Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Sex should not be a censored topic



What I read

In "Secret world: The women in the UK who cannot report sexual abuse", Megha Mohan reports the story of an anonymous refugee woman who came to the UK, lived in families she was hired, got abused time to time. Almost every family she was in, she was sexually abused, and couldn't tell anyone because the law couldn't help her, but send her back to her country where she escaped from. Keeping secret for over ten years, a miracle man took her to London Refugee Centre where staff are openly welcome to listen to her story. After that, her story has been published all around the world then women in every status, including Hollywood star, start to reveal their similar abusing story by using hashtag Me Too.

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My response 

It might be the shortest response for me if I write exactly about the topic in this news because as said in the news, it was secret for a long time. Even though it is more revealed now(as in the news), I still have heard very little about it. So I'll say how I think about this news and another similar situation in Thailand.

For her, the refugee, I understand and know it was a hard situation. She was a refugee and has no legal status. As I know it is illegal and when someone or she herself reports the police, she would be sent back, which she didn't want to. She has two choices at that time - to tell the police but would be sent back, and to do nothing. Of course, she wanted to stay there but didn't want to be abused which is not in any choices. I would honestly say I can't think of any solution for her. Actually, it might be some solution if some kind person knows her story, but she can't tell anyone. So, to have a miracle man taking her to London Refugee Centre and reveal her story is lucky for her and she can be in a good-chosen family. That's the best solution - to wait for a kind person to help her - because she has no other ways.

I have too little idea about this situation, but I come up with another similar problem in every country - teenage pregnancy. Now let's consider this as an academic discussion, not an embarrassing topic. It's been a problem for the world for a long time. As our nature, I don't have to say why people get pregnant. But we can think of why they, children, don't know to protect as they are not responsible enough for new baby. I'm sure in many families or even some of you reading this, consider this the censored topic according to our culture; children aren't likely to talk with parents. As the result, children lack of knowledge in this topic. They are taught only it's not a good thing but no other knowledge. And as we can't resist our nature, there's a problem. I know Japanese culture that they talk in this topic freely; students have the knowledge, and there's much little problem than us according to the statistics. Actually, I agree it's a shame topic and it's hard to say as our culture is like this. However, as it is a big problem in the country, we should think of some solution. Sometime, we can't keep all benefits, but we have to concern which solution can keep most benefits and that's the best solution. 

For the story in the news, she couldn't tell anyone because she would be sent back to where she escaped, so I find there is no other way before she met a miracle man. But for the teenage problem that parents don't usually talk with children and they don't have much knowledge about it, there're so many solutions, which solution do you think it is the best?
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My question

If I were in her shoe, refugee in the news, I can't think of any better solution than waiting for someone to help me, what another solution can you think of?
What is the main cause of teenage pregnancy? What solution is the best to reduce teenage pregnancy rate in the country?
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Reference

6 comments:

  1. I think we have to accept that teenage pregnancy will happen. In addition to helping reduce it by encouraging teenagers to use condoms and other tools to prevent pregnancy, it is essential that safe, legal abortion be available to all women who ask for it, but especially for teenagers who are unlikely to be prepared to have or care for a child. Forcing women to have babies that they do not want is bad for everyone, the mother and society, whereas abortion, especially at an early stage in the pregnancy, harms no person.

    I also have an idea responding to Melon's chosen article, but perhaps others would like to contribute to the discussion before I add more.

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    Replies
    1. Abortion is another way we can use to tackle with this problem; however, it's unacceptable in Thailand because it kills small early-stage baby. In scientific, it might be that it's no life yet(I don't know). But as you know Thais are buddhists, so people think that it's sinful when someone does abortion - they believe it's already a new life after first day. When there's unready mom getting pregnant, she'll be of course in depression. And if she does abortion, that one will be condemned if she lets the nation know.

      But that's what I think Thais think that makes abortion seem very bad. I'll wait for other ones' reply before I'll say what solution I think of. Actually, it is implied in my response.

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    2. Thank you Melon. To be honest, when I wrote my comment, I expected such a response. Like you, I'm hoping your classmates contribute to this often controversial debate. I certainly agree that it's important to openly and freely discuss such topics and ideas about them. Those with a biology background might be able to share some useful information here, but I'm not sure that biology is enough to resolve the apparent conflict with religious teachings.

      Melon's comment also raises another important question: How should a society decide such issues?

      On a related topic, when I saw it on the BBC News, I had also thought of blogging in response to the article "Poland abortion: Protests against bill imposing new limits".

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  2. Sexual abuse happens everywhere. It can be both physical and verbal abuse. Many people doesn't even know that they are being sexual assault to others. This is a big issue which still can not be fixed in all over the world. If we talk about high teenager pregnancy rate in Thailand. I see this as a big problem which is hard to be curb, and especially in Thailand because they all say we are a conservative country, we have reserved culture and we shouldn't be talking about sex. On the other hand, lets take a look at rape cultures in our country. Almost every soap drama has a rape scene, children to elders watch this thing. Rape victims rates significantly increase over decades. Therefore, I think It is time for us to reconsider about our culture. There should be no longer silence but education to our children and population about his issue.

    Best solution for me is to talk about sexual stuff to our children. There is the latest news about placing a condom box at school, some says it can provoke curiosity to students who never thought about it and shift their interest from study. In my opinion, it might be a good thing to let them know how to protect instead of letting them try without knowing. Sex is a part of human nature, we should give them proper high education. Otherwise there will be a regrettable result, as in another news where they have found a baby body under the seat of Thai bus.

    Talking about abortion. Although I do agree with you that it is an act of sin, It is a mostly done solution when unprepared pregnancy happens. I think it is better than having to raise the child with unready and bad conditions. Another good way is to give the baby for adoption but this is not a common way in Thailand. Unfortunately, most of the kids are end up in the foster home.

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  3. I had followed #MeToo for a while and I was totally sick of how it has happened and been alive for decades. It's truly, completely horrible that victims had to face that nightmare alone, and it's even worse when they asked for helps but got blamed instead. Victim blaming becomes a hot issue now.

    Come to talk about your question. If you ask about the best solution, I think increasing awareness of the problem and its effects among teenagers is a common lesson that needs talk and discussion both in class and at home. But, what will happen if parents or teachers or adults they know aren't willing to talk about it? When kids, who are underage, can't find some adults to talk to, they turn to their friends who mostly share same level of knowledge and awareness. I think the problem happens here. Actually, we need to set a right mutual perception among adults in our society first. Most of them consider talking about sex, in term of education, publicly is against traditions. Talking about his become embarrassing and perverted. Currently, there is a controversial issue about installing condom machine in schools. Some adults take it as a provocative action; whereas the younger think it's the best way to prepare them to do the proper thing to prevent student pregnancy. Birth control. Previously, there was a promotion of birth control implant among young females to prevent them from pregnancy. Again, some adults took it as a provocative action. In reality, we can't stop them from having sex, as many of you said it's a nature of humans, but we can stop them from being pregnant. How could this happen if our older generation still thinks talking about sex is shameful, and avoid talking about it publicly and personally?
    However, there are a bunch of kids thinking that having a baby at very young aged is to prove that they become an adult. This kind of thought is also problem too. It’s undeniable that this group of kids is the majority of teen parents. And their family background becomes another issue. It runs in a loop.
    I think both adults and kids need to be aware of this problem together. What our society needs to figure out is to prevent this problem, instead of solving it.

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  4. Both Sine's and Prim's thoughtful responses above gave me lot to think about. I agree with Sine that abortion is preferable to the alternatives, and I don't think it conflicts with Buddhist teaching any more than eating meat does since an unborn foetus does not have any more characteristics of a person than do the pigs and chickens we eat. As a result, killing the foetus, which might sound worse before we analyse the situations, isn't significantly different to killing pigs or chickens because we want to eat their tasty flesh. If it's OK to pay other people to kill cows and ducks so that we can eat them, I can't see how allowing a pregnant woman to have a safe abortion can be any worse. The law needs to be reformed.

    I hadn't thought of Prim's information that some young women see having a child as proof of becoming adult. My initial reaction to that is that education campaigns are needed to break the cycle of teen parents having children who grow up to become teen parents, but I'm not sure what sort of campaign. Perhaps a campaign that presents teen pregnancy as proof of irresponsible childishness would oppose the idea that being a mother is a evidence of adulthood. Condom machines in schools also sounds like a good start, but it's probably not enough if the woman actually wants to become pregnant for some reason. And as Prim concludes, prevention is definitely preferable to finding a cure later.

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