The internets were alive this morning with the news that Sri Lanka was about to drop its age of consent from 16 to 13 (thanks Enivhsay):
government spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva, who is also the minister of health, told a weekly Cabinet briefing on Friday that the government was planning to lower the age of consent. He gave no reason, but said the proposal was approved “after much debate and a long review.” [link]
Ah, yes. Debate and review. Ve have heard the words, but the meaning is escaping us still. However, in a startling turnaround of events:
The government reversed its decision after a flurry of telephone calls from incensed citizens following the announcement, The Sunday Island newspaper said.
“There is no proposal, whatsoever, to reduce that to 13 or to any other age,” it quoted Dhara Wijayatillake, a secretary in the Ministry of Justice, as saying Saturday. [link]
Que rapido!! When did the Sri Lankan government start pay attention to “incensed citizens”? Did I miss something important during my time here in Amrika?
The Minister [Justice Minister John Senevirathne] said that the government is concerned of the increased number of young men detained in remand prisons as a result of sexual encounters with their girlfriends.
He said: “Many girls are requesting to release them saying the encounter happened with their consent.” [link]
Holy Mammajamma! I’ve missed so much!! Here I was, happily warbling away my speculative fantasies that Sri Lanka may be one of the more progressive South Asian countries…but this much? When I was a wee kella (er, ladki. Indocentric, what?) sex did not exist, no one had ever heard of it, and even if those damn suddhas (goras) couldn’t keep in in their pants, that was still no reason why we Sri lankans couldn’t quietly continue asexually budding. Encounter, bencounter! Sekshuval is a vestern invention, no?
So vat the bluddy hell is going on?
Women activists fear that amendment to the penal code 363 to bring down the age of consent of a girl to have a sexual relationship from 16 years to 13 will help many rapists whose pending cases will be dismissed.
They urged the Government to desist from bringing this law with retrospective effect as it could lead to dismissal of many pending rape cases which include certain politicians.
They were citing an example that UNP Western Provincial Councillor Duminda Silva’s rape case could be dismissed under this amendment if the amendment is with retrospective effect.
When asked whether pending rape cases will be dismissed with the new amendment, the Minister said that the Attorney General will have to decide that not him. [link]
Anney Machang! (Arey Machaa!) It becomming very crystal clear now, isn’t it?
Well, yes. But there is also this:
Tens of thousands of children are left behind to be cared for by extended families by Sri Lankan mothers who seek employment abroad, often resulting in inadequate supervision and guidance in their upbringing.
The government says 64.5 percent of the 1.3 million Sri Lankans employed abroad are women. [link]
And this:
This section in the Penal Code was amended in 1995 increasing the minimum age of consent from 12 years to 16 years.[link]
So back in 1995, the age of consent was TWELVE. Of course, many other countries have similar age limits. The link will take you to a table of worldwide ages of consent.
But given Sri Lanka’s notorious reputation for a child sex industry:
The first scientific study on the scale of child sexual abuse in Sri Lanka has concluded that 100 young people are sexually exploited or abused every day on the island…boys were mostly aged between eight and 15 …most foreigh paedophiles came from western Europe but pointed out the involvement of local agents and pimps….
In addition, the report looked at sexual abuse within the family or community and interviewed 100 victims, nearly all of them girls.
They found that many of them had one parent, usually the mother who was working abroad, and the victims were easy prey because they were unsupervised.
Wouldn’t it be a far better thing to legislate laws that will help women find work in the country? Despite the tsunami, the economy is “booming,” according to the IMF. Wouldn’t lowering the age of consent just make life a whole lot easier for paedophiles? Does tourist money mean that much?
But, of course, trust the goverment to place the cart before the horse, and pull a string for a political crony, all in one fell swoop.
It’s energizing to see that public outcry actually accomplished something. Maybe we’ll be less shy about screaming next time.
I know international law has long been perceived as being notoriously toothless, but I think age of consent is likely accounted for in some treaty, or if not, then by custom. Given that a foreseen consequence of this is rampant pedophilia (at least one gets that impression after reading your post), there would certainly be sanctions taken against a country that legislatively sanctions such a lowering in age. That is to say, you would have to be pretty dumb to do something like that, as per your title. If in fact this was even being consideredÂ…well, thatÂ’s just shocking to state the obvious. I hope the Ministry of Justice lawyers wrote a particularly condescending memo to whoever came up with the sickening scheme.
cicatrix,
why don’t you do blog on maltreatment of sri lankan/ south indian/ bangladesh female domestic workers in middle east.
kush
Related post #3 is an excellent post on maid abuse in the Middle East. I haven’t heard of a story (there are probably tons..I should look harder) recently, but if y’all are interested, I’ll get right on it.
Ado cicatrix more kaththa bout this here …:)
Bohoma sthuthi, ivap. Did she just start that blog last week? She’s off to one hell of a great start if so! And I’m so glad you’re reading Sepia…I’ve been waiting for a reason to call someone machang for months 😉
Aren’t you mixing languages there ? Shouldn’t it technically be Dey Machaa[n] (or Arey Baba) 🙂
I thought Machaa (or Machaa[n]) meant guy or dude or something similar in Hindi…?
“anney machang” is like saying “hey, Dude” ..well, “anney” can mean anything, depending on the context just like “arey”…it can mean hey/whatever/please/stfu/look here/be quiet/etc..
“baba” means baby in sinhala…so..huh?
anney, ashviiiinnn…you’re confusing meeeeee….
Yes, “Machaan” is the equivalent of dude — in tamil (It literally means brother-in-law). But its usage has spread and I was pleasantly surprised to hear north indians use it. Does machang literally mean b-i-l also in sinhala?
And “Arey”, afaik, is hindi-derived. But then again people in the south are aware of it, and use it. (And “baba” is kinda like dude — but not really)
I should really stop nitpicking and talking about things I know little about and should concentrate on the content of the posts.
Well machangs,
I’m not up-to-date on the etymology of the word but I believe its literal meaning in singhalese is b-i-l too. It has been co-opted by pop-culture now and is used to symbolise mateship.
I guess “dude” or “mate”, if you are in oz, are the equivalents. Though I wonder about “my homie” …
cicatrix : aney, don’t confuse that mole
Did she just start that blog last week?
Yeah, ashanthi is new to the blogsphere and does not hold back. She’s been posting at nittewa for a while.
…reading Sepia…
Came across you guys thanks to ananthan. I’m not into the whole desi culture thing, I think I missed it by a few years. Good stuff, keep it up. Did you know that they also call themselves curries over here in Oz?
g’night
PS. recommend checking out kottu in case you haven’t come across it.
You Americans need to get out more. The age of consent in many countries is lower than in America. For example, in Spain it is 13 (it was 12 until 1999). It is also 13 in Japan and South Korea. There are legitimate arguments for and against lowering the age of consent in Sri Lanka, but dismissing it as South Asian barbarism is just plain ignorance.
Au contraire mon frere. It would be fine and dandy if these were precocious tykes playing ‘doctor’ under the jambu trees…..but unfortunately, it’s almost always a sunburnt NAMBLA member telling easily-paid-off cops that little Dinesh is just happy from all the cotton candy his new friend bought for him.
Or some girl gets hitched to a potbellied old goat by her ignorant/mercenary parents as soon as she gets her first menses.
Maybe some 15 yr old girls ARE daring enough these days to hit the sack with a 22yr old boyfriend. But that would be illegal in Amrika too, wouldn’t it? And if the SL law is so draconian to those poor sexually satiated men, then wouldn’t the more logical thing be to reduce the penalty in cases of sworn consent?
Bah. Something smells fishy in Sri Jayawardanapura…
ivap! anney ballanna ko!!! I had NO idea that this many SL bloggers existed out there! Kottu is fantastic! (watch sepia lose readers as my posts become ALLSLALLTHETIME.)
Curries, eh? I have some family in Oz, distant second cousins once removed or some such. Did meet some Ozzie lankans recently, and it was weird…they seem to have developed some rather, um, discriminatory attitudes towards black people and “immigrants” and such. (I mean, DUDE. wtf!!) My mom reported that one of her most feminist-y school friends who moved there is an ardent Bush supporter now. This is all just anecdotal…I’m not tryin’ to hate on the AustriLankans. But can someone please clue me in here?
BTW – I don’t have regular correspondance with SLers who write sinhala words out in English. So at first you actually did confuse my mole because I read it as one syllable…you don’t want me to confuse my rodent? what? 😀
ivap or cicatrix : Another tangential question — so mole (mo-lay ?) is singhalese for daughter? like in malayalam ?
It’s sinhalese for brain, Ashvin 🙂
Or head, really. not very specific as far as I know. pronounced mo-lay, exactly.
Daughter is dhuva.
I like these language lessons! One word can mean so many different things…so now I can say “how’s your mo-lay doing, Mrs.Venkaterananthunapilli? Has she found a nice boy yet?” to all the Mallu aunties I meet!!
(I keed! I keed! If y’all knew my jaw-breaker of a last name, you’d know I tease with much lowe.)
darn.. i was just going to suggest that this so-called “language” of yours sounds suspiciously like a hybrid dialect of malayalam and tamil. … 🙂 [i keed, i keed]
yeah.. it’s lovely to hear cricket commentators stumble over sri-lankan last names.
Ooops, molay definitely sounds better. I must have been phonetically trippin. Apo, using mole could end up leading to beaver like connotationsÂ…cheeya!!!
WTF? not as far as I know. Don’t hang around the community much but I donÂ’t know where it’s coming from. We don’t get many black (africanish) people out here but this is a first for me. Possible too much COPS on late night TV.
As for immigrants and the RWDB lovefest, me thinks there is a simpler sociological explanation for this (from the ivap school of thought). They are discovering pleasures / benefits of “real” economics.
Here is my take. I suspect that most of the older migrants have payed off their mortgages and have more disposable capital as kids grow older and move out. This allows them to upsize houses, do designer clothes and invest that extra dough and generally be latte sipping, chardonnay drinking, investment owning middle-classes . This effect coupled with the unparalleled growth of the Australian economy over the last decade may be making “left-to-right” converts of many migrants. As any good convert they may be gulping down the negative messages about migrants and terrorism put out by our dubya loving RWDB government (Liberal Party).
If this sounds like pooo then beat me down .
ashvin – there is a lot of influence.
Argh….didn’t mean to bold out the whole comment to ashvin.
eekay! we don’t talk about those things here! Sekshuval dheval is for the suddhos, remember? 😉
You may be right. I don’t know much about Australian politics, I’m embarassed to say. Harime laj-jiy. But do they really disassociate themselves from “immigrants”? I mean, isn’t their presence obviously that of immigrants also? I would’ve thought this was a no brainer…
meh, machang monava saying are you? loagic apita don’t know.
Aney don’t blush nangi..;)