1 December, 2007

Since the PLP has been in power there has been a definite regressive turn in its social tone of voice.

The "Customs Traveler Declaration" for example asks incoming travelers to declare whether or not they have "obscene articles (e.g. film, tape, book, picture, CD, DVD)."

This seems to me to be puritanical, old maidish and ridiculous given that everywhere in the world from which our visitors may arrive has readily available pornographic material in stores that specialize in such matter. It uses the word "obscene" rather than pornographic. This obscures any clarity of meaning since the definition of obscenity varies from place to place and country to country. No clear local definition is offered and probably doesn¹t even exist. I, for example, regard Ewart Brown as obscene, but he comes and goes through Customs without let or hindrance.

I have long since learned that pornography is almost always both boring and repetitive. However I decided to see what was available in the way of pornography on the Internet to see if there was any point whatever in this rather embarrassing question asked of our visitors. There is none. As far as I could see after a few minutes of surfing the web, there is enough pornography available on the Internet to keep the most dedicated addict going indefinitely.

This pointless question in our customs declaration merely makes us look like a ridiculous, fussy, ignorant country dominated by extreme right wing religious bigots. Maybe Ewart Brown¹s nasty little campaign manager had something to do with it. If we want to "feel the love", maybe we should stop making our visitors feel the hate.

JUVENAL

City of Hamilton