Stella Says…Will the GPF arrest those responsible for that porn video?

by Stella Ramsaroop

(Originally published in Guyana's Kaieteur News on 06 July 2006)

At times it is certainly understandable why the Guyana Police Force has such a difficult time apprehending criminals, especially when those criminals can disappear into thin air and be protected by the very citizens they torment.

However, in highlighting a letter to the Editor of Kaieteur News on Tuesday, July 4, I would assume the characters involved in this particular activity should be easily located.

S. Zulu expressed complete shock in a letter concerning a locally produced pornographic video that is now in circulation. If this is indeed the case, the fact that this is happening at all is reason enough for the GPF to jump into quick and efficient action to make sure this type of activity gets nipped in the bud as quickly as possible.

You know the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It would be far wiser to spend the little time and resources it would take to shut down this operation now than to wait until it spreads and gets more sophisticated than the GPF can handle.

However, it is another fact that I find particularly troubling. According to this letter writer who viewed the video, the females who participated were both minors. Now Zulu did not state whether the males were also minors (a fact that is frequently overlooked because society often assumes the position that we should only protect the females from premarital sex).

On the fact that at least the females were under age the letter writer seemed certain and it is on this fact that I believe the GPF should be moving heaven and earth to find those responsible for the production of this video and putting then behind bars for a very, very long time.

Zulu bemoans the lost morality of the nation's youth. He said, "What ever happen to the morals and values which took precedence over the lives of our youth?"

I am not so starry eyed when it comes to premarital sex. I have always taken a more pragmatic approach with my own children and told them it is better to wait until they are married, but if they decide to start having sex before marriage I want to know so I can make sure they are practicing safe sex.

I know many people believe this position removes the fear that would prevent teens from having premarital sex. Realistically though, stop for a second and think about yourself and your friends as teens. In light of our own youthful experiences, how practical is it to naively believe today's teens will not have sex before they are married?

Biologically, it seems the teen years are when humans begin to develop into sexual beings, so the nature of teens to explore their sexuality is instinctive. Yet still, people are getting married and having children far older today than we have historically since our lifespan is longer now than it has ever been.

This will of course cause people to explore sex before they are married since they are biologically ready for sex before society declares them to be ready to be married. I hate all of the guilt that is attached to sex for teens, especially for young women. All this does is inhibit the beautiful intimacy that should accompany sex and create a barrier between two people who choose to share something beautiful together.

I would much rather make sure my teens are educated and practicing safe sex so they do not catch some disease than to live in some fairly tale life believing they are angels while they are out doing who knows what. As a result, I am very close to my oldest daughter and she can talk to me about anything concerning sex.

I am not saying this is how you should raise your own teen, it is just how I have decided to raise my own. Parents must decide for themselves the best way to raise their children.

Having established my pragmatism about teenage morality, there are certain areas in which teens should continue to receive protection from society. This list includes drug dealers and paedophiles. It also includes those who would exploit them for sex, such as pimps and porn producers.

While teens may be biologically ready to decide whether they want to have sex with someone they care about, they certainly cannot even begin to understand the ramifications of putting that sex act on a video for thousands of people to watch.

They have no idea how this could follow them around for the rest of their lives or how they have been exploited for money and sexual gratification. This is why the GPF should be doing everything within its power to hunt down those involved with this porn video and take the proper action against them.

If those young women (and men) are indeed minors, then I believe there are laws that should judiciously take care of the person who produced that video. If the males in the video are not minors and the females are, then the GPF has all the evidence it needs to put those paedophiles away for a good long time too.

I wait with baited breath to see how quickly this will be handled. I am very interested to see if this will be another one of those times when hypocrisy rules because most fathers and brothers do not want their female relatives to be taken in by such criminals, but since they would also to watch the video, they will take no action against those responsible for the exploitation of someone else's daughter and sister.

Such hypocrisy is the standard by which females have long been cruelly subjected. Domestic abuse is another issue that is given a lot of wordy consideration, but rarely enforced by the very ones who inflict it. Equality in pay rate is another issue in which women suffer disparity in society. There is a lot of hot air that floats around about it, but we all know the real story since single mothers still continue to live in poverty at a far higher rate than men.

It is almost like the world thinks it should be enough just to talk about these issues and never make any real progress to remedy the situation. Which is why society needs more women in the decision-making roles of law enforcement, judicial and political (law-making) roles.

Well GPF, when are you going to arrest those responsible for that video?

Email: StellaSays[at]gmail.com