What about the boys?

 According to a Gleaner report on December 6, 2022, “During the sitting of the Senate last Friday, Opposition Senator Damion Crawford called for the age of consent to be raised from 16 to 18 years old in light of a high number of teen girls leaving school after becoming pregnant.

 The age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is old enough to legally consent to participate in sexual activities.

 During Crawford’s contribution to the State of the Nation Debate, he cited statistics from a World Bank-UNICEF report which outlined that 49 per cent of school-age girls reported being unable to complete their high-school education because of pregnancy.”

 This is indeed troubling and if it takes raising the age of consent to deal with the mis-education of our girls, then I am all for it.

 Yes, young people will experiment with sex at all ages. This reality is older than you and I.

However, if the age of consent is designed to protect vulnerable, immature young girls from being taken advantage of, especially by ole-back pedophiles, I have no quarrel with increasing the age.

 There is a real problem here though, that affects young boys adversely.

This is where teenagers are in a relationship and the boy is only a year or two older than his girlfriend.

When they have sex, it is easy for the boy to become a victim of an intransigent law and earn a conviction for having sex with a minor. For example, if the boy is 17 years old and the girl under sixteen!

He deemed to have committed Statutory Rape!

You see how this is troublesome and unfair, for technically he would be having sex with a minor.

 I have heard of many cases like this where the girl’s parent/parents do not like her boyfriend and demand his conviction!

 So, if we want to make the current debate sensible and relevant, dealing with the age of consent by itself without taking steps to protect young, vulnerable boys as well, is grossly unfair.

 

 

Slavery in Jamaica

Nothing bugs me more than hearing black people in Jamaica  rant about the slavery that was abolished over two hundred years ago, while remaining silent about the black on black slavery that exists in Jamaica today.

These hypocrites are in two categories;  Firstly there are the politicians who recognize that  talk about historical trans-Atlantic slavery  and racism can easily rile up emotions,  so they  often use it as a tool to gain cheap popularity.

Then  there are  the freeloaders who hope to get rich by exacting  a financial  ransom  from the "rich white world" for the evils perpetuated by their ancestors against our ancestors centuries ago, while conveniently ignoring the fact that this type of slavery would not have been possible, had our African ancestors not been collaborators, rounding up  and selling their own black brothers and sisters to the white traders, sometimes for nothing more than a few coloured beads. (So what morality can there be in demanding payment from others without first demanding even  an apology from the descendants of our own African blood relatives? )

If the hypocrisy  of these so-called vocal anti-slavery activists had not been obvious before, it  should clear  be clear by now to even the blind, since these activists have never once expressed moral outrage against the modern day slavery being openly practiced in Jamaica today.

This new slavery is open and in your face as it is practiced in almost  all of the 25 % of the constituencies in this country, those dubbed "garrison constituencies." These garrison constituencies are controlled by either one powerful don or a series of mini-dons, most either actively or surreptitiously supported by the  so-called elected members of parliament , for most of  these members of parliament would never qualify to hold a seat, had they not been supported by the violent dons who direct the people how to vote.

How it works is that the don is the new slave master and those who live in  the area, the slaves.

For example, In certain areas downtown where extortion is a way of life, not only does the don provide the businesses with "security" but staff as well. So when the operator calls him and say they need, for example 3 clerks, he selects the persons then collects money weekly and pays the workers what he feels like and  the idea that  workers have to the right to demand decent working conditions, an hour for lunch, bathroom breaks, vacation leave or even a decent salary,  is nothing but a theory to these people.

This is no secret as some years one newspaper even interviewed some of the persons (mainly women) who worked under these conditions, but naturally they had to remain anonymous. And we know the young boys are trained early to steal and break into people's homes and bring in the returns to the boss. 

Another despicable condition that the new slaves have to put up with in the garrisons  is the practice where when young girls reach puberty, if the don so decides, she has to go to him when he calls, so he can take her virginity.

Many a mother has had to escape from  these garrisons to protect their children AS SHE HAS  GOTTEN  THE DREADED MESSAGE "BATHE DI PICKNEY AND SEN HAR COME"  but  this is something the authorities and power brokers will do nothing about as it suits their political schemes.

To make matters worse, Jamaica has more churches per square miles than any other county, however whereas most of the clergy many centuries ago supported trans-Atlantic slavery, there were a few white pastors who put their lives on the block to try and put a stop to that despicable practice.

HOWEVER, TODAY, OUR BLACK CLERGY SEEMS QUITE HAPPY TO TOLERATE THE NEW TYPE OF SLAVERY WHICH SOME 25% OF OUR POPULATION HAS TO ENDURE, AS LONG AS THE DONS KEEP THEIR COLLECTION PLATES FULL AND OVERFLOWING!

I have for years been speaking out publicly about this despicable modern day slavery as being practiced in  the Jamaican garrisons, but the wider society too has preferred to pretend it does not exist. 

Will anyone pay attention now that the daily "Observer" has again put in on the agenda with the article  entitled Sex For Gun Debt  - Girls forced into prostitution?

(http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Sex-for-gun-debt_13979512#ixzz2P7JtEv1x) 

 I certainly would never hold my breath in expectation, neither would I expect those hypocrites who shout loudly about the despicable conditions under which our ancestors lived  some 200 hundred years ago, to speak up or fight against what is happening under our noses right here, right now in beautiful Jamaica.