A shame

:-)
Mrs.PP, I tried to reign it in as much as possible.
It is just that I am so disappointed with the fact that politicians, policy-makers (!), even in developed countries seem to be falling prey to somepet conservative notions, being quite blind to ground realities. Here is an old report about the issue.

'ground realities' my foot! All blah blah for hoodwinking bestial level of existence; an atrocious recklessness unleashing uncontrolled, despicable way of living!!! Where do these ground realities come from? Did they drop from the blue? Immoral lifestyle concepts that stealthily entered the society are now loudly claiming licence & authoritative stay!!! Utter shame to be sucked into a nauseating vortex of animalism!!! WHY HAS THE WORD ABSTINENCE BECOME ANATHEMA? I want to know! Besides the 5 senses shared with the beasts are we not endowed/equipped with an exclusive sixth sense making us capable of discrimination, comprehension, discernment, responsibility AND restraint?

When the world, as we see it, changes right before our eyes, such agitation is expected :-)

As many of the questions in your post have the flavour of rhetoric I shall observe the due grammar and let them be. Let me stick only to the issue in question.

The effort on expounding on the virtue of abstinence in a bid to preserve the social fabric is universal. It happens everywhere and will keep happening. But its effectiveness is limited - to say the least. And diverting funds off practical programs towards this is not just a harmless quirk but quite dangerous.

Schools being prohibited from informing parents is but one aspect of the debate on teen pregnancy in Britain. Experts themselves are divided on what the root causes are and what the solutions should be. One of the reasons put forth is that Britain is relatively conservative when it comes to discussion of matters related to sex. Sex education is mostly confined to biological functions of the body and does not cover psychological aspects. A proposal to make sex education more open and compulsory was shot down by ministers not long ago. As a result, children here are cut off from reality compared to their counterparts in Western Europe.

Another reason put forth is the lack of family values. A recent survey found that children in Nederlands are most likely to be successful and happy in their adult life. The reason cited was strong family values (teen pregnancy in Nederlands is 1/6th that of UK). Some (including the Conservative Party) say that the government should support and encourage family values (not bad as long as they don't target single moms).

And then there is the theory that Britons take their responsibilities lightly, since they haven't lost a war in the last century and didn't have to face the hardships other nations in Europe were subject to :P

When a few years ago the Hindu editorial said a similar thing as PR is trying to convey I wrote back about the inadvisability of doing away with the preaching part in a real crusade against this evil saying it was like putting the cart before the animal. It was published gaining general praise/thanks for me from my friends & relatives- it was available in the net for long, but can't get it now! :(

Ever since man began to live as society, even before Moses, it has been rightly recognised that the flesh is 'weak' & to go its way is detrimental to the health of societal life. Responsible people never stopped or got tired of admonishing unrestrained carnal pleasures. But why do we not hear it now?

The trend is an epidemic to be tackled on a war footing- no second opinion on it. But why divorce the injunction of sterling role of abstinence from the programme???

An utter shame it is to be wallowing in sensuality with no time, interest and energy to acquire knowledge, skills & preparedness for a meaningful, dignified, satisfying future worthy of a HUMAN being.

http://dinamalar.com/Sambavamnewsdet...2&cls=&ncat=TN

I feel very bad for the child in the picture:-( It's barbaric that she had been allowed to lose eyesight:-(

Sordid state of affairs in a huge country of colossally ignorant, arrogant masses!

I'm reminded of an event that happened when I was in 3rd std.. Oneday when our class students saw a bee-hive in a low bush near our school ground, we decided to take the honey(?) from it. So as a brave man(in front of girls!!), I offered to go and try. No sooner did I reach the bush than a fellow threw a stone at the hive. I was surrounded by bees stinging all around me and even while I'm trying to run they kept following me. My class teacher who happened to come out of the Staff Room saw this and came running towards me. She covered me with her saree and rushed me into the nearby classroom getting herself stung in the process.
Such were the teachers we had then and I feel proud to have had them and am grateful to them.

But now, this poor girl has lost her sight because of her teacher. What a shame !!

Seriously, reminded of a dialogue in an old comedy parodying veerapaNdia kattabomman story referring to Ettappan,"baadaam alwaavum pasai alwaavum orE idaththilE!"

This is probably one of the few occasions when everyone condemns the cruel act - please read the readers' comments under the Dinamalar news report. (One even suggests to remove the teacher's eye and transplant to the child!)

As much anguish it brings to all of us to see the child losing eyesight, it's much worse to think that no lesson is learnt from such incidents to remedy the situation. One of the posts by readers (by a doctor) say that similar loss of eyesight to a student happened earlier also. The culprit died and with him the case as well. What about the future of that child? Very sad:-(