Kingsley Obeng-Kyereh, then a producer with Curious Minds radio programmes, explained that we were [...]]]>
The Children and Youth in Broadcasting–Curious Minds programme has propelled youth issues in Ghana through the voices of young people. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues
Kingsley Obeng-Kyereh, then a producer with Curious Minds radio programmes, explained that we were joining other young people to demand our rights, and let children know they have rights and responsibilities.
It sounded great.
That had been a bad year for me. I was grieving the death of my beloved brother and my family was going through tough times. Often my parents could not pay my school fees and I would stay at home for weeks. When I went back to school, I lied I had been sick.
That day at GBC something clicked. Something good. I had found a new family! And ever since I walked into GBC, I have sacrificed sleep and leisure to create change in my community using radio.
Curious Minds
For 18 years, the Children and Youth in Broadcasting–Curious Minds programme has propelled youth issues in Ghana through the voices of young people.
One of my friends is presenter Binta Alhassan, 23. At age 10, Binta narrowly escaped being abducted to another country and married to a much older man. Relatives tried to kidnap her at school but the teachers stopped them.
Binta is a strong advocate for girls’ rights among her Muslim community. On air, she exposes the dangers of early marriage and pushes law enforcement agencies to protect the girls.
“I have felt it and I know it. Change cannot happen if we just keep quiet and watch”, Binta told me.
Like Binta, I feel happy knowing that the little I do is making great impact.
We do many programmes on HIV and AIDS. HIV prevalence in Ghana is not that high at 1.4 percent, but not to be ignored. Sometimes we discuss policies, sometimes people, or gender-specific problems.
For example, young women tell how their role as caregivers for family members sick with AIDS harmed their education and health. Our listeners call in with their real life stories; together we try to find solutions.
My journey with Curious Minds has not been easy.
I remember weird times when a radio technician would walk into the studio while we are live on air and chide us:
“Why are you children talking about family planning? How does it affect you? Discuss things for people your age!”.
We had to do very long and friendly explanations to stop being taken off air by angry technicians.
It was difficult to get permission to leave school to do radio. Although I tried hard to get good grades, my teachers perceived me as not serious.
In my final year in Junior High School, I got a caning on my buttocks from my French teacher because he had seen me doing advocacy on TV during exam week. The teachers expected us to be glued to the books during this period, doing no extracurricular activities. I had flouted their unspoken rules.
I can laugh at those experiences now. They were totally worthwhile!
Edith Asamani is a self-taught photographer, graphic designer, radio presenter and human rights activist, passionate about issues of women and youth, who wants to make the world a better place for young people. Her motto: “I live not for myself, but for others.”
Reactions were prompted worldwide, from Time magazine to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, when this small South American country said it would legalise, control and tax the marijuana market.
The government of Uruguay wants to put marijuana under state control, including local cultivation, selling to consumers over [...]]]>
Reactions were prompted worldwide, from Time magazine to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, when this small South American country said it would legalise, control and tax the marijuana market.
The government of Uruguay wants to put marijuana under state control, including local cultivation, selling to consumers over 18 years old and registering users in a data base with records of their consumption patterns.
The proposal includes a maximum personal quota of 30 grams per month, assuming that any request beyond a daily gram would be considered a “harmful addiction”. In that case, the consumer should be counselled and treated.
Marijuana use is not illegal in Uruguay, but the law doesn’t establish a personal amount limit, which is at the judge’s discretion. This legal loophole typically ends with consumers in jail. Between 2006 and 2009, 681 consumers were indicted with possession of just a few grams. Official estimates count 150,000 marijuana consumers in a national population of 3.3 million.
Of course, users rely on drug dealers to get marijuana, and the act of buying is glued to the act of selling, which is illegal.
The government says it is looking for a marijuana market separate from the harmful one of ‘pasta base’ or cocaine sulphate – an intermediate product of cocaine hydrochloride processing – also known as the drug of choice for poorer classes and associated with severe addiction and an increase in violent crimes.
Marijuana is the fourth most consumed drug in Uruguay, after alcohol, tobacco and pills – all of them regulated.
While other countries have also reformed their marijuana policies, like the United States and the Netherlands, one thing is clear: The global war against drugs has failed. In Latin America, this failure came with catastrophic doses of corruption, violence and human rights violations.
Meanwhile, as the UNODC reports shows, illegal drug markets remain stable and are even expanding to new regions and products, like synthetic and genetically modified substances, which don’t substitute plant-based drugs (i.e. coca, poppy and cannabis) but widen the variety of supply.
Uruguay’s proposal brings this striking reality to the fore. If it manages to pass into law, it could be the first step in an unfamiliar field at a national policy level.
But many crucial questions remain answered.
How will Uruguay manage to embrace this legislation without breaching its commitments as a signatory party of international conventions on drug control? How will it avoid becoming the region’s weed heaven?
If the growth and violence of drug traffic is one motivating factor in the Uruguayan policy, which exposes weak performance by enforcing agencies and the judiciary, how will the state manage to enforce this new system?
For me, the most relevant questions are about young people and health.
Is 30 grams per month a fair threshold for harmful use or abuse? This weight is based on daily use of one gram. But heavy cannabis use is generally defined as daily or near daily use. While cannabis is considered a soft drug, it is far from innocuous.
If official figures are correct, more than a half of newest weed consumers are 15-17 years old. Marijuana is sold at almost every high school doorstep, with 14- and 15-year-old boys and girls smoking freely by the street. What will happen to these consumers if the state controlled the market only for adults?
An expert who works on drugs and adolescence in this country told me that most of the weed sold in Uruguay is genetically modified and the psychoactive effects are three or four times more powerful than common varieties.
The physical and psychological effects of those GMO porros (marijuana cigarettes) are difficult to absorb at such a young age, he added.
Youths are already being neglected in so many ways in this aging population country. Around 40 percent of children are born in poverty. Meanwhile, there is a strong campaign to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16.
In this context, Mujica’s government should avoid that passing its liberal weed policy ends up pushing young consumers to the illegal corner instead of helping them to cope with harmful use and promoting their health, freedom and well being .
President José Mujica and his aides have explained their rationale and delivered details, but the initiative has yet to be cemented in a written bill.
The government seeks to crack down on consumption and drug traffic, reducing dealers’ profits. A tax on the new product will bring resources to rehabilitation programs, but it is not yet clear if the state would control cultivation and selling or if it would issue licenses to a private and closely regulated sector.
]]>Ranging from sassy dialogue to black humour, these are one-minute comedies with a smart punchline. The Mother from Hell and the Spoiled Brat skits have [...]]]>
Make safe sex fun. By M. Sayagues
Ranging from sassy dialogue to black humour, these are one-minute comedies with a smart punchline. The Mother from Hell and the Spoiled Brat skits have a Borat-like humour. And who would have thought a condom ad from India would depict anal sex?
Click on the ad from Argentina even if you don’t speak Spanish. Everybody who has been a teenager will chuckle about these teens, their parents and their predicament. (Watch it here)
Laughing got me thinking about how seldom one sees humorous ads about condoms in English-speaking Southern Africa. I have seen some cool ads in Mozambique, though – I think there were Brazilian advisors involved. Where is the fun?
Most ads about condoms in Southern Africa are earnest, even boring, stressing safe sex, HIV prevention, responsibility. Few treat sex as an activity filled with desire, romance, anticipation, indecision, ambiguity, and pleasure.
Yes, for man, sex may be forced, violent, unwanted, unpleasant, too quick, too slow, or too risky.
A pretty condom carrying box. By M. Sayagues
But for many others, it is not. Ads should target different segments. If we want to attract the attention of the young instead of totally turning them off, ads must be cool.
It is a fine balancing act. About three years ago, the South African anti-AIDS campaign LoveLife published a monthly insert in major newspapers, called Uncut that tried so hard to be blasé it was borderline pornographic.
There is a distance from acknowledging that young people have sex to portraying teens dressed like hookers in positions suggesting group oral sex. Many parents threw Uncut straight away. My daughter, aged 14 then and no prude, thought it cheapened girls.
After many complaints and public debate, Uncut changed. It went overboard. Now it reads like a church teen newsletter, wholesome and boring.
It may be that the terrifying scale of the AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa inhibits ad campaign planners and donors from portraying safe sex as fun. Maybe it is fear of offending churches, politicians and parents. And talking about sex has traditionally been taboo.
Yet, to get young people to practice safe sex, condoms must become part of their sexual paraphernalia and discourse. A bit of humour helps.
So have a laugh and tell us which is your favourite!
Ad selection courtesy of Chris Well, a designer and sexual rights activist at Conversations for a Better World. Check out his website for teens and reproductive health: www.15andcounting