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     News: Robbed Of Childhood

    Porn, Prostitution, Sex IndustrySONJE CAFFé is a worried woman.

    As a mother, she is particularly concerned that her six-year-old daughter has to grow up in an environment where promiscuity and an emphasis on sex seems to permeate most facets of life in Suriname.

    “As a mother it scares me,” said Sonje, her brow creased in consternation.

    Citing two examples of the pervasiveness of the sexual revolution’s grip on Suriname, Sonje said that children are exposed to too much nudity and other inappropriate programmes for their age group on day time television. “In terms of style of dancing, I see my six-year-old mimicking some of the gestures, and I don’t like it because it is very sexual. And some of the topics that are discussed with her peers in school, she comes ack home and asks me questions about sexuality between people, about when can you do this, when can you do that; why are men and women doing this with each other in the shower or in the bed.

    Sex talk at five

    “These are things they discuss in school. Children who are five and six shouldn’t be talking about those things. In my time I was talking about Cinderella and fairy tales, but that is now over,” said Sonje.

    As a mother, Sonje’s concerns are understandable. However, the fact that she is the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre’s (CAREC) locally-based epidemiologist/public health adviser, and sees first hand the consequences of the sexual activities of Surinamese, makes her observations more profound.

    “We really have to study this sexual behaviour further. So far, I think society has closed its eyes; they have denied it, ignored it to pretend it is not there. So we really don’t understand some of the mechanisms of the growing demand for sex,” she said in an interview at her Burenstraat, Paramaibo, office.

    Sonje contends that though sensuality and exotic expressions are a strong part of Surinamese culture, the sex clubs (brothels), sex shops, and the general promiscuousness throughout the society does not represent main stream life in Suriname, and said the economic woes which befell the country in the late 1980s to mid 1990s in many ways contributed to the problem.

    “I see a link. I don’t have studies to support that, but from the experience we had in the street, I see a strong link,” said Sonje.

    “We had an increase in prostitution among youths and adults,” she added.

    “Suriname went through a very difficult time and I remember between 1990 and 1994 when we were seriously trying to address the prevention challenges that was really a difficult time.

    “We had a lot of school girls prostituting themselves to tourists and other visitors. They were going to hotels; everybody was in need of money. This was the peak of our economic crisis, and it made it difficult for us to tell them ‘you can’t do this, you are risking your life’.

    Sonje said the improvement in the economy in recent years has also seen some reduction in people getting involved in prostitution for those reasons.

    The epidemiologist said the involvement of young girls was being seen in their data, she said, and revealed about 20 per cent of national annual births are from teens, while the HIV infection rates between 14 and 29 years old are higher among females.

    “We see the age of sexual initiation is becoming younger. In 2003 we had 70 births from girls between 10 and 14 years old. We have incidences of girls 11 and 12 years old becoming infected with HIV – and this was not perinatal transmission, they were engaged in sex,” said Sonje.

    Origionally posted Barbados Daily Nation, April 23, 2005



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