TRINI MINDS IN THE GUTTER!!!

OH MY GOD.

I was browsing WordPress blogs (I have quite a few friends who’ve been directing me to their blogs ever since I joined the Blogosphere) and came across a post one of my friends had commented on, entitled “Trinidad tops the world in porn searches”.

Interesting, I thought. Do tell.

Trinidad tops the world in porn-related searches

Trinidad & Tobago, apparently, according to Google, the holy grail of search engines and crunching numbers (all those little bots scattering around in cyberspace), tops the world in porn-related searches.

I kid you not, or as the blogger put under the photo : I shit you not.

So I tried the Google Insights function Beta search myself, filtering it for “2004-present”, then “last 7 days”, “last 30 days”, “last 90 days”, “last 12 months”, “2007″, “2006″, “2005″, “2004″…

When I finally ran out of selectable options, I burst out laughing.

But it’s not funny.

In terms of volume of searches through Google for porn and measured against population, a country with an estimated population of only 1.3 million, a tiny Caribbean island that most of the world never heard of — or perhaps only learnt about after Football World Cup 2006, or 2008 Beijing Olympics — tops the world, repeatedly, in porn-related searches.

…But what do the numbers mean?

This means that a person in Trinidad is more likely than a person anywhere else in the world to be searching Google for porn.

Not that all Trinis are searching for porn, but that the number of porn searches relative to the population is the highest.

(Perhaps several horny teenagers are diligently searching for it every day, causing the numbers to sky-rocket. But let’s assume not.)

Tops the WORLD. Not the Caribbean region, not the English-speaking/Anglophone Caribbean, not the West Indies, not the Lesser Antilles, not the CARICOM countries, not any of those groups we tend to fall under depending on who is broadly sweeping us into their calculations.

We are way ahead of the US (the top producer of porn), the UK (former Daddy Empire: the source of our colonisation), Jamaica (the country that the world broadly thinks signifies all of the Caribbean), South Africa, Kenya, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand… I mean, you name it.

And all of these countries have several times our population, some of them have more than 100 times our population.

Granted, the numbers are measured against population — but percentage-wise, porn is searched for the most in Trinidad.

Funny, yes, but also sad.

We can laugh at the facts for days on end, but it’s a serious thing.

Porn searches = sex crimes?

With Trinidad’s rate of HIV/AIDS infection; the ridiculous lack of sex-education I recall from my childhood (see previous post on SEX, SEX & MORE SEX: TNT & WORLD AIDS DAY 2008); and numerous rape and sex-related crimes being reported every day in the news (let’s not even go into those that AREN’T reported)…

…No, it really isn’t funny.

The reason behind it — well we’d have to do a bit of investigative journalism to find that out.

Maybe the lack of local porn available sends Trinis to the net to look for foreign porn (whilst in other countries it is easier to just pick up a video), maybe there is a research project about porn taking place in Trinidad, maybe young people are using it as a form of sex-education?

One would hope.

And not that porn-searches automatically link to sex-crimes, but you have to admit that these facets of our society do not exist in a vacuum!

3 facts to bear in mind:

• As the Express reported less than a week ago, though Parliament approved the Notification Requirement for Sex Offenders, the law designed to protect the public by publicising the identities and whereabouts through a Sex Offenders Registry remains “inoperable, useless and in urgent need of repair”.
• Trinidad & Tobago’s rate of HIV/AIDS infection is 1.5%, the fourth highest in the region.
• Statistics from the Rape Crisis Society, discussed in an Express article earlier this year in June, indicate that there has been a dramatic increase in (reported) cases of sexual abuse/molestation of children under the age of 15 in 2007.

…Are you still laughing?

I’m not.

SEX, SEX & MORE SEX — TNT & WORLD AIDS DAY 2008

As World Aids Day 2008 draws to a close, the Caribbean’s future with the deadly disease looks none too promising.

According to the UN’s 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, the Caribbean, with 1.1% of the adult population infected, has a higher prevalence of AIDS that any other area of the world except sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2007, stated the UN report, around 20,000 became infected with HIV in the Caribbean, with 14,000 reported AIDS deaths and an estimated 230,000 living with HIV and AIDS.

Trinidad & Tobago’s rate stands at 1.5%, which is the fourth highest in the region after Jamaica at 1.6%, Haiti at 2.2%, and the Bahamas at 3%.

Trinidad: Sex-Ed? What Sex-Ed?

One of the main factors in Trinidad’s high rate is its lack of sexual education.

During my personal experience growing up in Trinidad, I can recall exactly two “sex-education” sessions.

One was in Form 1, when they separated boy and girls into two rooms and talked about periods and (I assume) erections and nocturnal ejaculations to the respective sexes.

I went home with a pack of free sanitary napkins, and no clue about sexual intercourse.

The other was in Form 6, though younger forms were invited – only girls were called to the main Hall over the PA system – where they once more talked about periods and menstrual health.

I went home with a pack of free sanitary napkins, one individually-wrapped tampon, and even less clue about sexual intercourse – though at this point I was 16 years old, which was significantly older than the average rate for being sexually active.

Statistics of sexually-active youth in T&T

A study by the Family Planning Association of Trinidad & Tobago [FPATT] in partnership with Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), quoted in the Trinidad Guardian, indicates that:

· The average age of first sexual intercourse is 14

· 25% of youth have had sex before the age of 12

· 6½% had their first sexual experience by the age of 10

· 75% had sexual intercourse by the age of 16

…And, I reiterate, the only reference to sex that day at my “sex-ed” session when they handed out sanitary supplies was when they told us: “If you are a virgin – which, of course, I know or would hope you all are – then you should not use the tampons with maximum absorbency.”

‘Young People First’ Programme confronts anal & lesbian sex

Thankfully, things seem to be moving forward from that point.

Leading up to World AIDS Day 2008, the South West Regional Health Authority in Trinidad & Tobago sponsored a programme called “Young People First” designed to make young people aware of the dangers of the disease.

As the Trinidad Express reports, the current trend is sexual experimentation from children just entering high school, particularly with anal sex and lesbian sex.

“Young people… believe that by having [anal and lesbian] sex… they would be able to maintain their virginity, not realizing that [it] increases the risk of HIV significantly,” said Oscar Ochoa, director of the Government’s Population Programme at a HIV/AIDS seminar held at Naparima Bowl, San Fernando in South Trinidad last Friday.

“Many claim that by having sex with a female partner they will not contract the AIDS virus neither will they become pregnant,” Ochoa continued, but as he pointed out, sex toys could become the vehicle for contracting the virus.

The social stigma of condoms

The problem is that young people just don’t see themselves vulnerable to the disease.

Wearing condoms is still highly stigmatized throughout the Caribbean.

A CAREC study, discussed by Inter Press Service [IPS], revealed that though 8 out of 10 respondents aged 15-24 in T&T knew that condom use protects against HIV, less than half of the males and approximately half of the young women reported consistent condom use with casual partners.

Religious organisation oppose ‘anti-abstinence’ condom-vending machines to be introduced in T&T

IPS reported in August 2007 that the Trinidad & Tobago government is looking to purchase condom vending machines as an initiative to deal with the HIV/AIDS virus.

However one of the main problems faced by this new initiative is the opposition from several prominent religious organisations.

The respective leaders of the Muslim organisation Anjuman Sunnat-Ul Jamaat Association [ASJA], the main Hindu organisation Sanatan Charma Maha Sabha [SDMS], the Inter-Religious Organisation [IRO], and the Roman Catholic church all indicated that they would not be supporting this venture because it sent conflicting messages to young people who are otherwise encouraged that sex should only take place during marriage.

It remains to be seen whether things will change in the twin isle by the next World Aids Day, but one can only hope that the popular 90s abstinence song chant in Trinidad of “The only safe sex is marital sex… tell us anything else we’ll get vex, vex, vex” will not be the same message our children receive.

SKIN IS MY CANVAS: FROM BOXING CHAMP TO TATTOO ARTIST

“I’ve been drawing since I can remember. Everyone would watch my drawings and say, ‘You should do tattoos’.”

So he did.

Terrence Dominic Lokai is a soft-spoken easy-going type, who looks younger than his twenty-nine years.

His business, Graveyard Tattoo Studio in Barataria, north Trinidad, has been running since 1999.

From drawing to tattooing

“I would do portraits for people and get paid for it… Valentine’s Day drawings, Christmas, Easter drawings. Nobody wanted to hire Rastas at the time so I had to use my drawing skills to get by,” he says.

“My ideas… they come from books, magazines, people’s ideas, from everywhere… from the clouds, sometimes from watching the ground. I see designs in the concrete or a shadow forming in a particular manner… anything that may inspire me to create art.”

Using books, practicing on his own body, and watching other tattoo artists, Terrence began to teach himself how to turn his drawings into inked tattoos.

But tattooing was not his original plan.

From boxing to tattooing

“I turned to tattoos because sports don’t pay in Trinidad,” says the former boxer. He was the Caribbean Boxing Champion for two consecutive years in 2003 and 2004, and national champion three times.

“I was supposed to go to the Olympics, this one in 2008 and the one before as well… but the government funding was very, very poor. The money was half what I was getting at my job. I ‘blanked’ them.

“Eventually I stopped boxing. There’s too much corruption in it. And as champion you get publicity and personal enjoyment… that’s about it. I have 12 medals, three trophies and a belt, but not much money. Just last night I was thinking about going back into boxing, but there’s nothing to gain from it in Trinidad.”

Retribalisation through tattooing

The tattoo artform, on the other hand, is rapidly gaining popularity in Trinidad, and he is cashing in on it.

“I charge anywhere from $250 to $8000, depending on the size, detail and colour,” he says. “I do have competition, though – my cousin Jerel Wilson, Sinful Skin in St. James, Monster Ink Tattoos in Barataria. Everyone’s getting in on it because the artform is getting bigger and bigger here.

“People are following trends, imitating U.S. hiphop culture, and tribal cultures – global tribes: Samoan, Aztec, Mayan, and so on. Sometimes it’s a religious symbol, some people do it for love.

“Sometimes it’s just a fashion statement… others, they want to wear the mark of where they belong. They want to belong somewhere.”

Looking to the future

And the reason behind his own tattoos?

“For advertisement,” he replies with a grin. “I have 15 at the moment… and counting. My favourite is on my stomach, it is a face mask minus the eyes. I plan to do one on my face soon.”

With his career as a tattoo artist taking off, the former boxing champ looks back on his sports career with semi-detached affection.

“I’ve not given up sports altogether, just yet. I want to combine the two elements of myself. Ideally I want to open a half-sports bar, half-tattoo studio – hopefully sometime within the next year… finances allowing.”