http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070401/focus/focus2.html
Published: Sunday | April 1, 2007

A beautiful young lady with a stream of suitors seeking her hand in marriage rejects them all and 'breeds' for a womanising scoundrel. It's a scenario we see repeated regularly in this country, and you can only shake your head.

It's the story of Jamaica writ small. This gorgeous country enchants almost everyone who steps on its shores. With our abundant talent and resources there's no reason we couldn't be as advanced as, say, Singapore or Barbados. But voters here keep rejecting 'invest-wisely-for-the-long-term' pragmatists in favour of 'if-it-feels-good-let's-borrow-and-do-it-now' populists. With the inevitable results of massive debt, crumbling infrastructure, and a shoddy education system that stifles economic growth.

Life goes on one way or another. And the young lady who 'did it all for the glory of love' will have her child and get on with her affairs. Just as poor, underdeveloped Jamaica struggles along.

There's no guaranteed path to happiness. But marrying someone who loves you is generally a preferable situation to getting pregnant for a 'notch on the bedpost' trophy hunter with 'other commitments'. And well-educated, high per capita GDP countries are usually more content than those with potholed roads and world leading murder rates.

Brief excitement but predictable down the road misery, or disciplined and orderly long-term prosperity? In an open and democratic society, the choice is ours. But we must lie in the bed we make. Those who give their favours or ballots away for nothing can hardly expect anything in return. Yet, women who spurn earnest suitors for dashing Casanovas grumble that 'all man wutless'. While voters who reject serious policy detailers for 'skin teeth' quick fix promisers complain how 'politicians mash up the country'.

Simple creatures

And Jamaican men and politicians? Well, whatever their failings, these are simple creatures. All men want it as much and as often as possible. All politicians want is to be voted into power. There are probably lots of decent 'one-woman-at-heart' men and honest 'I-want-to-tell-the-truth' politicians out there. But nice guys in Jamaica get screwed, or rather they don't. While straight shooting, say-it-like-it-is candidates become the Opposition. So hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get what a man wants.

Some caveats. I have six sisters and a daughter and am in no way anti-woman. Furthermore, all generalities are exaggerations. Not every Jamaican woman and voter makes foolish unthinking choices. Not all Jamaican men and politicians are rogues. But 85 per cent of Jamaican children are born out of wedlock. While the Prime Minister who presided over our sharpest GDP decline is by far our most popular ever. Could purely rational considerations produce such scenarios?

I remember a few years back hearing a bright-eyed and bushy tailed NDM candidate tell me eagerly how his party was going to educate people about constitutional change and transform the Jamaican political system. A few months later when the NDM had not got even five per cent of the vote - despite all the talk about people wanting a real choice other than PNP or JLP - he bitterly turned his back on politics.

"Imagine how much time and effort and money I spend travelling up and down my constituency telling people how this is a new and different start for the country and hearing all the crowds cheer me on. And then one week before the election the PNP and JLP candidates just turn up and throw a curry goat feast and shout 'Power!' and 'Shower!' and everyone run go vote for them! Me done with this working to build a new Jamaica thing! I spending my time from now on making money for myself!"

Undying devotion

No doubt it's the same emotion a gentleman who has been showering his beloved with roses and chocolates and promises of undying devotion feels when he hears his sweetheart has a belly for some ten baby mothers Joe Grind. "If a dog them want, well a dog we might as well give them!'

Most men see society as primarily a female construct. For males are deep down motivated by only one thing. And since women control 100 per cent of this strongest force known to man, they set the bar.

But not, says a friend, for males who have more than one in the mix. He claims ole dawgs are merely men who have learnt to dilute what Lady Saw calls 'the power of pum' - which is why they are so devastating to women. Unfortunately, he laments, only a few have the cold willpower a true swordsman needs.

So it's no accident that in every democratic society women live longer and are more educated, while the prisons are full of men. Men may earn more money, but it's women who spend most of it. Whatever females want, they eventually get. Including supreme political power, if they so choose.

What Jamaican women want is another question. Sure, most claim to want decent, loving, family-oriented men. Yet every single Jamaican male I have ever met without exception maintains that Jamaican women don't like men who treat them too nice. In their experience telling a woman 'Baby, I love you and you are the only girl for me' usually gets you branded as 'soft' and rejected for a hardcore real man who don't 'pet and powder'.

The deeds of our women in the public sphere don't match their words either. They talk a lot about crime and family and children. But the woman organised anti-crime march a few years back drew less than 200. While our first ever female 'woman time now' Prime Ministerhas not exactly pushed a raft of family strengthening and child protecting legislation through Parliament.

Registered fathers

In Chile the law gives women the power to put the father's name on a child's birth certificate even without his permission, with disagreements being settled by court-ordered DNA tests. Yet, no Jamaican woman's group has shown any interest in such a measure. Apparently, our females are quite content with less than half of Jamaican children having registered fathers.

Similarly, we could crack down on underage pregnancy with mandatory reporting, mandatory DNA testing of any suspected fathers, and mandatory sentencing of any adult over 18 guilty of such an act. Both social workers and police tell me such laws could drastically reduce the number of girls under 16 getting pregnant. But again, women here seem to feel underage pregnancy is no big deal.

Yet, supposed women's advocates promote ridiculous laws that would allow women to be charged for raping men. As if any man can have sex without an erection, which is palpable proof of sexual desire and hence consent. Why do our legislators waste time on nonsensical notions that have zero public support?

Yes, men vote too. But any man of means in this country - and the entry barrier seems to be driving a taxi - can have an unlimited number of sexual partners of any age he wishes. Foreign male visitors marvel at this almost ideal 'as much and as often as possible' set-up. And why should Jamaican males want t in any way the system that makes this possible?

So any transformation of Jamaica will have to be carried out by its women. Who are forging ahead educationally, outperforming males at every level from primary school to university. Maybe it's just a matter of time before they learn to start demanding something in return?