FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA

We are failing our children

Our teenagers are becoming infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea. Increasing numbers are developing HIV/AIDS. The future of our families, clans and tribes lies in their hands. In this country these diseases are mainly spread through sexual contact. So we can conclude that the rising incidence of these diseases among teenagers is a direct result of premature sexual experiences.

Why premature? It can be argued that once teenagers are physically capable of having sex, there is no sound reason to try and stop what is a natural act. That may be true in a society with minimal traditional structures or religious beliefs. Many overseas countries have long ago abandoned their inherited social frameworks and religious beliefs, and their people measure personal success by their ability to satisfy physical and material needs. The traditional family and extended social structures that would once have dealt with sexual issues have been replaced with a form of liberal humanism that encourages much and forbids little. That is their answer to the challenge of establishing a new cultural and spiritual order.

In these societies, teenage parents attending the middle level classes of high schools are now a common phenomenon. Female students now feel little community condemnation when they bring their infants with them to Year 9 or 10 classes at high school. Some inner city schools have created child-minding facilities for these teenage mothers. We know of a 10 years old boy about to enter high school, whose 25 years old father is about to graduate from university. It is of little use for community leaders, church spokesmen and concerned health officials to bemoan the trend towards this type of situation in PNG. Many of our traditional societies lie in tatters around us. In today's society, whether we like it or not, telling a 15 years old PNG boy that he's too young to have sex is equivalent to the legendary King Canute confronting the incoming tide at the seashore and commanding it to retreat. He drowned.

It seems to us that there is only one way to convince teenagers to exercise sexual restraint, and that process is long-term and may not prove fully effective. We must recognize that the society in which we grew up has gone, changed beyond all recognition. Our challenge is to help create a contemporary culture that will deal with problems like teenage sex in a realistic and acceptable way. In other words, this is a time of great flux within PNG society, a time in which many of the beliefs of our forebears have already been discarded, and many others have simply disappeared. There is a pressing need for governments, churches, and all those who want to see a bright and brave future for our country to contribute to the creation of a societal framework that makes that goal possible. 15 year old girls may soon be spotted nursing their six months old babies in Year 9 classes in our senior schools. That may be unavoidable. At least that would be a public recognition of the reality.

To turn on these teenagers and kill them for their behaviour exposes us as criminally incompetent parents trapped in a decaying culture. We stand guilty. We won't acknowledge that our system of implanting desirable beliefs in today's children is woefully inadequate. We are failing to give any form of moral and spiritual guidance to our youngsters. We have demolished the community framework in which our system of ethics, morals and religion once worked effectively. We have failed dismally to replace it. Yet at the same time we expect teenagers to make value judgements about appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. To further confuse matters, we pay only lip service to the precepts that we verbally exalt to our own children. Is it reasonable to expect a 15 years old youth of either sex to remain chaste and live life in harmony with our misty image of what is "good behaviour," when Father is sleeping openly with the woman next door? There is a pressing need to rebuild our society, and in the process devise new parameters that will address the needs of a generation facing challenges and temptations undreamed-of by their parents.

6 August 2004
http://www.thenational.com.pg/0805/editorial.htm

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