GUYANA IS A FREE-FOR-ALL

Nov 04, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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A few days ago, I noticed some school-aged children looking very excited in front of a vendor’s stand. The school children were rifling through scores of pornographic movies that were being sold openly at around US$1 per copy. The children were buying the material. When I asked my escort why undercover cops were not identifying those that pedal such material in public, he showed me a man who was deeply engrossed in going through the sex tapes. “That man is a policeman and even he is buying the movies.” I asked what about his superiors; surely they ought to be told of what is taking place and take action. My escort looked at me and nonchalantly asked, “Who do you think owns that stand?”
But what about the religious organizations? Why are they not demanding that sexually explicit material not be sold in public? Again my escort asked, “Who do you think are some of the biggest customers of these stands? And then, answering his own question, he continued, ”The same persons who go to these religious organizations that you seem to feel should be speaking out against the sale of pornography in public.”
There is a free-for-all in Guyana; whatever you can think about, you can get it and at next to nothing too.
On September 14 last, Floyd Mayweather Jr. comfortably defeated Saul Alvarez in their world championship boxing match. The fight was watched by millions throughout the world; in the United States boxing fans paid as much as US$60 for the opportunity to see the fight at home via Pay–per-View cable television.
In Guyana, boxing fans got the fight free compliments of both local cable operators and television. It is just one of the benefits of living in Guyana. We get all these major sporting events free of cost, unlike those who live in the richest countries in the world and have to pay to view these events.
There is, however, a downside to all this freeness. It can bring good material to local viewers but it can also bring a lot of bad stuff such as pornography.
Parents are often derided for not taking measures to prevent their children from watching sexually explicit or highly violent material on television and over the internet. But how successful can parental supervision be exercised when there are cases in which sexually explicit movies are shown during the daytime on local television and when certain internet sites which display sexually explicit material are freely available?
Children are now receiving their first lessons in sexual education not at home nor in school but on the internet and on the streets. There are internet sites which can be accessed without inhibitions in Guyana by any person of any age.
When the PPP/C first came to power in October 1992, the internet companies operating in Guyana had installed a special firewall that prevented their clients from accessing certain material that was deemed offensive to morals.
The PPP/C decided to pull down the firewall because in their estimation it represented a restriction on freedom of information. They seemed to have overlooked the fact that freedoms are not absolute and there are always restrictions on morally offensive content.
Today, with the firewalls down, all manner of sexually explicit content can be seen online. But access can still be restricted through configuring individual firewalls for users, which is what many parents do.
The problem, however, is twofold. Firstly, not many parents actually know how to block offensive material by configuring their individual firewalls. Secondly, pornographic tapes are widely and openly sold in public in Guyana; they are even available in video stores.
Outside of religious and moral considerations, there is a need for local agitation to bring order to what takes place in Guyana regarding the sale of sexually explicit material.
Teenagers are especially at a high risk and vulnerable to the influences of pornography. They are at a stage of their lives where their body and their moral values are sending conflicting signals to their brain and therefore there is a need for them to understand their hormones and the effects this is having on their bodies. This understanding is the best form of sex education that can be made available in homes and in schools.
But this is not happening because most teenagers, compliments of pornography and the internet, now receive their sexual education outside of the home and outside of the classrooms.
The results are going to be tragic because the material that is online and in the streets do not teach sexual respect; they promote sexual rage, sexual promiscuity and sexual perversion.

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