on the giving, rather than receiving end, he's not a homosexual. This willingness to engage in bisexuality has resulted in the spread of HIV/AIDS from homosexual men to women and children via bisexual men. And so it goes.

In this age of HIV/AIDS, it's high time T&T men dispense with Penguin's sly sanctioning of marital infidelity and sexual promiscuity. No, a deputy is NOT essential. Barring blood transfusions, sexual fidelity to one's spouse ensures that no STDs are acquired and transmitted. It's also time for some T&T men to stop engaging in male prostitution and that ridiculous bit of self-deception that makes them think that being the man on top exempts them from being homosexual. Give or take, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. The important thing is to desist from engaging in behaviors that ensure the transmission of deadly diseases.

T&T can do well to learn from Uganda. ondoms as a last resort because, as I've discussed previously, the HIV/AIDS virus is much smaller than the minute holes in the latex. Therefore, condoms are not very good protection against the dread disease. The lesson of Uganda is abstention and sexual purity before marriage. Fidelity within marriage. It works; nations should try it to curb the transmission of HIV/AIDS.