At the mercy of decent criminals
Published: Sunday | February 8, 2009
Glenda Simms, Contributor
At this pivotal time in Jamaica's history, the silence of women's voices is deafening. The established pattern of women's activism for social justice and human rights in this nation state seems to have peaked in the 1970s, when the majority of progressive legislation struggled against all odds, and is now reflected in the legal framework, which sometimes attempts to ensure justice to individual women and girls.
Since the heady days of the 1970s, the self-proclaimed middle-class feminists/'womanists' and their followers appear to have carved out their niche and secured their small shares of the patriarchal pie. They are now middle aged, still middle class, and gradually getting fat and contented.
Their institutions and social groupings which collectively formed what was mistakenly called 'the women's movement' are at this time either moth-balled or redundant.
A few, such as the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre, Women's Media Watch, The Women's Centre Foundation and the Crisis Centre, are examples of the struggling forces that against the anti-feminist backlash, continue to carve out their sphere of influence in limited ways.
With the exception of the Women's Centre Foundation, which is funded by the public purse, all of the other courageous efforts are left up to non-governmental organisations, which are Kingston-centred. The vast majority of rural women remain secluded from the grand designs and rhetoric of all those who profess to be warriors in defence of the human rights of women and girls.
Missed chances
I draw my readers' attention to this sad state of affairs because too many opportunities to stand up against the reactionary patriarchal forces in the Jamaican society are being missed by the women of our times.
The most recent of these reactionary forces was evidenced in the gut-wrenching and bloodthirsty passionate call for the hanging of those convicted of murder (guilty in reality or not).
The voices of women were deafeningly silent in this debate. Personally, I fully expected that a group of women from the grass-roots and inner-city communities would point out that the only criminals that will be hanged now and in the future will be poor, black men. By now, they should know that these are the majority of those who swung from the gallows or squirmed in the electric chairs of the jurisdictions that retain capital punishment in the great democracy of the north - the United States of America (USA).
'Eye-for-an-eye'
Taking a stance against 'eye-for-an-eye' theology is not backward. It is probably inherently Christian and since women continue to populate the pews of the modern-day Church, they should speak out more forcefully on these issues and ensure that when the final decisions on important national issues are penned, their point of view is reflected.
Hindsight is 20/20 vision. We now come to another chapter in the knee-jerk and reactive predisposition of the patriarchs of both Church and State. They are now calling for the free flow of guns and ammunition so that so-called 'decent law-abiding citizens' can defend themselves against the murderers, robbers and thieves who are daily making hell of our lives.
It is at this time that Jamaican women need to stand up against the seductive arguments designed to turn our island into an armed camp. Why? Because women's lives will be more at risk when more guns are in the society.
This fact is validated by a 2005 publication written and sponsored by Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms and Oxfam International.
In this well-researched and clearly written document, the following findings were underscored:
It is well known that some of those defined within the broad brush of 'decent and law-abiding' are older men, dressed in jacket and tie, who drive high-priced SUVs, but who habitually commit the crime of carnal abuse because they are known to have an appetite for young girls below age 16.
Are some of these 'law-abiding citizens' in the pulpits raining down brimstone and fire on congregations of poor women, children and the few hapless men who feel obliged to accompany their wives to church?
Do they include the 74 per cent of the citizens who, according to Gleaner reporter Keisha Hill, drive "under the influence" of alcohol? Are these also law-abiding drunk drivers? Should they also have guns?
Let's get real sisters! It is the so-called decent, law-abiding citizens in suits who, through their greed, self-aggrandisement, deceit and plain dishonesty caused the meltdown that has ricocheted from Wall Street in New York to New Kingston in Jamaica.
Calculated dishonesty
Collin Greenland, a contributor to the February 1 edition of The Gleaner, enlightened his readers on the calculated dishonesty of societally defined decent men who, in an organised, deliberate model, conned unassuming citizens into investing their hard-earned cash in Ponzi schemes. Greenland reminds us that Charles Ponzi, the originator of such schemes, was described by fraud examiners as "one of the world's worst 10 Frankenstein's of Fraud". These men purportedly were regarded, according to Greenland, as "the worst monsters of 20th-century capitalism".
Today, in the 21st century, those who continue in the Charles Ponzi tradition are definitely in the ranks of 'decent law-abiding citizens'. Here in Jamaica, these are the men and women whose lifestyles and pronouncements fill the social pages of the local media.
In a real sense, these are the men and women who personify those who should automatically have access to firearms to protect themselves against the thieves, rascals, murderers, rapists, paedophiles and other scum types who, in the collective Jamaica consciousness, "inhabit the inner cities, the deep rural hillsides and in other questionable environments".
Among those who now own firearms are members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force; the Jamaica Defence Force; the chief executive officers of private-sector companies; many private security officers who protect the cooperate sector, public institutions and private homes; the highly publicised unseen, unknown brokers in the Haiti-to-Jamaica drug-for-guns schemes; the unknown recipients of the barrels and containers of guns and other ammunition hidden in legitimate merchandise; the skilled gun makers who produce the home-made weapons that are found by the security forces on a regular basis; the citizens of fine reputation who buy their gun licence from unscrupulous individuals who have the authority to circumvent the regular legal process of access to firearms; and the cache of guns to which far too many poor young men look for a validation of their manhood.
Armed camp
In short, the Jamaican society is already an armed camp and the definition of decent law-abiding citizens would apply overwhelmingly to women and children.
It is, therefore, important that women raise their voices and present their opinions on this very important issue of gun control in the Jamaican society.
In Jamaica, women's human rights will continue to be undermined unless women are prepared to return to the drawing board and reinvent their historical struggle to deal with the new manifestations of patriarchal values disguised as efforts at social justice.
Dr Glenda P. Simms is a consultant on gender issues.
