Recently, I bumped into an old classmate from college who
shared somewhat shocking news. According
to him, Bacolod City is the 2nd most promiscuous city in the
Philippines, next only to Manila. I was
like, no, that can’t be true! But as this old classmate of mine is in the
business of selling condoms and pills, and his company sells about 164,000
pieces of rubber in the city every month on average, then there must be some
truth in his seemingly controversial statement.
164,000 pieces of condoms sold in the entire city for a month translates
to roughly 5,467 condoms a day! I cannot even begin to imagine how large an
area this number can occupy, but for sure, that is a lot of rubber finding
their way to the city’s garbage dumps indeed!
If condoms and pills can stop our population from ballooning
out of control, I am all for it. But I am a bit worried though about the impact
of used condoms to the environment. 5,467 condoms a day in Bacolod alone, what
about other cities? Manila? Cebu? Davao? How about the rest of the world? Those will have to go somewhere! And since
latex is non-biodegradable, they will stay for a really long time in the
environment.
I really hope somebody comes up with biodegradable latex
that will do the job properly (strong and will not tear) but at the same time,
degrade as soon as it comes in contact with the soil. Whoever can invent this
will become a very rich man---a biodegradable condom is even worthy of a Nobel
Peace Prize, don’t you think? Its
hitting two birds with one stone—keeping the human population down without
damaging the earth. Heck, if there is
such a publicly traded company who produces biodegradable condoms now, I would
be among the first to buy stocks!
But until that time comes, then we will have to stick to
what we have. Heck, we have to promote it to more people actually. Allow me to
do some pencil pushing here. Based
on 2007 stats from the Philippines
National Statistical Coordinating Board (NSCB), there are 499,497 people in Bacolod. If the average annual population growth is
2%, that figure should be roughly 540,671
in 2011. The average number of condoms used daily in Bacolod in 2011 is about 10% of the population
figure. Assuming that the condoms bought
were used immediately, and that majority of young people prefer to use it over
pills, then this figure is really low.
If the number of registered voters (18 years and older) for 2010 is 259,786 (NSCB data), and even if 1/3 of these
are single, (and therefore sexually active outside of marriage) then there is
still a huge gap in the number of people who should be using condoms. No wonder there is a lot of teenage
pregnancy going on in these parts!
My old college friend also mentioned that most of their
programs are targeted towards increased use of condoms among young people,
which I think is a worthy thing.
However, I was surprised when he mentioned that they have to go all the
way to the top management of multinational BPO companies just so that the sex
education program can lift off from the ground, because apparently, the local
managers are saying that they are conservative organizations. Oh common!!!!
Denial will only worsen the problem, not solve it. The same comment goes out to our DepEd. Denying sex education to our young people
will not lessen the incidence of teenage pregnancies or pre-marital sex among
young people—it will only make them ignorant of the basics and thus make them
more vulnerable to the dangers of unprotected sex.
I remember back in high school, we were made to watch a film
of a woman giving birth. Literally. Seeing the baby emerge from an small hole that became impossibly wider and
wider. All of the girls in my class were
screaming as silently as we could manage—OMG! OMG! I will never have kids!
EWWWWW!!! All of the boys were squirming in their seats as well and I am quite sure they were shocked too. Giving
birth to a baby is not at all romantic—and it is what will happen when you have
sex. Our teacher explained everything in a logical, matter of fact way. If you
don’t want to get pregnant and go through this, do not have sex. And this is
probably why none of my high school classmates ever got pregnant—during high
school at least. Fast forward to 2011,
and pregnant high school girls are an everyday thing. Our teachers then must have been doing
something right back then.
So, to my high school teacher who showed us that gross, eye
opening video, thank you. Thank you for instilling in our young minds that the
ultimate goal of sex is to have a baby.
Thank you for not lecturing to us instead that we should not engage in
sex because it is a sin in the eyes of God, even though we are a sectarian
school, and we knew that already anyhow. Thank you for logically explaining to
us the wonderful ways of how human beings came to be. I would not have been a
biologist if not for that. May future educators be as enlightened and as
effective as you were. And I hope that in the near future, some bright kid will
come up with the formula for biodegradable latex and get that Nobel Prize.
Really, it will be one of the best things that humans can ever invent. J
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