Dear Editor
I would like to ask the editor (Rre Mogapi/Mokone) what was going through his mind when he decided to publish the above quoted letter.
No offence to “The Voice”, but I think that material belongs there.
This is a type of letter from some guy who just woke up and decided to write something to the newspaper.
I do not think this was well researched, and it does not contrast us (proud Africans) with other races or people from other continents on their sexual drives.
It was from the Main Mall under that mopipi/motlopi tree. Unfortunately if left unchecked it can do some serious damage.
I think we need to be responsible as well in terms of what we say to ourselves, if this guy or any other writer wants/desires to point out a difference between ourselves and other races.
I suggest they bring with them a strong backing of research, that has been properly adjusted if need be, and with expert opinion on the matter.
I believe as Editor you have a discretion and responsibility to publish the kind of material that would further our progress, and definitely this is not one of them.
I do acknowledge we have an AIDS problem, and, yes, we all need to acknowledge that all efforts focused at tackling sex related issues on AIDS are failing, but we have not gone a step further to evaluate why these efforts are failing; instead, we have taken an easier route (people are so obsessed with sex they can’t stop? Are we sure?).
Why not say we have lost our traditional family structures and support systems that we have enjoyed for so many years by trying to copy the western culture, which we cannot emulate effectively? If you want to marry before you decide on the one you can settle with, you get caught up in a marathon. We take too long before settling down when we should be doing all that at say age 25. To be honest, I don’t think anyone (not even the new sensation Emily Oster) has done thorough analysis on the AIDS causes beyond sex, instead, we just go for stereotype “it’s Africans; all they do is have sex.” Ridiculous, and very, very, very, very, need I say again, very offensive to us as a people. Everyone has sex, and some more than we do, really!
Now, I’d like to encourage everyone to recognise the weight of HIV/AIDS on us as a people and our future and take it seriously. There is no benefit in giving it these labels or calling us sex craze people. (Are you going to call Indians sex craze people when AIDS hits the country worse than South Africa? or China or Russia? maybe you should see statistics for those countries first).
Maybe we should reintroduce Bogwera le Bojale, re rute bana go nna batsadi at the right forum and right time (not overwhelm curious standard 1 kids with condoms & sex education); these can always be modernised – in fact, TS (Tirelo Sechaba) is one of the vehicles that can be used. Maybe we should be talking about strengthening the family concept back into the people, start families and at their sexual primes.
Maybe we should be looking into cutting down on bogadi (make it more affordable for our now mostly poorer citizens) and the process of wedding two people (without cutting out the cultural values of course), put back what Batswana were 50 years ago, and see us prosper once again. Maybe we need to look deeper into ourselves and stop being sweet talked by some huge pharmaceutical companies into believing we are rich and can afford to pay for ARVs for citizens; we are NOT.
We need schools, VTC/brigades, roads, and infrastructure to compete on global landscape instead of ARVs. Maybe we should be encouraging people to take a more positive and helpful perspective on the pandemic and realise that we are all infected if not affected. Don’t abuse my father, mother, brother, cousin, uncle, aunt, friend, sister and myself o re ke akanya ka letheka! DONT!
Kele weno,
Mong Sethoki.
