To wear a condom, or not wear a condom? That is the question.

But the bigger question lies with the thinking about sex, the religious connection, and the right of people to act responsibly whether they are 15 years old or 50.

I am one who adamantly believes that religion should have no voice when it comes to sex, since it cannot take a pragmatic view on the subject.

If, as surveys show, 63 percent of Indonesian teenagers engage in sexual activity, then we can safely assume that the real figures are probably higher. Of course, this is quite normal, but the frightening figure was the 21 percent of 65 million youths having abortions, which is quite staggering.

That is more than 14 million girls, and it makes you wonder about the circumstances of those abortions.

That aside, the answer is obviously in improving parental controls if that is possible, and then schools should all run programs to educate youths, not only about the dangers, but also about sex and human nature, which is of course something we have all dabbled in, in our youth. Boy meets girl and bingo — it has been going on forever. We need open-minded responsible people who can freely discuss sexual matters so that children can understand that this, although a serious subject, is absolutely not taboo.

Whether Indonesia has such teachers is another question, but with a population of say 250 million and maybe more there is a need to give sex a priority rating.

It is an absolute waste of time preaching morality, since sex in its needs has little to do with this.

Perhaps we need to accept that like so many other things, we have made a set of rules we struggle to live by, and this despite all measures of good intention. Sensible people will hopefully find the right solutions, but in doing so there will be thousands of youths that won’t listen as they perhaps see their elders/parents as being out of touch, under-educated, and too damn busy to take an interest.

Demographically speaking this has the potential to become a disaster, but then the human race is well known for being pretty damn stupid, so why should our children be any different?

David Wallis
Medan

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