Woman! Be fruitful and multiply!
The archaic ministers of the Howard Government are at it again. Whether it’s controlling access to abortion or accusing Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard of the heresy of being “barren” it seems as if women’s bodies, choices and lives are a recurring obsession with them. And we thought we had enough of these hijinks with Hilarious Hilaly running around comparing women to “cats meat”.
Does it scare anyone that we have these men in authority with their perverse perceptions of female sexuality influencing policy??
The boys club of politics seems like an oversized fraternity- unable to deal with the presence of real women as equals and competitors in modern life they resort to puerile jibes at their opponent’s femininity as a way of discrediting them. It’s a recurring theme in politics- Whether its Bush feeling up Germany’s Chancellor at an international conference or US Presidential hope Hilary Clinton being accused of getting plastic surgery- these insults are so cheap their laugable. Grow up!!
Source: Wo-Magazine Blog
Recently you must have heard in the news the “political storm” which broke in Australia when Liberal Senator Bill Hefferman on the government side, questioned whether Julia Gillard who is the deputy leader of the opposition Labour party, “could fully understand her voters because she was barren”. Here at BU we immediately thought of Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley who from all reports appear to be childless and is poised to make a serious challenge to leadership of the BLP in the near future -according to some people close to the party; a previous attempt failed. However BU will not use such a crass way to describe a woman’s right to not mother or bear children if she so desires to have a career instead or ….
To describe Mia in politics is very strange though, we are tempted to think enigmatic. We all may agree that she stands head and shoulder above most of her colleagues in the Lower House. Her demonstration of a sharp intellect and capacity to speak with clarity on multiple issues, often with very little preparation rivals some of the greats like Tom Adams and Don Blackman. We scored the NISE speech she delivered at the Hilton last year very high on the scale. If only the boring CEO at NISE is able to operationlize much of what she challenged Barbadians and Barbadian businesses to do. Oh well that is another topic!
Mia is such an important political figure on the Barbados scene that she has already prompted two BU articles!
We stated earlier that the accusation made by Senator Hefferman about the Deputy Opposition leader in Australia is crass, but in BU’s view worthy of some discussion as it relates to Mia and the Barbados political landscape. Why is it that Mia appears to possess all the characteristics which would be listed on any checklist of a leader of any country but according to the recent CADRES poll her popularity among a Barbadian public is a poor and in the low single digit? We have all heard the “talk” about her sympathetic nature regarding the issue of homosexuality and the supporting issues. So far our research does not indicate if this consideration has been factored in any poll carried out by CADRES and would therefore have flavoured the outcome. Ooops we forgot that would be interpreted as slander. Anyway that is not the thrust of our proposition.
After we cut through the feminist dribble that is sure to echo back to a story of this type let us dispassionately examine the root issue. At this time in our social development (Barbados) should any Prime Minister not be expected to have an appreciation for “soft issues” borne out of being a mother, or should we say a matriarch of a household? The complexity of managing a small open economy no doubt coerces us into believing that the skill set of any Prime Minister must be more financial. Though important, one can see how the neglect of the social and softer issues can lead to rapid economic decline, just do a global scan. We are not any great fan of Dan Quayle of “the potatoe with an e fame” but the one thing which he has always preach and which still resonates with us is that the genesis of any wholesome society is a strong family unit.
Does Mia qualify for the job as Prime Minister of Barbados?
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