cpols

i work in an ngo that works in the field of hiv/aids. when we want to change a community’s behaviour, we use a form of intervention wherein we recruit people called community popular opinion leaders. (of course like little children we get a cheap thrill by complicatedly calling it “CPOL” - one more addition to our list of senseless jargon). anyway. these cpols are simply prominent individuals whose words carry some weight with the community. the cpols take up the burden of helping the community adopt safer behaviour styles and evolve different responses to situations etc etc.

around 2 days back, i read on one of the hiv-related sites (theres a standard bunch i keep running through) that the un or some body like that, wanted to extend the concept to children. they wanted to recruit child cpols.

i felt so so sad reading that. what a complete failure of the adults, that such young shoulders must bear such burdens.... i thought it was sad that youngsters in college, barely getting to know the world, are now required to hastily learn its dirty aspects to fight it... i thought they were being cheated of the joy of life, of youth. what are we doing to the children then? how many generations of adults must have screwed up for the system to fail so completely?

we are cheating our children. not only are we bringing them into a horrible ugly world, we are also leaving the task of cleaning it up to them. we are all guilty as long as we refuse to acknowledge what is happening around us, as long as we claim the priveleges of adulthood without also taking on its responsibilities. the scathing things that roszak says about the way we have treated the concept of adulthood seem so true and relevant. nothings changed in 40 years. hopeless hopeless system.

anyway, speaking of system failure, the fact there are now ngos is in itself another sign of failure : the government and socioeconomic structures that dont do their job will not be thrown out for their incompetence. instead, we will pour out millions to keep them alive and turn to miniscule freelancers instead, and expect them to achieve with their piddly resources what the people trusted the government to do. what absolute nonsense. the concept of the ngo is such a pathetic one.... the ultimate aim of most ngos would be to work towards the day when they are no longer needed.... and who would ever do that? how would we tap into millions of dollars and line our pockets then? of course we would always carefully work below par! why should we kill ourselves? the government is simply looting, we will at least serve and loot. pathetic society that we are, this is our idea of providing an alternative. i wonder whom were fooling.

system failure