TakingITGlobal - Panorama

Published on: Feb 11, 2008

Topic:

Type: Opinions

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=18467

Growing up as a youth in the HIV/AIDS era must be tougher than it was before the advent of the epidemic. Watching your friends get ill, suffer through bodily pain, social stigma, or self-induced shame and isolation, creates a general feeling of despair and frustration as the body succumbs to different opportunistic infections, which induce fear in the observers' as carers, infected or affected. The mockery of looking too old, or too thin to be one’s own age, scares HIV-infected adolescents as they progress on to AIDS.
Missing school due to illness can sometimes leads to performing poor in examinations. Whispers, gossip, rumors, bad-mouthing, backbiting and banter from other ignorant young people must hurt, especially if they were formerly one’s chat-mate. If one is not a sufferer, they can learn a lot from the experiences of youths who have gone through the processes of having HIV and AIDS.

Explaining to society adults, moralists, health workers, religious leaders, and policy makers on how ‘one young person’ got the virus can be a daunting task. ‘How dare you have illicit sex?’ they seem to demand, because to many of them, sex is supposed to be only consumed within the marriage institution. They forget that the passion of youth, desire and experimentation drives them along the part that sexually active youth trudge. They say ‘Don’t do it!’ And yet they themselves do it left, right and center. They say, ‘Thou shalt not commit fornication!‘ and yet they themselves are adulterers.

Teachers teach us to abstain from sex until marriage. And yet these same teachers pressure their students to offer sexual services as bargain for good grades in exams. Fathers tell us to be exemplary and keep away from premarital sexual activities. But huh, our fathers have sex with housemaids, who are among the long list of outsides wives. Policemen tell us to keep the law, but they force themselves on sex workers rounded up in the night clubs.

Policy makers and programmes implementers are not any better. First they say ‘Abstain!’ As youth try hard to keep aware from the allure of the forbidden fruit of sex, the same leaders say, ‘Have a condom, be wise!’ So youth hear, ‘Abstain,’ and ‘Use condom!’ And they hear ‘Be faithful to your partner!’ Disclose your status and be faithful!‘ Admitted it is presented as choices, that progress in linear fashion. A for Abstain, B for Be faithful, C for Condom use, and D for Disclose your sero-status.

However, these policy and programme developers ignore the irrational thrill of youth, the erratic character of the erotic, and the pure bliss of sex especially when it is enjoyed against all odds! Many youths get confused by these mixed messages, prefer not to work within the model of options, or choose to dwell on the opposing messages aimed at them, without understanding the repercussions of illicit sexual relationships.

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by Esther Agbarakwe
Published on: Feb 11, 2008
Topic:
Type: Opinions
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=18467


Growing up as a youth in the HIV/AIDS era must be tougher than it was before the advent of the epidemic. Watching your friends get ill, suffer through bodily pain, social stigma, or self-induced shame and isolation, creates a general feeling of despair and frustration as the body succumbs to different opportunistic infections, which induce fear in the observers' as carers, infected or affected. The mockery of looking too old, or too thin to be one’s own age, scares HIV-infected adolescents as they progress on to AIDS. Missing school due to illness can sometimes leads to performing poor in examinations. Whispers, gossip, rumors, bad-mouthing, backbiting and banter from other ignorant young people must hurt, especially if they were formerly one’s chat-mate. If one is not a sufferer, they can learn a lot from the experiences of youths who have gone through the processes of having HIV and AIDS. Explaining to society adults, moralists, health workers, religious leaders, and policy makers on how ‘one young person’ got the virus can be a daunting task. ‘How dare you have illicit sex?’ they seem to demand, because to many of them, sex is supposed to be only consumed within the marriage institution. They forget that the passion of youth, desire and experimentation drives them along the part that sexually active youth trudge. They say ‘Don’t do it!’ And yet they themselves do it left, right and center. They say, ‘Thou shalt not commit fornication!‘ and yet they themselves are adulterers. Teachers teach us to abstain from sex until marriage. And yet these same teachers pressure their students to offer sexual services as bargain for good grades in exams. Fathers tell us to be exemplary and keep away from premarital sexual activities. But huh, our fathers have sex with housemaids, who are among the long list of outsides wives. Policemen tell us to keep the law, but they force themselves on sex workers rounded up in the night clubs. Policy makers and programmes implementers are not any better. First they say ‘Abstain!’ As youth try hard to keep aware from the allure of the forbidden fruit of sex, the same leaders say, ‘Have a condom, be wise!’ So youth hear, ‘Abstain,’ and ‘Use condom!’ And they hear ‘Be faithful to your partner!’ Disclose your status and be faithful!‘ Admitted it is presented as choices, that progress in linear fashion. A for Abstain, B for Be faithful, C for Condom use, and D for Disclose your sero-status. However, these policy and programme developers ignore the irrational thrill of youth, the erratic character of the erotic, and the pure bliss of sex especially when it is enjoyed against all odds! Many youths get confused by these mixed messages, prefer not to work within the model of options, or choose to dwell on the opposing messages aimed at them, without understanding the repercussions of illicit sexual relationships. « return.