BAD NEWS travels fast. It's all overseas - how two students of a Corporate Area high school, still clad in their uniforms, making it easy to identify the institution they attend, were photographed in FLAGRANTE DELICTO, or to put it out there for all to understand - engaged in sexual activity on the steps of a building on their school compound. A fellow student, it is said, captured their performance with the aid of a cellphone camera.

This homespun porn production was then placed on the Internet where many a reputation has gone to die. Not long after that, the film was downloaded and began circulating not only in JA, but areas of the US which Fi Wi People inhabit, bringing further distress to our relatives who are now fully convinced that the devil himself has taken over here.

People deal with shock in different ways. One gentleman from Up So told me, on air, that he was so appalled that he made several copies of the film and sent it to friends who were also horrified. The irony of what he did quite escaped him. His sense of outrage is quite understandable. What is not so easy to understand is why he thought that giving it further circulation was the way to deal with the problem.

Outrage is highly necessary, not just for this particular pornographic episode, but for all the other rampant acts of sexual insanity being reported as commonplace among some of our students. It is important once again to make the point that not ALL of our young people have given up on decency and propriety. The words might not even be known to all, but give thanks that it is only a minority of our young who have taken leave of their senses. There is more than enough evidence that many more students are doing the right thing.

Our concern has to be about the little wretches who engage in sex on the buses and celebrate No-Panty Day. We talk and talk as if we don't know where they get the ideas from. Well, in case you don't know, porn proliferates on Cable, and Cable is everywhere. That's what kids watch. Explicit literature abounds. It's what kids read. It is legitimised by striptease fashions on the street. Young men love it. Young women see nothing wrong with it. Ugliness thrives.

So far, this strange behaviour of some of our young is being lamented mainly in the media. Hardly, if ever, do we hear parents indicating that they're concerned enough to lead the charge, or at least join in efforts to turn things around. Instead, we have the aberration of parents going to school to harass teachers.

The Ministry of Education could just as well be renamed the Ministry of Morality, as almost every day it struggles to develop some new formula to deal with the epidemic of juvenile disorder. Only this week the minister was on the offensive again - hunting down expletives in books assigned for courses. Expletives is one thing. Sex in the schoolyard - and filmed at that - is another.

SUPER TUESDAY, the American rite of political passage, otherwise called "the primaries", brought super disappointment for me. I must tell you I'm an Obama fan. Miss Hillary leaves me with mixed emotions. The "woman thing" I support, which is why I started out eager to see one of my gender ascend to the peak of world power.

Then, along came Obama, saying all the things I long to hear... like finding a way to put a fresh face on this tired old world and clean the dirty lenses of our political vision so that we can get a bright, new view, not only of today, but of tomorrow. Dare to be different. Call people to care about one another. Set an agenda not for Big Man alone but for others to find a place in the world.

My boy was sailing along just fine, thank you, please, and then Miss Hillary took off the gloves. She makes no bones about the fact that she fully intends to throw some punches. My guy will have to fight every inch of the way from now on.

After watching so much on CNN Tuesday night that my brain felt like fried tomatoes, I retired to bed, a little down at the results. Miss Hillary had surged ahead, Obama has a bigger hill to climb. Never mind that I couldn't make head or tail of the bizarre situation which allows American voters, aka Democrats, to vote twice in one day - morning for secret ballot to select delegates and night in caucuses where you vote by show of hands. A wha dat? If we ever did it, they would call it corruption.

Obama lost Ohio and Texas - real blows to his standing and his pride. So, Miss Hillary is on the up and up. Her handlers have warned that they will not hesitate to "mess up" Obama on the road ahead. They've already begun. You mean there might be no bright brown hope after November?

TEN THOUGHTS FOR International Women's Day. which I hope you know is tomorrow, March 8. Come, let us reason.
1) We've come a long way, baby, but we still have a way to go. Let's not get too complacent. The glass ceiling is only cracked.

2) What's the use of position without power? Ask mi, nuh!

3) Who cares that some women can hardly feed their
families each week, as food prices soar? Believe me, it is not only the downtown Mama who is complaining. You should be in an uptown supermarket on a Saturday.

4) With all those breasts hanging out, how come more women don't have chest colds? Fashion or a Breast is Best revolution, what's going on? What answer should I give the uppity youth who asked?

5) How come when it is time to celebrate powerful and influential women, nobody ever nominates a household helper. or an Informal Commercial Trader or an honest lady Pardner banker? You don't believe they're keeping this society together? Den is who?

6) Who will pay the registration fees for basic school teachers (nearly all women) who earn barely more than the minimum wage? They know that being unregistered could lose them the work, but what's the choice - fee or food?

7) Join me in birthday greetings to Lady Bustamante, heading towards the century mark, confined to home by failing health but still basking in the love and affection of good friends. Who remembers that she's the only remaining widow of a National Hero?

8) Who will raise a toast to the three top women in justice administration - Dorothy, the minister, Zalia the chief justice, Paula the public prosecutor? Gentlemen, watch yuhself!

9) Big up all the institutions which continue to uphold the gender ideals - like the Women's Bureau, Women's Political Caucus, Women's Media Watch, Women's Resource Outreach Centre and many more who keep women's hope alive, even when it seems unfashionable to some.

10) Who remembers the ancestral proverb, "Woman luck deh a dungle heap - nuh dash-i wey"? In other words, ladies, it ain't over till it is over! Keep the faith - and our men too. "One han' wash the other."

gloudonb@yahoo.com

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