Condoms

Once again, it seems as if there may be a simple solution to a grave problem, teenage pregnancy. As always these things need some thinking about. On the surface, it makes sense.

Make it a legal requirement that teenage boys from the age of x to y, have to carry a condom and any sexual intercourse between any persons under the age of x must involve the use of a condom at all times.

Problem, almost, solved.

Honestly, think about it. Why do we not have that law already? And because we have not, we are failing to protect the children of society. Making children legally responsible when they move into an adult territory (so to speak), undertaking actions which have life long consequences, children (even teenages) we should not make it easy for young people to have protected intercourse.

The SABC have reported that South African President, Jacob Zuma, has said "We are concerned about teenage pregnancies. We think it’s a national problem, we are discussing on how we can prevent that, so that you are given an opportunity to grow, to mature, and not to be young mothers.” Zuma says he believes young girls need to be educated so that there can be less teenage pregnancies seen in the country. The theme for this year's campaign was, Change your World."

I would like to suggest to President Zuma that he consider introduction a new anonymous pass for young teenages and men in South Africa and perhaps start a revolution. Make it a legal requirement for every young male to carry a condom at all times, let it be a pass for good. A law that makes sense. Automatically you may be stuck by the thought that perhaps there would be some religious implications to such a law, however you may find on investigation less than you would expect. There seems to be no major religion in today's "modern" world that would have anything in its current beliefs that prevent the protection of children through the use of contraception. I could be wrong, but on the surface it would appear to be so.

This would not encourage sexual intercourse between young people. It is already a problem, they do it anyway and WE KNOW THIS! Perhaps we are just fooling ourselves into hoping that our campaigns and education will be enough to protect children from the possible hazards of sexual activity. In fact, if we think about it this way, perhaps it would prevail on us as modern societies (everywhere in the world) to consider the following. If we as the adult community and government are the ones who are entrusted with the obligation of ensuring the well-being of young people, we may not have done such a good job. How can we NOT insist that all young men carry condoms at all times.

Evolution is a wonderful thing, it always attempts to maintain a balance. Disease, especially the virus plays a huge evolutionary role in population control, over biological time. The spread of HIV is a prefect example of this. The last time I checked it was still a killer. However, our recent response to a potential killer virus (which has not gone again by the way. Just to remind anyone is is not following the Swine Flu figures.

The latest WHO update - "As of 06:00 GMT, 27 May 2009, 48 countries have officially reported 13,398 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 95 deaths." I am not sure why the WHO have not raised the pandemic alert phase to 6 yet, another interesting page to scan is the swine influenza rss page, it shows a indication of daily increases.

Our response was to issue face masks, of questionable effectiveness. However with HIV since 1983 it has got progressively worse and we did not pass any new laws to protect young people from themselves and their own natural urges, given this new grave threat.

One could agrue that the ruling adult population of the world allowed how many young people to die. Why have we not made these laws yet?

For all the nanny laws and "for the good of the public" laws that societies have seen introduced over the recent past, we must wonder what we were thinking? We allow our young people to walk around and perhaps unwittingly in the heat of the moment, kill themselves. Perhaps we should consider these facts as responsible adults.

Making young men carry condoms is not a travesty. Hell, we carry drivers licenses, ID cards, bank cards, why not a condom. It is a proven and high effective protection against three things:

1) HIV
2) Teenage pregnancy
3) The evolution of sexual pathogens (evolution is always involved).

It is anonymous.

Young men who fail to carry a condom, if stopped in the road for a spot check (just the condom check) get a fine.

If a young person has sexual intercourse with anyone without a condem, there is a penatly whatever that may be. However, having to have a condom in your possession at all times in the first place would be a big help, surely. Having legalisation that TELLS our young people that this is a serious business with both life changing and taking possibilities is not a bad thing.

I am surprised that I have not heard this idea before, honestly. Well President Zuma, at least you made me think. However, in my humble opinion, we (all nations) need to consider how lacking we have been on the real protection of young people. I also know that there are people all over the world that are working tirelessly to protect young people, and I would not be surprised if this idea had been bandied around for a long time, the real question is, why haven't we seriously considered it? Why has it not been something tossed out into the public domain for consideration and debate.

I am sure there are lots of reasons why it is a bad idea, but as with any idea which “you” think is quite good, you are generally the person that can see the least wrong with it. I am no doubt that person. It is worth thinking about though.