Time longer than rope : Adams and Orane

Despite the efforts of the Commissioner of the Police to satisfy both Adams fans and human rights groups, the poor Commissioner was still forced to dodge bricks and bile as Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams went back to work on Monday.

Adams will have a desk job gathering intelligence and will report directly to Commissioner Lucius Thomas. He has NOT been sidelined. He IS under manners. Short of sending him to Iraq, I think the Commissioner’s decision is the right one, and the Commissioner has shown once again that he is far smarter and far more open to advice than anyone is giving him credit for.

Adams will not have the chance to shoot people down on the street or in their homes. He will have a chance to use his experience and skills (whatever those may be).

Meanwhile the U.S. and Canadian governments have shown exactly what they think of the Jamaican justice system by withdrawing, forthwith, the U.S. visas of all those policemen NOT convicted in the murders of 4 people at Crawle/Kraal in Clarendon. And Mrs. Reneto Adams has been advised that she is NOT welcome in Canada and her visa has been revoked……. Wonder what would happen if any of these not-convicted-at-Crawle policemen try to visit the United Kingdom, home of DCP Mark Shields and his colleagues from Scotland Yard…….

Cat among the pigeons section

Following in the footsteps of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (which stunned the chattering classes by giving unqualified support to Justice Sykes decision to halt construction on the Bahia Principe hotel at Pear Tree Bottom), Douglas Orane of Grace Kennedy has blamed the falloff in earnings at Grace’s Hardware and Lumber subsidiary on the police locking up all the drug dealers !!!

According to Orane, construction is one of the main methods of money laundering in Jamaica. Apparently, newly rich drug barons fling up palaces, shopping centres and townhouse developments as a means of washing their ill-gotten gains. And while doing so they also contribute to the profit margins of hardware dealers, block makers, cement distributors etc.

This may be news to you, if you are one of the two or three Jamaicans that have been puzzled by the presence of huge mansions in such local metropolises as Back-a-bush, Clarendon or in Behind-Cow, Trelawny….Yes, gentle reader, these big houses were built with dirty, dirty money and often with hardware from Grace Kennedy !!

While Douglas Orane’s candor can only be described as admirable, listen for the “shocked-I’m-shocked-I’m-very-very-shocked” response from :
(1) other hardware dealers
(2) people who have just constructed palaces, shopping centres or townhouses
(3) the lawyers representing the above….

“Crime School: Money Laundering: True Crime Meets The World Of Business And Finance” (Firefly Books Ltd)

“Money Laundering Control in the Caribbean (Studies in Comparative Corporate and Financial Law, V. 16)” (Shazeeda A. Ali)

Technorati Tags: crime, Jamaica, Jamaicans for Justice, drugs

The Week : O de Israelites…

This week’s “Believe It or Not” :

Coral reef (from http://www.silver-sands.com)
Hard on the heels of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce’s denunciation of the judgment halting construction of the Pinero Group’s 2,000 room hotel at Pear Tree Bottom, we have an endorsement of the judgment by the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) !!!!!
You can just go ahead and knock me and Peter Espeut down with a feather ! Not to mention that the JHTA has just put their cat down among the pigeons named Garnet Roper, Trevor Munroe, Tony Abrahams and Ronnie Thwaites, (who had not only urged that the development be allowed to continue forthwith, but managed to impugn the integrity, good sense and patriotism of individuals working for JET and NJCA).
Of course (once recovered from the shock ) it did occur to me that the two most influential members of the JHTA (Messrs. Butch Stewart of Sandals and John Issa of Super Clubs) might not be all that thrilled about the arrival of Spanish hoteliers on their home turf……. and that might, possibly, very probably, have something to do with the JHTA’s statement….
But no matter. If the JHTA has seen the light, and is suddenly interested in Jamaica still having nice beaches and reefs to sell to tourists in 10, 15, 20 years time, then it is all good…..

“Reef Fish Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas (Reef Set)” (Paul Humann, Ned DeLoach)
U.S. Congress to settle dispute between the Government and the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) ?

It looks as though the decision by the U.S. Congress to lift current restrictions on the immigration of registered nurses to the U.S. means some kind of end to the current dispute between the Ministry of Finance and the NAJ over whether or not the Government will be offering the nurses an improved compensation package.
The U.S. Congress has put the Government of Jamaica on notice. No matter how little, or how much, it offers to the NAJ, Jamaican nurses will now have to have very good personal reasons for staying in Jamaica…..

Average U.S. salary for a registered nurse : US$ 62,194
Number of registered nurses needed in the U.S. as of April 2006 : 118,000

“Mary Seacole: The Black Woman Who Invented Modern Nursing” (Jane Robinson)
Man woman business:
Betty Ann Blaine has an upsetting article about children being raped by their mothers’ boyfriends and husbands. Her proposed solution is that Jamaicans should come together in loving, married couples to raise children. Well, nothing to disagree with so far. Of course, HOW we do that is another matter…..Orlando Patterson has some ideas.

“Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries” (Orlando Patterson)
The Property (Rights of Spouses) Act has come into effect. Like the proposed Maintenance Act, it treats men and women equally when a marriage or common law relationship breaks down, however let’s just call it Helga’s Law.
Helga Stoeckert, ex-lover of the late Paul Geddes
Time longer than rope : Reneto Adams

Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams is concerned that he has not been reinstated following his failure to be convicted of murder in a trial by jury last December.
SSP Adams
SSP Adams evidently does not recall that the murders at Crawle were just one of the blots on his copybook. He was also not convicted of the murders of the Braeton seven, and he was not convicted of the carnage in West Kingston (25 dead).
However, during the time that SSP Adams has been out of the police force, the Jamaica Constabulary Force has, under Commissioner Lucius Thomas and with the assistance of Scotland Yard, been transformed from a posse into an increasingly effective (and increasingly respected) crime fighting organization.
DCP Mark Shields
I trust that Commissioner Thomas will find something for SSP Adams to do – perhaps in Hollywood, or maybe Iraq – where his type of policing may still be welcome. Where he goes should not be of any consequence. As long as he’s no longer in the police force in Jamaica.

(For those of us who believe in the power of prayer, please remember to pray for SSP Adams. Like all of us, he is much in need of forgiveness….)

“Police in Helicopter” (John Holt)

“Fallen Is Babylon” (Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers)
Goodbye, Desmond Dekker. Rest in peace.
(Did you know that some of his fans outside Jamaica believe that he is singing about the present-day inhabitants of Israel ? Whereas here, on island, we know he is singing about us, the inhabitants of present-day Babylon….)

“Israelites: Anthology 1963-1999” (Desmond Dekker)

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Corruption, crime, environment, hotel, Jamaica, Jamaican

The Week : O de Israelites…

This week’s “Believe It or Not” :

Coral reef (from http://www.silver-sands.com)
Hard on the heels of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce’s denunciation of the judgment halting construction of the Pinero Group’s 2,000 room hotel at Pear Tree Bottom, we have an endorsement of the judgment by the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) !!!!!
You can just go ahead and knock me and Peter Espeut down with a feather ! Not to mention that the JHTA has just put their cat down among the pigeons named Garnet Roper, Trevor Munroe, Tony Abrahams and Ronnie Thwaites, (who had not only urged that the development be allowed to continue forthwith, but managed to impugn the integrity, good sense and patriotism of individuals working for JET and NJCA).
Of course (once recovered from the shock ) it did occur to me that the two most influential members of the JHTA (Messrs. Butch Stewart of Sandals and John Issa of Super Clubs) might not be all that thrilled about the arrival of Spanish hoteliers on their home turf……. and that might, possibly, very probably, have something to do with the JHTA’s statement….
But no matter. If the JHTA has seen the light, and is suddenly interested in Jamaica still having nice beaches and reefs to sell to tourists in 10, 15, 20 years time, then it is all good…..

“Reef Fish Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas (Reef Set)” (Paul Humann, Ned DeLoach)
U.S. Congress to settle dispute between the Government and the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) ?

It looks as though the decision by the U.S. Congress to lift current restrictions on the immigration of registered nurses to the U.S. means some kind of end to the current dispute between the Ministry of Finance and the NAJ over whether or not the Government will be offering the nurses an improved compensation package.
The U.S. Congress has put the Government of Jamaica on notice. No matter how little, or how much, it offers to the NAJ, Jamaican nurses will now have to have very good personal reasons for staying in Jamaica…..

Average U.S. salary for a registered nurse : US$ 62,194
Number of registered nurses needed in the U.S. as of April 2006 : 118,000

“Mary Seacole: The Black Woman Who Invented Modern Nursing” (Jane Robinson)
Man woman business:
Betty Ann Blaine has an upsetting article about children being raped by their mothers’ boyfriends and husbands. Her proposed solution is that Jamaicans should come together in loving, married couples to raise children. Well, nothing to disagree with so far. Of course, HOW we do that is another matter…..Orlando Patterson has some ideas.

“Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries” (Orlando Patterson)
The Property (Rights of Spouses) Act has come into effect. Like the proposed Maintenance Act, it treats men and women equally when a marriage or common law relationship breaks down, however let’s just call it Helga’s Law.
Helga Stoeckert, ex-lover of the late Paul Geddes
Time longer than rope : Reneto Adams

Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams is concerned that he has not been reinstated following his failure to be convicted of murder in a trial by jury last December.
SSP Adams
SSP Adams evidently does not recall that the murders at Crawle were just one of the blots on his copybook. He was also not convicted of the murders of the Braeton seven, and he was not convicted of the carnage in West Kingston (25 dead).
However, during the time that SSP Adams has been out of the police force, the Jamaica Constabulary Force has, under Commissioner Lucius Thomas and with the assistance of Scotland Yard, been transformed from a posse into an increasingly effective (and increasingly respected) crime fighting organization.
DCP Mark Shields
I trust that Commissioner Thomas will find something for SSP Adams to do – perhaps in Hollywood, or maybe Iraq – where his type of policing may still be welcome. Where he goes should not be of any consequence. As long as he’s no longer in the police force in Jamaica.

(For those of us who believe in the power of prayer, please remember to pray for SSP Adams. Like all of us, he is much in need of forgiveness….)

“Police in Helicopter” (John Holt)

“Fallen Is Babylon” (Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers)
Goodbye, Desmond Dekker. Rest in peace.
(Did you know that some of his fans outside Jamaica believe that he is singing about the present-day inhabitants of Israel ? Whereas here, on island, we know he is singing about us, the inhabitants of present-day Babylon….)

“Israelites: Anthology 1963-1999” (Desmond Dekker)

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Corruption, crime, environment, hotel, Jamaica, Jamaican

Jamaican single mothers responsible for neglectful fathers ?

Our Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller yesterday finally made the speech many Jamaican women have been waiting for her to make since her inauguration on March 30.

She lambasted fathers who don't take care of their children financially or emotionally. Nothing new here, and her speech is unlikely to be any more effective than any previous such calls for male responsibility….
Father Ho-Lung Barry Chevannes, of Fathers Incorporated

Father's Day, Palisadoes, 2005

The Prime Minister and the media continue to maintain the pleasant fiction that men are primarily, if not solely, responsible for (1) pregnancies (2) neglecting their children.

Whereas, many men cannot go near their children for fear of the barrage of abuse they will receive from their baby mothers.

Many times this abuse is a consequence of their having moved on to another woman.

And many times this is a consequence of them being exactly the same man that the lady got pregnant for – i.e. not working; not minding any of his children; not responsible for himself in any situation, sexual or otherwise…

Women in other countries are often accused of harboring unrealistic expectations that they will be able to change their husbands after marriage. In Jamaica, we harbor strong expectations that we will be able to change our men after the baby is born….. Marriage hardly ever being on the agenda for straight Jamaican men and women…

When the same nice talking, good looking man the lady wanted to sleep with turns out not be a responsible father, no one remonstrates with her. This seems to be because (1) having a child to take care of for the next 18 years is seen as punishment enough (2) it is assumed that any woman will marry her baby father, if asked nicely……(altho' as any Pastor/counselor/baby mother knows, this is not true)

I don't know what a man is supposed to do if he lets a woman know he is "wutless and wukless" upfront (and many do), and yet she still gets pregnant for him.

"Learning to Be a Man: Culture, Socialization, and Gender Identity in Five Caribbean Communities" (Barry Chevannes)

Whatever happened to that wonderful National Family Planning campaign of yesteryear called "Choose Your Baby Father" ? Was it abandoned because the men didn't like it ? Or because the women didn't ?

And if having to put up with irate baby mothers isn't enough disincentive for men intending to be "proper fathers", then the sheer cost of responsible parenthood should put them off entirely.

In fact, if the Prime Minister really wants to do something about 'neglectful men' she should ensure that the proposed Maintenance Bill to require both men and women to support their ex-spouses (including unions made under the common law) is rushed through the House. Nothing is more likely to give women pause (before getting pregnant that is) than the prospect of spending their life "minding" that lithe young man sporting gold chains and chatting nice lyrics.

It is true that some men are worried that sharing men's legal responsibility to provide for their families will make things worse, not better.

But we can't continue to pretend that in Jamaica we are living in the same gender culture as Americans or Brits. Here the fact that a man may have many children by many different mothers and is not supporting any of them does not prevent other women from deciding to have a child for him.

Similarly women who have several children by several different men do not consider that they have any obligation to maintain a cordial relationship with the fathers of their children, if the fathers have not lived up to their initial expectations i.e. regular child support.

We have tried many things – from Lady Huggins sponsoring mass marriages in the 50's to outlawing bastardy to the Family Court to DNA testing. The marriage rate has continued to fall, the number of children being registered without even their father's name on their birth certificate has continued to rise.

Maybe legally recognising the fact that the majority of Jamaicans will never marry and that the family is largely a female enterprise (with visiting males) as per the proposed Maintenance Bill is the sensible option.

And once women start taking responsibility for choosing their baby fathers, who knows ? All kinds of fathers may start popping out of the woodwork….

"Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life" (Earl Woods)

"My Boys Can Swim!: The Official Guy's Guide to Pregnancy" (Ian Davis)

"The Black Man's Guide to Parenting: 50 Ways to Be an Effective Father" (C. F. Gipson)

"Fatherhood for Gay Men: An Emotional and Practical Guide to Becoming a Gay Dad" (Kevin McGarry)

"Becoming Dad : Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood" (Leonard Pitts)

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Jamaican, Maintenance Act, single mother

The great Jamaican American abortion debate

The New York Times today is carrying an incredibly long (9 pages, no less) piece on the US debate on contraception and abortion.

What is striking for Jamaican readers is how many of the arguments advanced by the anti-abortion party for banning abortion (legal since 1967) in the U.S. have long been disproved by the Jamaican experience.

Banning abortion will improve respect for human life ? Um, no. Check our murder rate.

Banning abortion (and/or contraception) will boost respect for religious values? Um, no. Check our multitude of churches, (supposedly more churches per square mile than in any other country). Almost as many churches as murders. Both have grown precipitously over the past 30 years.

Banning abortion (and/or contraception) will bolster marriage and male/female relationships. Um, no. Where to start ??!!! Check our marriage rate (about 15 %), check the number of out-of-wedlock babies (85% last year), check the number of murders of women by their male partners , and well, just listen to our music to hear the mutual contempt and disrespect among Jamaican men and women……

Even the unspoken agenda of many conservative Republicans (role women out of the workplace and back into the home full-time by banning abortion and contraception) is disproved by Jamaican women who have gone right on going to university (more than 70% female enrollment at last count) and into management positions in the workplace (more than 70% white collar managers in Jamaica are female) despite being single mothers to one, two, three children……..

We don't have legal abortion in Jamaica.
We've never had legal abortion in Jamaica.

However, this year the Medical Association of Jamaica is going to attempt to have a law legalizing abortion passed in Jamaica. We've already heard from Archbishop "Lock-up-the-abortionists" Burke.

"Is There a Solution to the Catholic Debate on Contraception?" (Jim Arraj)

We've also heard from our finger-on-the-pulse columnist Mark Wignall – he advocates that the anti-abortionists guarantee to take all unwanted children from their mothers at birth.

"Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States" (Rickie Solinger)

Here the Archbishop has the advantage of Mark Wignall since local Catholic charities like Mustard Seed do just that – within the limits of their funding.

But after comparing the US vs the Jamaican experience, the stark reality is that there is only one current analysis that satisfactorily explains present day Jamaica: our apparent disregard for human life (the murder rate) AND our rampant Christianity (churches on every corner, no legal abortion).

That analysis is contained in the popular and controversial book "Freakonomics" which suggests that falling crime rates in the U.S. are a consequence of low-income women choosing to have abortions instead of having babies they don't want and can't take care of…. This has reduced the supply of young males who were never wanted, and then never received the love, education and opportunity they needed to make good in America – they are the boys that make up the vast majority of offenders in the U.S. These boys were never born and hence they never grew up to become criminals.

"Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" (Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner)

Do you get the connection ? In Jamaica, poor women get pregnant and they have babies – whether or not the mother or the baby father has any means of feeding, much less educating the babies. Hmmm.

So the fact that we don't have legal abortion could explain our horrendous murder rate ???
Seems entirely possible to me.

And Archbishop Burke hopes to save the lives of unborn babies, but it may be at the cost of the lives of thousands of adult Jamaicans – witness those who have been murdered over the past ten, twenty, thirty years – most of them male, most of them young…….

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: abortion, church, Jamaica, Jamaican, contraception

PJ Patterson and Goodworks International : Canny or corrupt ?

Well, it seems that Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding reads the same websites we do, but draws different conclusions.

Here's one commentator lambasting Goodworks International (GWI) founder Andrew Young for selling his civil rights credentials to Nike, Walmart and others.

Here's another telling the real story behind GWI co-founder Jamaican-born Carl Masters: apparently just another Jamaican who thinks "women mek fe rape"…

Hamilton Jordan, Jimmy Carter's Chief of Staff, is the only GWI partner, who may be a little too clean to be hanging out with PJ.

"No Such Thing as a Bad Day" (Hamilton Jordan)
Hey Bruce, haven't you and the JLP spent years accusing PJ Patterson of being a corrupt, crony loving, no-trough-too-small-for-my-snout, rotten facsimile of a Prime Minister ? And here he is getting into bed with some old cronies for a peaceful and lucrative retirement (and, no, we don't doubt the Mirant sale eased the way for something or somebody), and you're somehow suggesting that these PJ cronies aren't all that they seem ? Or that their "consulting" may not have been good for Jamaica ?

OH PLEASE ! PJ was our Prime Minister for 14 years. It's a bit late to be turning up our noses at him and his corrupt canny ways.

And, Mr. Golding, you need to get with the zeitgeist. Ever heard of 50 Cent ? He of the tagline "Get rich or die trying……"

"From Pieces to Weight : Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens" (50 Cent, Kris Ex)

Technorati Tags: corruption, Jamaica, Jamaican

Most Homophobic Place on the Planet – It’s Jamaica

Time magazine is carrying a story on Jamaica's murderous attitude to gays.

There's nothing new in the story, or at least, nothing new for Jamaicans. The fault lies with the music according to this pundit.

Too easy to say and no analysis of why our music, famous for being preoccupied with our own island struggles, should be preoccupied with hating gay men.

Jamaican women know that Jamaican men are preoccupied with gays because they are nervous/terrified/very, very scared of what is happening to straight men on the island.

For more than 30 years, Jamaican girls have been outperforming boys in the educational system, a development which is only now becoming a "problem" for the US and Britain. Our sole traditional university, the University of the West Indies, has long had more than 70% female graduates. Law and medicine are female preserves.

Female headed households now account for 49% or 50% or 51% of all households. Unlike Nigerian women who put up with philandering husbands, Jamaican women have long ceased to link children and marriage. Jamaican women are serial monogamists and think nothing of having different fathers for their 2 or 3 children. At last count, 85% of Jamaican children were born out-of-wedlock, and do not have their father's name on their birth certificates…

The conventional wisdom is that Jamaican men refuse the responsibility of fatherhood – the reality for many Jamaican men is that their girlfriends don't see the point of tying themselves to men who earn less than they do, are emotionally immature (having grown up without fathers themselves) and require easily as much attention as a small child.

Since the early 90's, government statistics have shown that Jamaican children are "better off" – that is have more access to education, books and food – in homes where no adult male is present.
Adult Jamaican men devote their resources to transport (make that an SUV) and entertainment (Red Stripe, Appleton rum, girlfriend with 16 year old tits). Adult Jamaican women tend to divide their money between children, church and clothes. Never the twain shall meet, in half of Jamaica's households. So there's lots of men and boys around who are "surplus to requirements". Once they've donated their sperm they are short of homes, love and consolation.

So it's not surprising that many poor, uneducated men feel that their masculinity resides in their penis exclusively, and they never feel more male and masculine than when they are "slamming" it into a female. And it's not surprising that they are scared and full of hate for men who apparently are willing to take the "female role" in sex.

And not only do gay men undermine this fragile and temporary triumph over the female, but they, enviably, are able to make their lives without depending on any female whatsoever. They can spend all day and all night hanging out in comfortably masculine company without for one moment wondering which other man is hanging out with their girlfriend/baby mother/wife while they are at their local bar. They don't need a female to cook for them, wash their clothes, or perform any of the other services which a man would like to be able to expect and which Jamaican women are increasingly unwillingly to do.

Gay men also undermine the precious time that Jamaican men spend with their friends, as a woman or another man can immediately make this time suspect, by implying that only a "battyman" would want to spend so much time with his male brethren.

None of the factors operating in Jamaica are any different to the homophobia experienced by gays in America or the UK, but Jamaica is further down the road of non-traditional gender roles than any developed country, and Jamaican men are confronting the issue of "What Are Men For ?" in a way that no American or British men have yet been forced to do.

"My Mother Who Fathered Me: A Study of the Families in Three Selected Communities of Jamaica" (Edith Clarke)

"Born Fi' Dead : A Journey Through The Jamaican Posse Underworld" (Laurie Gunst)

"The Cries of Men : Voices of Jamaican Men who have been Raped and Sexually Abused" (O'Brien Dennis)

Technorati Tags: gay men, homophobia, Jamaica, Jamaican

Most Homophobic Place on the Planet – It’s Jamaica

Time magazine is carrying a story on Jamaica's murderous attitude to gays.

There's nothing new in the story, or at least, nothing new for Jamaicans. The fault lies with the music according to this pundit.

Too easy to say and no analysis of why our music, famous for being preoccupied with our own island struggles, should be preoccupied with hating gay men.

Jamaican women know that Jamaican men are preoccupied with gays because they are nervous/terrified/very, very scared of what is happening to straight men on the island.

For more than 30 years, Jamaican girls have been outperforming boys in the educational system, a development which is only now becoming a "problem" for the US and Britain. Our sole traditional university, the University of the West Indies, has long had more than 70% female graduates. Law and medicine are female preserves.

Female headed households now account for 49% or 50% or 51% of all households. Unlike Nigerian women who put up with philandering husbands, Jamaican women have long ceased to link children and marriage. Jamaican women are serial monogamists and think nothing of having different fathers for their 2 or 3 children. At last count, 85% of Jamaican children were born out-of-wedlock, and do not have their father's name on their birth certificates…

The conventional wisdom is that Jamaican men refuse the responsibility of fatherhood – the reality for many Jamaican men is that their girlfriends don't see the point of tying themselves to men who earn less than they do, are emotionally immature (having grown up without fathers themselves) and require easily as much attention as a small child.

Since the early 90's, government statistics have shown that Jamaican children are "better off" – that is have more access to education, books and food – in homes where no adult male is present.
Adult Jamaican men devote their resources to transport (make that an SUV) and entertainment (Red Stripe, Appleton rum, girlfriend with 16 year old tits). Adult Jamaican women tend to divide their money between children, church and clothes. Never the twain shall meet, in half of Jamaica's households. So there's lots of men and boys around who are "surplus to requirements". Once they've donated their sperm they are short of homes, love and consolation.

So it's not surprising that many poor, uneducated men feel that their masculinity resides in their penis exclusively, and they never feel more male and masculine than when they are "slamming" it into a female. And it's not surprising that they are scared and full of hate for men who apparently are willing to take the "female role" in sex.

And not only do gay men undermine this fragile and temporary triumph over the female, but they, enviably, are able to make their lives without depending on any female whatsoever. They can spend all day and all night hanging out in comfortably masculine company without for one moment wondering which other man is hanging out with their girlfriend/baby mother/wife while they are at their local bar. They don't need a female to cook for them, wash their clothes, or perform any of the other services which a man would like to be able to expect and which Jamaican women are increasingly unwillingly to do.

Gay men also undermine the precious time that Jamaican men spend with their friends, as a woman or another man can immediately make this time suspect, by implying that only a "battyman" would want to spend so much time with his male brethren.

None of the factors operating in Jamaica are any different to the homophobia experienced by gays in America or the UK, but Jamaica is further down the road of non-traditional gender roles than any developed country, and Jamaican men are confronting the issue of "What Are Men For ?" in a way that no American or British men have yet been forced to do.

"My Mother Who Fathered Me: A Study of the Families in Three Selected Communities of Jamaica" (Edith Clarke)

"Born Fi' Dead : A Journey Through The Jamaican Posse Underworld" (Laurie Gunst)

"The Cries of Men : Voices of Jamaican Men who have been Raped and Sexually Abused" (O'Brien Dennis)

Technorati Tags: gay men, homophobia, Jamaica, Jamaican