Kids These Days

Friday at 11AM I happened upon a radio news program run by children. It was the normal Liberian news, but the presenters were a couple of 10 year old girls! They read through a complicated story about the strike at the University of Liberia, the controversy over electricity provision, the whole bit. It was really cute when they’d get stuck on a big word and whisper to each other, “How do you say it?” Kids and Youth Today is the name of the program. Talk about youth empowerment!

Then they went into a call-in program on the issue “Should the government put a ban on sexy dressing in public?” The girls were totally against the idea of sexy dressing because they think it causes rape and harassment, and most of the callers seemed to agree. Your editor called in to say that by banning sexy dressing to prevent rape, you are in effect blaming women for the rape. But the girls weren’t hearing it. “Are you saying that we should just let girls go out naked in the street? Someone will rape them!” Heavy sigh.

BTW rape with impunity is a huuuuuuuuge problem here, especially out in the countryside. That’s the issue Mendy works on.