Martin Henry
LAST WEDNESDAY [May 31], a paedophile political party was launched in The Netherlands. The NVD whose name in English means the Neighbourly Love, Freedom and Diversity party wants to cut the age of consent for youth-adult consensual sex from 16 to 12.
The NVD would be right at home in Jamaica. While this newspaper and other elements of the local media have only given the most cursory notice, if any at all, to the launch of the NVD, they have been in the same week making a huge, short-lived song and dance about an entrenched feature of Jamaican culture: child sex, child pregnancy, and child 'prostitution'.
Whatever the law may wish to say about age of consent, the majority of firstborns in this country have been born to teen-age mothers, and a large proportion of these to mothers under the age of consent. The age of first sex is well-documented to be in the early teens.
Transactional sex in a rich variety of prostitutional commercial exchange, from the onset of puberty, is a dominant feature of Jamaican culture.
NO STOPPING POINT
Once the gate is opened for sexual licence, there can be no 'reasonable' stopping point. Once we abandon the notion of a divine law which governs human choices and behaviour, human law can only progressively accommodate the clamouring demands of 'freedom' and 'diversity' as we slide into the pit.
It is not at all accidental, that the first paedophile party in the world has been launched in a country which has led the world in legalising prostitution, gay marriages, and 'soft' drugs.
The outrage of the liberal Dutch people is puzzling. A poll said 82 per cent of them wanted the Government to stop the launch of the NVD, and 67 per cent said promoting paedophilia should be illegal.
In language that "truly progressive people" should be quite at home with, the Paedophilia/ Paedophile Education Website Mirror says "Pedophilia is a sexual orientation like heterosexuality, homosexuality, bi-sexuality, etc. Paedophiles can be straight, gay or bi-sexual."
"Paedophiles often have tough and unhappy lives since they are not permitted to express who they are," the advocacy website complains. But "A person cannot change his/her orientation any more than a Dalmatian can avoid spots " [that's very familiar language]. People with a cannibalistic orientation suffer too, I am sure.
But it is precisely this "injustice and oppression" that the paedophiles of the NVD are setting out to correct as homosexuals have done (successfully) before them.
"Raising children also means letting them get acquainted with sex [here incest is clearly implied]", Ad van den Berg, a founder, solemnly pronounces. Their colleagues on the promo website mentioned earlier couldn't agree more: "Sex is not harmful for children, provided it is done honestly, lovingly and with good intentions and consent. It is not something kids should be 'protected' from like a fast moving car." What brakes can society now apply to these rational and reasonable speeding paedophiles?
SEXUAL BEINGS
Children are sexual beings who own themselves, not adults, and can say no or yes to sex. Paedophiles understand that society has no right to deny a child sexual activity in a manner he or she chooses, the advocacy website further argues.
The NVD has a much larger agenda than lowering and then abolishing altogether the age of consent. They also want to liberalise pornography and children's participation in it. They want to legalise all drugs and going naked in public, while abolishing all religious elementary schools. They are also advocating free train travel for all - and, of course, sex with animals.
The NVD may have more success with paedophilia - and bestiality -- than with free train rides. Religion-grounded moral codes and the taboos of ages have become more dispensable than profits.
Martin Henry is a communication consultant.
