Soundprint_news_09-00019: The Darker Side of Romance/ Death Diminishes Me

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The Darker Side of Romance
Having a boyfriend or a girlfriend is the dream of teenagers everywhere but, in Britain there’s a bleak side to the story. The UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe, and there’s been a steady rise in Sexually Transmitted Infections amongst young people. Although having sex is illegal under the age of 16, increasing numbers of young people are sexually active. Producer Esther Armah of the BBC visits a unique drop-in centre, that offers young people the chance to discuss sex and emotional problems, and gives them the means to protect themselves. We hear from teenagers in Britain today about the mixed messages they are getting and their concern that they are not getting enough sex education in schools. This program airs as part of our special international collaboration, Global Perspectives: Romance Series.

Death Diminishes Me
When John Donne hopefully asserted that no man is an island, he couldn’t have foreseen the agony of isolation suffered by those living with the HIV virus. Add guilt, abandonment, memory, anger and the wearing effects of a serious illness, and the sufferer can feel less like an island, and more like an abandoned leper colony . In Death Diminishes Me, six New Zealand men who have been HIV positive for more than 20 years and lost both lovers and friends to the disease are now isolated by the same things that connect them - infection, guilt, loss and hope.