To legalise prostitution or not
Correspondent | Friday September 5, 2014 14:44
This, in our view, is a simplistic approach as it does not consider the deep-rooted spiritual implications of the proposed cause of action. In other words there are dire spiritual consequences for the proposed course of action. It is not our wish, intention nor desire to condemn anyone but to voice our concern and call upon the silent God-fearing majority to wake up to the ploy to send our country to hell on a silver platter. Rather we wonder whether the pro-legalisation proponents have considered issues of godliness, morality and wider implications to the wider Botswana society. Having said this we are not unaware of the extent of the scourge and the associated expenses to try to control it.
There is wide circulating misnomer called “sex work” which in our view tends to sugar-coat and legitimise the unhealthy practice of profaning a human body which the Holy Bible refers to as the “temple of the Holy Spirit”. Whereas some people regard it as work, it is neither work nor has ever been work. Prostitution is instead a deliberate and wilful act on the part of an individual, a human being (a creation of God Almighty), to abuse (abnormal use) their God-given body. It is in this regard that we consider calls for its legalisation inappropriate, flawed, and undesirable and of bad taste. Yes certain individuals, for whatever reasons, choose to indulge in the practice but we consider calls for its legalisation to be misplaced, unfortunate and distasteful.
Let those who want to indulge in the practice do it in the privacy of their homes rather than drag the entire population of Botswana into it. Let each individual decide for themselves what they want to do with their bodies for even God Almighty, powerful and awesome as He is does not impose His will on us His creation. Kana if it were to be legalised, it would be said of our country, “Botswana has legalised” which in our view would be tantamount to forcing the entire nation to accept this distasteful act and render us all to be “partners in crime”. By all means we admit that prostitution exists in Botswana and it poses a big problem when it comes to the spread of HIV/AIDS (as NACA has found out), but is legalisation the solution? We believe not, lest we open a can of worms for all other sorts of undesirables.
One cannot rule out the possibility that if legalised there will be more demands on our social and legal systems in the form of claims for services rendered but not paid for; our already very sick family system (the very fabric of society) is likely to go into intensive care, our already over-stretched police service would be stretched beyond its elasticity, to mention a few. Do proponents of prostitution legalisation know that countries which have legalised it consequently faced a big headache of women and girl child trafficking? Thailand and Germany are perfect examples in this regard.
What we need to do as a nation is devise programmes, ways and means to address the situation. Blanket legalisation of prostitution is not a solution but condemnation of society in the form of moral degradation, condemnation of our women folk to being tools of unscrupulous and selfish men, a good recipe for the devil to overrun our beloved country. Things are bad enough without legalisation, why make them worse? We call upon the government of Botswana not to be bulldozed into succumbing to pressure from neither inside nor outside regardless of the source of the pressure. Let us remember that calls for legalisation emanate from selfish groups which have mobilised and continue to mobilise to capture the world for the forces of darkness using reputable organisations such as the UN and others under the guise of “human rights”.
Those bodies or countries which are trying to push their weight onto smaller nations like ours are pursuing their own agenda best known to themselves. Our culture is our culture, not theirs and vice versa. God forbid that in the future any of our Honourable Members of Parliament should try and push a bill to degrade our women folk by calling for legalisation. We trust that they would all be “Honourable” enough not to dishonour their august office in a way that drags the entire nation into an abyss.
However much we coin politically correct nomenclature to describe it (perhaps to ease our conscience and make it more socially acceptable), prostitution reduces and demeans women’s bodies into mere commodities. What happens to their dignity? Does this get us any closer to achieving the ideals of Vision 2016?
Tefo Oboile Mokaila, Paul John Paul and Divilliers Nage
GABORONE