National Drug Strategy survey concerning child sex abuse. It may be that there was a certain insensitivity in the way the questions were asked but there is really no diplomatic way to approach such a harsh subject. Those who suggested that there should have been a column for those who never engage in abuse only mask the fact of abuse.

The questions are valid, especially for a drugs strategy survey. It is no secret that drug abuse, including alcohol abuse, is often accompanied by other forms of abuse, be that abuse verbal, physical or sexual. If the National Drug Strategy is to come up with any kind of drug programme for Bermuda that programme needs to be based on valid information. Some of the information will be unpleasant in that no-one enjoys dealing with sexual abuse on children but the information will be helpful.

It is important for Bermuda to know how drugs, and that includes Bermuda's number one problem of alcohol, affect the family, so questions about child abuse of any kind are valid. To refuse to answer the questions because they are unpleasant is simply to refuse a solution to abused children.

It seems to us that those people who pronounced the survey "disgusting''and "outrageous'' live in an unreal world. The reality is that child abuse does exist in all its forms, including incest, and that the National Drug Strategy might just be able to suggest some solutions. Incest is the deepest of family secrets, often denied, but condoned by other family members. There is no need for the public to contribute to that denial. To "throw the copies in the trash'' or to "rip up the survey in disgust'' is to condemn victims to future abuse and to deny them the hope of any solutions. It is hard to believe that people are so selfish that they would deny children help simply to protect themselves from unpleasant questions.

If the survey is not completed honestly and we go away dumb and complacent, thinking that Bermuda is unique in its freedom from incest and sexual child abuse then we are fools.

This newspaper has to remember that it was the first to warn about marijuana abuse in Bermuda. It was held up to ridicule. It was roundly criticised in Parliament and called alarmist and even un-Bermudian. The public was assured that nothing like that could ever happen in Bermuda and that there was no problem. Thus any chance of doing something about drug abuse in the very early days was lost because the public was misled and fed unreality. We should remember that fact when we consider abuse on children.

Any number of public figures in the United States from Oprah Winfrey to Roseanne Barr have announced publicly that they were abused children. Surely there cannot be people who think Bermuda is any different. Surely there cannot still be people who think that if we hide problems they will go away. Denial of reality only appears to be a solution to tough problems and sometimes denial indicates a cover-up.

Surely there are no serious people in Bermuda who think that we should proceed towards a drug strategy without proper information. We had hoped that the days of the ostrich were over.