Dear Editor,
On numerous occasions, every year, the well at Covent Garden breaks down. The Saturday before last it again broke down and now, several days later, no one says when the water supply will be restored.
Contrast this with what I saw on TV (Channel 6) early evening two Sundays ago.
Someone, under the guise of public education, accompanied by imitations of the human genitalia, demonstrated the use of the condom. Calm and composed, and holding on to a large life-like phallus, he slowly rolled on the plastic and then, equally carefully, rolled it off. Lightness of touch and lack of speed were his hallmarks.
When, to his satisfaction, he had executed this intricate operation, he turned to the female anatomy. After inserting the condom, he did not omit mention of one vital bit of information, namely, where, during the actual act, the penis had to be placed. It must, he pointed out, be placed into the inserted condom. Again, using his finger, he demonstrated where.
Does pornography posing as public education have priority over water?
Are such displays on TV, at 7.30 in the evening, allowable in Washington, Ottawa and London?
Why do ‘civilized’ folks aid the wanton slaughter of the value system in this country?
Yours faithfully,
M Gopal
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Mr Chandranarine Sharma, Managing Director of CNS Channel 6, for any comments he might have wished to make, and received the following response:
“Thank you for sharing the contents of contributor Mr M. Gopal’s letter with us.
“We make four points below:
“1. CNS Channel 6 has aired material of such a nature but never at “7.30 in the evening.”
“2. Based on the contents of the letter, we assume the material to which Mr Gopal is referring is a documentary called ‘Living In A World With AIDS – (Part Two)’ which was created by Guyenterprise for the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Programme Secretariat, presented by Ms Lorraine Harris and supported by the Global Fund.
“3. We believe the objective of this documentary is to sensitize the public on AIDS Awareness and inform them about precautionary measures to avoid this deadly disease, since 33.2 million people globally are living with it.
“4. If Mr Gopal find a documentary of such nature to be offensive to “the value system of this country” then we strongly recommend that he engage the attention of the producers, the Ministry of Health, with his opinion about values.
“We are grateful to you for allowing us the opportunity to share our comments.”
I agree. I am tired of having to be urged every morning on my way to work that i need to get sexy with condoms and remember to squeeze the air out of the tip. Ok ok we get it. Got to use a condom if ur playing the field but how many freakin times do we have to hear it?
Time to start scaling back the HIV industry. i know that some people have made a great living off the disease but move on folks…what about the low development carbon strategy? another unquantifiable project based on fear.
Nice response,CNS6, its people like you sir who by their short sightedness who refuse to realise the realities of modren day life, that actually contribute to the ignorance fueling the spread of HIV/AIDS. Besides if you don’t like what you see on TV change the channel or turn it off!
Paul, The realities of modern day life involves TACT and CLASS.
Would you want your 8 yr old to see a condomed phallus and vagina going at it?? There are less offensive ways to get a point across.
DO WE HAVE TO DRAW A PICTURE FOR YOU?
Glad I don’t have to endure that. The whole thing sounds so tasteless and indicates a complete lack of standards. No surprise it’s coming from a government ministry. I wouldn’t consider the government right now to be a hallmark of decency and human sensitivity.
Why do they have to go to such lengths to get the point across. There are more effective ways to educate the populace other than the graphic picture given by M. Gopal and I can only imagine what was on TV. The Ministry of Health can do a better lesson without being offensive.
What’s up with all this misplaced sanctimonious crap? A simple disclaimer or an alert before the programme was aired, warning about the graphic nature of the documentary would have sufficed.
Can someone tell me what’s the HIV/AIDS rate of spread in Guyana? A few years ago we were ranked second, people, second to the Bahamas.
So for you “bs” detector, the message has to be continually in our faces ALL THE TIME
We still think like the cave man , we do less thinking before we act . That’s why the country is so corrupt becasue of people like these who can’t even prepare a program appropriately because of insensitivity.