As the public discourse on sexual harassment, in light of the ongoing Parliamentary debate on the Employment Sexual Harassment (Prevention) Bill, assumes pride of place locally and in the US, where the contemporary revelations of the seemingly unending past misdeeds of Mr. Harvey Weinstein proliferate on the news media, there appears to be much in this discussion that betrays a popular misperception of the nature of the “beast” with which the proposed legislation seeks to contend. This exists mainly in the form of myth, caused in part by the assumption that everyone knows precisely what is sexual harassment because he or she has heard the concept mentioned somewhere, in much the same way that some Barbadians are wont to refer to an individual as his or her “friend”, simply because they have seen that individual’s photograph at one time or another in a newspaper.
In this week’s essay, I propose to examine some of the mythology (old men’s tales) surrounding sexual harassment in light of the provisions of the Bill in its present form.
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That sexual harassment needs to be continuous to be remediable
Continuity is not an indispensable aspect of sexual harassment. Even though the word “harassment” does connote a serial pattern of behaviour, there may be a single act so egregious that non-consent to it by the victim may be presumed. Obeying President Trump’s advice for dealing with married women by grabbing [or as local parlance would have it, “grabbling”] them by their pudenda would constitute an act of sexual harassment even in the absence of its repetition, since it may be assumed that such conduct would not ordinarily be consented to. Indeed, the Bill recognizes this where it provides in Clause 3(2), after listing in sub-clause (1) acts that are included in the definition of sexual harassment, among them, “the initiation of unwanted physical contact with a person”, that “nothing in…(1) shall be interpreted as precluding a finding of sexual harassment where there is a single incident…” Of course, in circumstances where an act is not immediately unacceptable on its face, a repetition will constitute sexual harassment only if it has been made clear by the recipient that such an overture is unwelcome.
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That there is an element of contributory fault in sexual harassment
The fact that a female may be scantily clad or is wearing revealing clothing does not afford justification for the actions of the harasser. There is no provision in the Bill for the inappropriateness or existence of the harassment to be reduced if it is argued that the victim induced it by her manner of dress or by the display of her physical assets.
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That sexual harassment needs to be directed to the victim
In fact and in law, sexual harassment may be present by the creation of an objectively hostile environment that is not directed to the complainant solely. According to clause 3 (1)(a), [For the purposes of this Act, sexual harassment includes] the use of sexually suggestive words, comments, jokes, gestures or actions that annoy, alarm or abuse a person…
Given that “a person” is used here in a generic sense in that sub-clause, it should suffice that someone is alarmed or annoyed by the alleged conduct, whether it was aimed at that individual or not. Moreover, sub-clause (e) which lists “transmitting sexually offensive writing or material of any kind” appears to be of a similar general nature as well, although this, to my mind, would appear to be too broadly drafted in its present form and would capture the transmission of material between two consenting parties that is stumbled upon by an unsuspecting individual. Any redraft should indicate clearly that this sub-clause relates solely to the uninvited transmission of such material to an individual.
Too besides, in this connection, it may also be considered sexual harassment where an employer grants employment benefits to an employee as a result of that employee’s agreement to grant sexual favours to the employer, to a client or to his or her supervisor to the disbenefit of an employee who did not likewise agree. The aggrieved employee would have been sexually harassed here, even though the Bill does not seem to require the benefit granted and denied be the identical one in each case.
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That sexual harassment is gender-neutral
In keeping with the modern trend, the Bill, as drafted, is gender-neutral, a fact that surprisingly has drawn no negative comment from those quarters that protested a similar treatment for the recent amendment to the Domestic Violence Act. Of course, it is eminently possible that sexual harassment may occur between those of the same gender but the larger truth, according to the Journal of the American Psychological Association, is that “99% of sexual harassment victims are female”. To equate the two forms conceptually is thus to close one’s eyes to the reality and to confound the possible with the distinctly probable.
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That sexual harassment occurs mainly in the workplace
Given its nature, sexual harassment may occur in any context where one party perceives the opportunity to trade a benefit desired by another for sexual favours. Barbados has chosen for now to restrict its prevention efforts to the workplace environment, unlike Belize which, in its Protection against Sexual Harassment Act 1996, also restricts sexual harassment in educational and other institutions that are workplaces in part, but are also environments where encounters between genders of different levels of influence proliferate and are thus ripe with the probability of quid pro quo harassment. Further, there is also restriction in the Belize Act in the context of the rental of accommodation. According to one local parliamentarian, it is expected that the current Bill, when proclaimed into law, will conduce to a culture of anti-sexual harassment conduct everywhere in Barbados.
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That the legislation will preclude social intercourse between males and females in the workplace
This is most assuredly not a necessary consequence of the legislation. Normal workplace relations may still subsist; it is simply that these should be attended with a modicum of respect for the individual and for their sensibilities. Ordinary by-play between male and female workers may continue without either being overly obnoxious or crude. In any event, a compliment on another individual’s appearance or even an expression of one’s secret desire towards him or her does by itself not constitute sexual harassment unless it is either knowingly unwelcome or, as stated earlier, so crude as to be presumed repugnant to any given individual.
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That the legislation will create additional imposition on the employer
This is to catch at straws. Even in the absence of legislation, the employer has an obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure a safe system of working for the individual employee. This would include, on the part of the employer, the ensuring of an environment free of sexual harassment and of its condign censure once established. As has been stated, “If an employer knows that acts being done by employees during their employment may cause physical or mental harm to a particular fellow employee and he does nothing to supervise or to prevent such acts, when it is his power to do so, it is clearly arguable that he may be in breach of his duty to that employee…” The sole new imposition on the employer will be to devise the policy statement stipulated under Clause 4 of the Bill and assistance is provided in that regard by the Bill itself.
Jeff
We are not sure that such social or legislative responses adhere to the culture, seem almost always as impositions from elsewhere.
We are not even sure that these responses have worked in the places where tried.
In the USA, for example, these frameworks have served to negatively impact the innate relationships between men and women. Others will comments on the other possibilities.
In Barbados, the absence of social requirements, about other things, for traditional control or separation of the sexes seem absent. Separation of boys and girls in schools could be another example.
We agree that a legal requirement for women to be less ‘radiant’ may indeed be inconsistent with the emerging cultural norms. But is there not a case for some non-legislative prescriptions?
On the matter of the APA we would wish to remind you that that organization was largely responsible for the torture regimes being practiced, to this day, at Guantanamo Bay. That involvement represents a significant blemish to an already questionable series of interventions by the APA.
@Pachamama October 22, 2017 at 7:56 AM “But is there not a case for some non-legislative prescriptions?:
And what would you suggest?
Good morning all:
The truth of many of your mother’s have been sexually harassed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/opinion/lupita-nyongo-harvey-weinstein.html
Lupita Nyong’o: Speaking Out About Harvey Weinstein
Two words..
RAPE SOCIETY.
Goldwyn Myer, the 2 demons who helped start the hollyweird industry were even worse, it was the beginning of the 20th century when children, women and many men were just victims of the beasts of hollyweird.
The ” Employment Sexual Harassment (Prevention) Bill,” should act as a deterrent and reduce the incidence of men harassing women at work.
This will not change how normal men and women relate to each other in the workplace.
Sometime men pretend that they do not know what sexual harassment is. I advise all men to ask not the women in the office, or the factory, or the construction site, but ask your mother whether she has even been sexually harassed on her job or elsewhere. Do not be afraid of what you will hear. Go ahead. Ask her. And if your mother is dead and you have an aunt who is of her generation, then ask your aunt.
My own aunt who died at 85+ in this 21st century, told me that she continued wearing her wedding ring, up into her mid-70’s although she no longer had a husband in the hope that men would not try to feel her up. My aunt was a very large breasted woman, but women do not ask for large breasts, and large breasts are NOT an invitation to men to feel up.
The harassment only stopped when she had a stroke and could no longer go out.
@Pachamama October 22, 2017 at 7:56 AM “In Barbados, the absence of social requirements, about other things, for traditional control or separation of the sexes seem absent. Separation of boys and girls in schools could be another example.”
So who is going to pay for all this separation of the sexes, separate schools, separate buses, separate airplanes, separate stores?
When men should have learned by puberty NOT TO TOUCH ANYONE without their consent.
In other words keep your damn hands to yourself. Cheap. Effective.
SS in canada the federal government pays for all that and more , and to prove that point we have been paying salaries for a separate tits party in cabinet for years.
Maybe so. But wunna Canadians got oil and gas, and hydro power, and wheat, and fish and lumber, and the brains of the best educated people in the world to sell.
What do Bajans have to sell? to fund all this separateness?
Imagine how much less trouble Harvey Weinstein would be in if he had learned to keep his hands and other body parts away from non consenting parties.
There is no need for separation of children…the males have to be taught from secondary school that they are not entitled to sex from anyone….this sexual harassment and rape problem is a predominantly male psychosis, that starts from puberty..
……they believe they have some right to sex and to take sex…educate ya idiot males from young that it is not so just because their fathers, grandfathers, uncles and cousins says it’s so and their female relatives enable and condone it…..without showing them the right way to socialize.
Then ya wont have a whoremongering society believing everything should be exchanged for sex.
Had many psychos in corporate environments both black and white thinking that every female wants them….ya just had to threaten them with HR and a sexual harassment complaint….and that immediately cooled them off…one old dude was persistent however and ended up collapsing from a heart attack.
Lawson…am a little miffed at my boyfriend for not putting down his foot so that US refugees would know that Canada has thousands of miles of landscape and open spaces that they can develop, just like the Asians do.
I left a comment on the reparations thread.
Simple Simon …………… the simpleton
This is not our area and we do not pretend to have all the answers.
What we know for certain is that no set of men saying that they gine pass a new law is going to have any influence on the abuse of women or men.
Let the women themselves, as the ones most effected, say what they want to have the country do to stop it.
Our broader point was that both boys and girls should be properly educated, separately, about this issue and many other things, as one possible answer.
For the idiocy of passing laws to fine people or put men in jail has limits.
What people like simpletons like you should address are the mountains of laws currently on the books which have no social impact at all. Laws which can never have an impact unless the people beforehand determine that the conditions exist to give them real meaning.
To suggest that merely passing another ineffectual piece of legislation is the only response possible severely minimizes the magnitude of such a problem.
We are willing to wager that such a law will not halt the slide in social relationships between the sexes.
In any case, as another article here makes claim, this is merely another political jerk off.
Based on the discussion during the week there is a lot of room for education about sexualsexual harassment in a Barbados context.
To expand on this….
….the males have to be taught from secondary school that they are not entitled to sex from anyone….this sexual harassment and rape problem is a predominantly male psychosis, that starts from puberty..
I remember many females saying when they were in their 20s, 30s, 40s and even old women bajan men would tell them they liked them since they were little girls and these girls/women owe them sex..
….teach these beasts from very young 12 years and up that neither little girls, little boys, old women nor old men owe them any sex…that is a mental illness they carry around and infest and infect the society with….it’s a vicious mental illness.
“We are willing to wager that such a law will not halt the slide in social relationships between the sexes.”
Barbados has this reputation for creating laws and legislation…then REFUSING TO ENFORCE THEM..
If the laws and legislations are not being enforced, they are useless.
Well Well
If a man is being abused by a woman, to make a complaint would laugh that person, the man, out of the police station.
The police might even beat him up again as well. LOL
Lol….
Sorry I laughed, but women should not be abusing or raping men either, not all men welcome the assault…..
…..some women are mentally and emotionally stonger than some men, but that is no excuse…and should be taken very seriously as should abuse and rape of women and children ….
….but you noticed, the abuse and rape of women and children are not taken seriously by the police, magistrates and judges either, so it’s a pattern of allowing a rape society to flourish for the last 50 years.
There is a very simple test that straight men can use to determine if the behaviour or coment that they are contemplating constitutes sexual harassment: would that same behaviour or comment directed towards you by a 270 pound muscular man make you uncomfortable?? if yes, then it is sexual harassment.
@Peter
A big part of the problem is that the culture in the region for many years supported a behaviour by men of ‘begging for piece’ and if the woman said no it was regarded as the woman playing ‘hard to get’ or playing decent but eventually will surrender to the pursuit. The Bill is a start but it must be supported with robust education programs. If it is not we fear ‘innocent/ignorant’ men will be caught in the quagmire of enforcement.
David
You got this wrong. The education programs should come before the law.
Abuse/harassment is related to other types of problems as well
@Pacha
Ideally yes but it is fashionable these days to line up behind international convention on matters like sexual harassment,capital punishment and the like. Although it must be said that the government has dug its heels in on the matter of decriminalizng homosexuality 🙂
@ David, ” ‘begging for piece”
Haven’t heard that Bajanism in “donkey years” lol.
Pachamama October 22, 2017 at 6:26 PM #
Sorry, Pacha has a point. How can one expect a law to act in its entirety and without fear or favour, when the culture in the society deems otherwise?
To ensure that the aims are achieved, changing the culture is necessary too.
Interestingly, reading Jeff’s article, although most of the words were generic re gender, it seemed to focus on male / female interaction.
I think that including reference to female / female harassment being included within the legislation, especially in Barbados, REALLY would be useful. It might seem obvious to an attorney, but not to some lay people.
Plenty of organisations here where that clarification is necessary. When you talk about predatory behavior, do not leave women out.
As for evidence, how will one decide between harassment and normal relations between to persons? Especially when an allegation may be made of harassment, when possibly the issue may have been a consensual relationship gone bad?
How does the Court decide on spiteful claims, after the fact?
While the legislation is warranted, I wonder about the ‘real’ issues in implementation.
The law is about SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
Hopefully it will change the bad behavior of men and women in the work place.
Men outnumber lesbians in most work places so the problem is uncouth igrunt men who have not learned that women must be respected.
@David
I think that charging, convicting and sentencing the harassers will be quite educational for them. Some others may even learn from the example.
Peter, isn’t there enough evidence to support the position that incarceration by itself without rehabilitation is not as effective?
Is it now that more women are up there in the work force that sexual harrassment by men has become a big issue?
Barbados has always had a culture of its black women of a certain age whether on the job or not, who use sex as their currency. A bajan male from the time he gets into high school would soon learn that this is the currency used mostly by female students.Now, he leaves school and enters the world of work, there he observes old ass women fooping any and everybody for any number of reasons so long as they get what is to be achieved.
Why is sexual harrassment in the work place being made to appear that bajan women are saints.
From Ottawa. Forget harassment, check out this story.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/10/22/who-would-be-afforded-judicial-latitude-for-ignorance-dimanno.html
Whitehill…because you can’t have sex as a currency to exchange indefinitely, because it will continue from generation to generation, not all females in Barbados use sex as a currency and if you are implying that they do, you are also including your grandmother, mother and all females in your family.
When politicians/ministers use sex as a bargaining chip to generate and offer jobs for the same people who elected them…that is a form of rape….and an abhorrent practice from the leaders that is emulated by everyone down the foodchain.
When employers use sex as a weapon against employees both male and female to keep their jobs or even get a job, that too is rape…
It’s become cultural and way past the sexual harassment stage, that plaster the government is reluctantly pretending to apply, is just for appearances…because they will never want to address their established rape society, that means it will have to be dismantled..
There has always been sexual harassment in the homes and on the streets, it did not start with the advent of females in the work place.
Law students are reportedly being advised to report attorneys who make sexual advances on them or force them to give sexual favours in order to keep complete their training.
An article written by Aaron Mahabir in the October edition of a newsletter published by the Hugh Wooding Law School, called ‘The Gavel’, says some attorneys may be abusing their positions of trust by demanding sexual favours from law students.
These reports continue to circulate among the student population. From explicit text messages, sending of pornographic photos and videos, to inappropriate touching and verbal demands for sexual favors, sexual harassment can take many forms,” Mahabir said.
Senior tutor Cheryl-Ann Jerome-Alexander urged law students to come forward and report practitioners who committed these unlawful acts, saying unless this is done, the cycle of crime will continue.
From loopttcom
Jeff,
My concern is about interpretation and mission creep. There is a world of difference between rape and sexual assault and innuendo. In the UK, and most of Europe, even an uninvited glance is enough to be accused of sexual harassment.
I will give a real example. A Barbadian man, aged in his mid 50s (who sadly died only a week ago), had a serious stroke and was in a North London hospital. He was to wash himself and all these intimate services had to be done by a nurse.
On once occasion t wo nurses, one black the other white, came to wash him and change his clothes and, in humour, he said to them that they were his favourite nurses and he looked forward to seeing them. The middle-aged black nurse joked with him and dismissed his comment, the white nurse, much younger, made a formal complaint of sexual harassment. It led to a formal inquiry.
In the UK, even calling a woman ‘darling’ or ‘love’ or ‘beautiful’ is enough to get you the sack. And, as this is Britain, race shows its ugly head. Black men are considered by the mainstream feminist movement as being irredeemably sexist.
It is one reason why the Wages for Housework movement (led by CLR James’ widow, Selma) are marginalised from the mainstream feminists – because they work closely with black people.
Having man-hating diplomats from Europe and North America coming to the Caribbean and setting an agenda is highly risky. We must decide for ourselves what our social issues are.
Just last week a british dude flying from Afghanistan, passing through Dubai on his way home to UK, stopped at a Dubai nightclub and walking through the crowded club, touched a man on his hip to alert him he was passing….he got sentenced to 3 months in a Dubai prison for that contact.
Caribbean males have this repugnant culture of attaching a sexual innuendo to everything they say and do….that is why cricketer Gale always gets into trouble and did so very recently in Australia.
…teach young Black makes and females that not everything is about sex or sexually related and you will get a different generation of people who do not equate everything and everyone as a sexual conquest.
The males wont keep believing that they are entitled to or owed sex or be charged for sex offenses and the females will not think it’s normal to be sexually abused or raped.
Hal, your remark (edited for clarity) viz : “Having … diplomats from Europe and North America coming to the Caribbean and setting an agenda is highly risky. We must decide for ourselves what our social issues are” is a sharp two edged sword with which we have lived and worked for surely the last 50 years of nationhood.
Those same wise folks from over in away have directed or influenced our leaders n people to very positive social change as well.
Your example rings loudly for most Caribbean men who grew up using that Bajanism ‘my dear’ or sometimes the more provocative ‘sweetheart’ as simple, friendly forms of greetings/exchange with females.
Unfortunately, we are in a different space and tenor of life now and we have to modify our palaver to suit the social demands… in this case this is a social issue that we must fix ourselves…absolutely, as the times demand it.
More realistically we also must realize that the previously accepted banter was a clear indication of misguided socialization that we men could objectify women with such terms of endearment and it was no big deal… in fact it always should have been, if we are honest about it.
I certainly had to fix my friendly ‘my dear’ ease of communication to completely avoid any misunderstandings in the workplace.
Hal…lives in a majority, white, female led society and has for decades, with his every move controlled by white males and females…even what he thinks is controlled by those he speaks about, he is not protesting that utter cpntrol these europeans have on him and is family……neither is he removing himself from it…
So what if a couple females from europe give advise to the Caribbean on combating sexual abuse…generations of european have been subjected to and counselled regarding the social issue which is a social blight…they have had experience in combating it, while the islands are still stuck in rape, sexual abuse and incest mode….
Hal the hypocrite.
@Hal A
Having man-hating diplomats from Europe and North America coming to the Caribbean and setting an agenda is highly risky. We must decide for ourselves what our social issues are
++++++++++
Hal, could you give us a course on how to identify our social issues? The proposed law is not a panacea for correcting sexual harassment/sexual assault but it is a start. Anyone who has worked or lived in Barbados will confirm that sexual harassment has been rampant in society from the proverbial “since Adam was a lad”. Factually one can say that some of the same MPs who are/were debating this bill have been accused of sexual harassment which even led to a nickname for an individual which has been bandied about on the social network.
There will always be exceptions but the exceptions shouldn’t drive the rule, we have to get beyond the “we always do it like that” to “what are we doing wrong?”
I could just see Hal in his pre UK days believing all young girls on the island…owed him sex….
He is protesting the addressing of sexual harassment on the island way too much….again I ask…
So what if a couple females from europe give ADVICE to the Caribbean on combating sexual abuse, so what…
He always has his tongue at full length ready to lick the beast of buckingham palace….a white european female….shameful negro.
Ah fixing me errors Hal..
Hal…lives in a majority white female led society and has for decades, with his every move controlled by white males and females…in the Uk….which is EUROPE…
even what he thinks is controlled by those he speaks about IN EUROPE, he is not protesting that utter conntrol these europeans have on him and his family……neither is he removing himself from it…
That just about sums up Hal..lol
@ Whitehill
“Barbados has always had a culture of its black women of a certain age whether on the job or not, who use sex as their currency. A bajan male from the time he gets into high school would soon learn that this is the currency used mostly by female students.Now, he leaves school and enters the world of work, there he observes old ass women fooping any and everybody for any number of reasons so long as they get what is to be achieved.”
This statement can only come from a sick racist mind. But then we will never know if you are black or white. The pleasure of hiding behind a “non-slave” name. Just sick……….
Sargeant October 23, 2017 at 8:45 AM #
Hal, could you give us a course on how to identify our social issues?
@Sargeant
In a democracy social problems are what the people say they are. What to me may be a social problem (ie contributors to BU hiding behind anonymous masks and defaming people) while to you it may be freedom.
Let the people decide.
Yeah….I thought it was rather nasty too, that’s why I pointed out how efficiently he included his females relatives with that broad brush stroke…making himself part of the problem where the males in Barbados always believe they are entitled to sex and then disrespect females as part of that nasty culture.
I dont want to comment too broadly on lawyers who abuse their preceived status and use sex as a weapon of control, cause then ya will hear I am picking on lawyers because I dont like them..
….the older lawyers were pure evil and repulsive with that nasty practice…..minors, teenagers, mothers, daughters, no one was safe from these dirty beasts……
…..both males and some females, the most recognized names in the legal fraternity, the nastiest bunch of sexual predators ever known to blight the island with their presence and perversions….a real sickness, many of them are now too old and sick to continue or already carried their stained demonic asses off the earth….but they did a lot of damage..
And dont let’s start on the ministers and politicians of yesterday, perverted and possessed….they still got some active in politics…thankfully most of them are in the boneyard.
As you go through life you should learn and discern what is right or wrong.
This “SEXUAL HARASSMENT” law is nescessary to change the behavior of igrunt wutless men in the WORKPLACE.
Hopefully women will use their cell phones to record the “harassers”.
@ Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. October 23, 2017 at 10:51 AM
With the decriminalization of prostitution (legalization to meet Hal’s premature expectations) men would not have any reason to sexually harass women.
Business will be strictly business and there would be no need for haggling over the price charged.
All payments to be made in advance with no refunds for whatever cause of poor performance by either party to the contract; ‘oral’ or otherwise.
@Whitehill October 23, 2017 at 12:08 AM “A bajan male from the time he gets into high school would soon learn that this is the currency used mostly by female students.”
I don’t understand.
Would you please explain?
Since a currency is something which is used as a medium of exchange, how can it be used mostly by females? Are you telling me that females are exchanging sexual currency among themselves?
@Whitehill October 23, 2017 at 12:08 AM “Barbados has always had a culture of its black women of a certain age whether on the job or not, who use sex as their currency.”
Looka don’t mek me havta call names now.
But a young friend of mine “a black woman of a certain age” to wit under the age of 25 [and as beautiful as Lupita Nyong’o] had reason to do business with a noted white business in this country a few weeks ago. The first thing the big white middle aged married man [with a picture of wife and children on his desk] asked her out on a date.
She had to mek him know his place. Tell I hear to spend money wid you, NOT to eat dinner or sex wid you.
You want me to call names now?
Otherwise haul your a@@, and tek ya mout offa black Bajan women of all ages.
Then people ask why black women so aggressive?
We have to be aggressive in order to keep you white dicks out of our private spaces.
You tink it easy being a black woman?
Especially a young, beautiful, well educated, hard working, black woman who is trying to make her way in the world or WORK by MERIT?
Haul do.
@Jeff Cumberbatch October 23, 2017 at 6:07 AM “inappropriate touching”
Professor, why you calling it inappropriate touching?
It is sexual assault.
If I show up at UWI, and I am only 10 minutes from UWI right now, and touch you on your penis is it inappropriate touching? Or it is sexual assault?
Call it what is is. Sexual Assault. We can’t fix the problem if we continue to use nicey, nicey, Sunday School words.
@Whitehill October 23, 2017 at 12:08 AM “Why is sexual harrassment in the work place being made to appear that bajan women are saints.”
This Bajan woman was a virginal saint when she was sexually assaulted on her first job, by a man old enough to be her grandfather.
And all I went there to do was a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.
Sorry Professor. I see that you were quoting Aaron Mahabir.
@Hal Austin October 23, 2017 at 7:00 AM “Black men are considered by the mainstream feminist movement as being irredeemably sexist.”
Then the mainstream feminist movement is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Most of the black people in the Americas and in Europe too have some white DNA. That white DNA was coerced into the vaginas of black women by WHITE MEN during the 200+ years of slavery, and continued right into the post slavery period, and continues
It was NOT black men raping white women. That is a MYTH.
It was WHITE MEN RAPING BLACK WOMEN.
Let this truth be known.
@Sargeant October 23, 2017 at 8:45 AM “a nickname for an individual which has been bandied about on the social network.”
They call him wuk fa wuk.
A long time ago I was sitting on a plane with a baby on my lap, he was sitting across the aisle with his wife with a baby on her lap. I had never heard of him before, as he was not at that time a “big shot” he spent the 5 1/2 hours of the journey trying to persuade me to have a sexual relationship with him, notwithstanding the wife and baby beside him, and my baby on my lap.
He gave me his number and asked me to call.
I have never called.
i will NEVER, EVER call the sleazy idiot.
millertheanunnaki October 23, 2017 at 12:47 PM “With the decriminalization of prostitution men would not have any reason to sexually harass women.”
What silliness.
In place s where prostitution is legal some men still rape, some men still sexually harrass women.
Men do this nastiness because they can.
Until they are exposed.
Then they claim innocence.
@Jeff Cumberbatch October 23, 2017 at 6:07 AM “inappropriate touching”
Professor, why you calling it inappropriate touching?It is sexual assault.
If I show up at UWI, and I am only 10 minutes from UWI right now, and touch you on your penis is it inappropriate touching? Or it is sexual assault? Call it what is is. Sexual Assault. We can’t fix the problem if we continue to use nicey, nicey, Sunday School words.
@ Simple Simon, In fact it is “Indecent Assault” – See section 11 of the Sexual Offences Act 1992
But wait. Simon you charging Whiitehill’s red cape of wild statements and getting your horns caught in a tangle, yah.
What the RH is really wrong wid any man being peekish and asking a comely black woman of a certain age as you describe ya friend for a date.
We definitely getting too many bees in we under-wears.
Sexual Harassment aint got nothing to do wid what you friend do as I understand wha these politicians trying to achieve or as the professor explained the law.
Wha yu describe sounds like just doggie do-do behaviour like you and the fella on the plane, but fah real doh if the woman aint yah subordinate at work, or even a peer (or pear shape) who yah mekking uncomfortable wid all the sexual innuendo and unwanted advances what is al this RH bout sexual harassment.
Nah woman nor man should feel uncomfortable in the castle of dey skin because de peeps dem seekesing at dem or telling dem how good they look or asking if they want to practice massage therapy after work. We understand dat.
But we gots to ease back to real life tribulations and appreciate that Adam will admire Eve or Steve and when he feel a way he will ask a question. Is every one of dem questions now considered harassment?
Dis like when a ugly fella give a woman sweet eye she does cut she eye and stupese but when it is buff, handsome boy Davey she does giggle and bat she eye lids too sweet and nowadays immediately wifi she number to he smart phone too.
Harassment is wrong. But let commonsense also prevail.
William Skinner, I’m a black man from White hill, St. Andrew.
I’m also very familiar with that tactic of blacks labeling anyone a racist who don’t subscribe to their way of life.
I was indeed a racist, maybe still am for the most part of my life living in a predominantly white country. I don’t give a damn what you or anyone thinks, matter of fact, you and others can go kiss my ass right now. We blacks as a people living in this part of the world since slavery have contributed to our own demise since for ever.
Take businesses and commerce; what the hell do we own as the majority on the island? Do we support black bajan businesses as we flock to the whites and cooly men. I guess we are waiting for an Idi Amin like leader to chase these people out so we can get their stores. I’m sure somewhere in the recesses of the minds of black bajans there is a cause for this and not us as a contributors.
I saw and heard many bajan black women berating their sons for acting like a “she she” since those boys did not show the requisite manly attitude of knocking his girl friends about. Now the chickens have come home to roost…
I don’t know what went on after the late 70s, but then a lot of young boys were fooped by older women, I for one don’t think I was molested; I enjoyed those escapades immensely. A lot of us got more old pokey when we were kids than now most of us are old men. In 1995 around the month of June, the nation news paper carried a head line: more mothers are having sex with their sons.
Since little boys don’t get pregnant, we will never know if mummy is still fooping her sons.
So you see, us bajan black men are the sick schmucks on the island.
@Northern
Your story from Tor Star
So ignorance of the law is an excuse.
wuk fa wuk is sleazy indeed and a well known pedophile who should not be allowed near parliament again to sexually abuse children, young girls and women because of his former status as a minister….as he is accustomed.
.it is a travesty that he is trying to be elected as a minister again, to commit the same crimes in St. George against women and children again…underage girls are at extreme risk in his presence, he is a known predator…
and since politicians and ministers love to cover up each others crimes against the people, everyone is at risk when the predators of parliament are on the loose.
Simple…at least call as close to the white boy name as ya can…lol
those pretentious pricks in Barbados sashaying around like white supremacist…cant stay away from black women…if ya dont watch yaself they would jump on ya back.
Is that how yah read that matter, Master Sargeant? What about the circumstances- dems does call it mitigating I thinks – where both the wife and the man (but he lying like hell) say that they did not know the wife could refuse his demands for sex.
And then what about the fact that that was the fact of law, I mean it was law that a husband cud not rape he wife. That did only change around the time dat dems two got hitched in dem arranged marriage according to the story.
Plain and simple, the judge contrived a judgement that made lots of sense in practical terms considering the mental awareness of both parties and dem cultural ting. He cud also have thrown the book at the husband cause as you say ingrunce of the law is not an excuse, generally.
But dem is udder cases where even police officers were excused strong punishment due to their own ingrunce of law too. Remember that one just recently when a nurse was manhandled and arrested because she refused to draw blood from an injured and unconscious man. The Sargeant (not you of course) and his captain or whomever the idiot was did not know that the rules and law for that request had changed specifically and nor did they accept obviously that every person has a right of self determination.
So ingrunce of the law may not be an excuse but it can make things interesting.
this is the crap sexual predators and pedophiles do…once a sexual predator always a sexual predator.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/creep-stalked-brooklyn-siblings-left-weird-note-mailbox-article-1.3582468
….A Brooklyn creep stalking an 8-year-old girl and her brother left a note in the family’s mailbox that offered little doubt about his intentions: “Watch out. I am watching you!! Your daughter is cute.”
Cops on Monday released a video of the suspect standing on the sidewalk outside of the kids’ Crown Heights home. Hours later, a suspect turned himself in and police were questioning him….
“This male was stalking an 8-year-old child,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. “Someone just turned himself into the 69th Precinct. We’re speaking to him now. He appears to be that person. It’s really preliminary right now but we’ll talk to him further and see exactly what he was intending.”
so there is no dispute that the island is a rape society….always focusing on the wrong things…hence the stagnation.
@ Simple Simon October 23, 2017 at 1:39 PM
What should be done about the ‘too’ many women who falsely accused decent educated law-abiding ‘good’ intelligent men of sexual harassment and even rape just because they are looking to seek revenge out of being rejected out of failure of their feminine wiles or looking forward to a one-off big payday without having to do a night of working out in the back seat or a black Cadillac or in the sprawling recesses of a penthouse rented for the occasion?
We can guess from your ‘sexist’ response women never engage in the act of sexual harassment not only of men but also against their very own gender.
You shall soon what would be playing out given the preponderance of female workers and bosses in the workplaces operating in an economy which is primarily service-oriented with the tourist industry a prime example where men are hardly welcomed at the coalface unless in a highly technically specialized background.
Simple S, since you are not a ‘real macho hunk of a man you will never know how it feels to be ‘harassed’ by a horny ugly’ woman of limited means.
@Iggi B
You like you is a provocateur, yuh know when I came to this country I had many cultural habits which I had to jettison tout de suite. I could walk into de local shop in Bim buy a nip bottle and drink um by de roadside, or if one uh de young wuns talk back, a back hand cross e mout wud have put he strait.
Yuh tink if I did try to do dat up hay dem many moons ago I cud go in front de local magistrate and say “uh beg yuh pardon but dat is part of me culture”. De man/woman wud throw de book at me and send me someplace where yuh couldn’t even have conjugal visits. Not only dat some MP wud be bringing a Private members bill to have all future migrants from Bimshire undergo an IQ test to see whether they exceed de score for morons (51-70). BTW de idiot box is on and in the background Trump is speaking prior to awarding some Bravery medal (Not dat he is a moron yuh gotta ask Tillerson).
I find it strange that these two people lived in the land of (50 Eskimo/Inuit words for snow) for 24 years and didn’t know that marital rape was a crime. The judge must have had a bad day and the defendant should be caressing his prayer beads thanking Allah the Munificent Giver.
@Jefferson Cumberbatch October 23, 2017 at 1:44 PM “In fact it is “Indecent Assault” – See section 11 of the Sexual Offences Act 1992.”
Thanks Professor.
From now on we will call it what it is, indecent assault.
No more Sunday schoolish, nicey, nicey names.
@Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger October 23, 2017 at 2:21 PM “call as close to the white boy name as ya can”
Int no boy, which is the thing that makes it worse. Bigable hard back middle aged with MAN with a wife and children.
Damn idiot.
Lol….
Sexual harrassment and sexual assault are scrouges to be wiped out….no one is safe.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-politics-sexual-harassment-women-female-mps-commons-parliament-party-councils-a8015816.html
NewsUKUK Politics
“Female UK politicians speak about about experiences of sexual assault and harassment
Labour and Conservative politicians hope to encourage more women to come forward in wake of Harvey Weinstein scandal
Ben Kentish @BenKentish 43 secs ago
jess-phillips.jpg
Jess Phillips said she was assaulted by her boss after attending a party during her twenties PA
A number of female British politicians have revealed their experiences of sexual assault and harassment in an attempt to encourage other women to speak out.
Labour MPs Jess Phillips and Mary Creagh, Conservative MP Theresa Villiers and Tory Baroness Anne Jenkin spoke out in the hope of encouraging other victims to open up about their experiences.
It comes after the Harvey Weinstein scandal prompted widespread debate about the prevalence of sexual assault. Mr Weinstein, a major Hollywood producer, has been accused of numerous assaults against multiple women over many years.”
The recent arrest of Antiguan tourism minister Ascot Michael, and his instant dismissal by prime minister Brown, raises a number of issues that should be central to the independence of our nation-states and which should concern Caricom.
First, a minister travelling on official business should be on a diplomatic passport; if so, why was the minister arrested? That is a breach of Geneva protocols. If someone travelling on a diplomatic passport is of interest to foreign crime investigators, then that interested should have been communicated government to government.
You can be sure that if an American diplomat was of interest to Scotland Yard they would not go within a hundred metres of him or her if they touched down at a British airport.
Second, as the prime minister himself has admitted, if the reasons for the minister’s arrest were unclear, why was he sacked on the dubious grounds that his arrest alone demanded his dismissal?
Instead, the government should have gone in to over-drive to defend its minister, since his arrest will impact on the reputation of the nation as a whole.
In fact, the Antiguan attorney general should have called in the British high commissioner and demanded answers for this rather unusual action.
Caricom should also be involved, since the arrest is a reflection of the contempt with which Caribbean nations are held by most European and North American governments.
Unable to sleep I was up catching up on news from home when I stumbled on this piece about the Antiguan tourist minister.
Initially, I was impressed with the actions of the Antiguan pm. I felt his was in total contrast to that of Barbados pm Stuart in his handling of the situation involving the speaker, Michael Carrington. However, later and as Hal Austin pointed out; why wasn’t procedures not followed in accordance with the protocols in place when dealing with such diplomatic situations? The Antiguan pm for whatever reason is unable to see or don’t give a damn of the ramifications such actions by the British will present for small island nations down the road.
@Hal, well stated on the diplomatic front. Yet the more interesting thread (or maybe gossipy) must be the Bolt like speed displayed by the PM to seek a dismissal from cabinet of the minister arrested.
No one who is a proud practicioner of sovereignty rights could so immediately distance himself from the basic standard of presumed innocence unless he is aware of and appalled by the underlying allegations…. and even then his decision is still about political mileage, not legal or morsl rights.
An interesting situation for Antiguans.
The diplomatic snafu will be handled mainly behind closed doors as you know.
“I was impressed with the actions of the Antiguan pm. I felt his was in total contrast to that of Barbados pm Stuart in his handling of the situation involving the speaker, Michael Carrington.”
Very impressive indeed.
The only ramifications is when small islands seek to cover up when their ministers with diplomatic status get held or turned back at international borders, that is watched for when it is attempted to happen again…read Michael Lashley.
Yall like to hide up and cover up too damn much…..part of the reason the island is such a damn mess of nasty secrets, blight and crimes.
First, a minister travelling on official business should be on a diplomatic passport; if so, why was the minister arrested? That is a breach of Geneva protocols. If someone travelling on a diplomatic passport is of interest to foreign crime investigators, then that interested should have been communicated government to government.
@ Hal, you are so right!
Diplomatic agents enjoy the highest degree of privileges and immunities. They enjoy complete personal inviolability, which means that they may not be handcuffed (except
in extraordinary circumstances), arrested, or detained; and neither their property (including vehicles) nor residences may be entered or searched. Diplomatic agents also enjoy complete immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the host country’s courts and thus cannot be prosecuted no matter how serious the o ense unless their immunity is waived by the sending state.
the head of IMF was arrested in NYC for rape while travelling and relieved of his diplomatic status and forced to resign…
the prime minister or president of a country has the power to revoke any cabinet position….from within that country.
diplomatic status is not a status for life, in this case Michael can be reenstated.
For the sexual predators and pedophiles. ..definiation of sexual harassment.
https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2017/10/23/study-shows-a-fifth-of-bajan-workers-have-fallen-victim-to-sexual-harassment/
“However, its findings are only now being made public, amid widespread national debate over the proposed Employment Sexual Harassment (Prevention) Bill, 2017, which was piloted by Government in the Senate nearly two weeks ago with a view to stamping out harassment of all kinds in the workplace.
Under the Bill, which has already been approved by the Upper House, but is still under active discussion in the Lower Chamber, the “use of sexually suggestive words, comments, jokes, gestures or actions that annoy, alarm or abuse a person” may be considered sexual harassment, so too “the initiation of uninvited physical contact with a person; the initiation of unwelcome sexual advances or the requests of sexual favours from a person; asking a person intrusive questions that are of a sexual nature that pertain to that person’s private life; transmitting sexually offensive writing or material of any kind; making sexually offensive telephone calls to a person; or any other sexually suggestive conduct of an offensive nature”.
@Hal Austin October 24, 2017 at 3:51 AM “First, a minister travelling on official business should be on a diplomatic passport; if so, why was the minister arrested? That is a breach of Geneva protocols.
A Simple Response: But we don’t know whether or not he was travelling on a diplomatic passport.
@Hal Austin October 24, 2017 at 3:51 AM “You can be sure that if an American diplomat was of interest to Scotland Yard they would not go within a hundred metres of him or her if they touched down at a British airport.”
Ahh!!! but the State Department has the financial and human resources to be a real, real serious organization. I doubt very much that the State Department would permit their officials while on official business to travel without a diplomatic passport.
@Hal Austin October 24, 2017 at 3:51 AM “In fact, the Antiguan attorney general should have called in the British high commissioner and demanded answers for this rather unusual action.”
What if the British officials had had a conversation with Antiguan officials BEFORE the detention took place?
At this point we don’t know.
I doubt that either government is telling us all that their officials know.
@Jeff Cumberbatch October 24, 2017 at 9:18 AM “unless their immunity is waived by the sending state.”
But we don’t know whether Mr. Michael had diplomatic immuniyt; and we don’t know if even he had such immunity, the sending state, in this case Antigua has waived his immunity.
We don’t know.
However right nowIi would love to be a fly on the wall at the Met, or at the Antiguan Foreign Ministry.
it would indeed be odd if he was not traveling on a diplomatic passport, he was intransit on his way to France on official government business…so no government official does that, it`s not like he was on vacation.
You would be surprised.
Yeah…arrogance would cause neglect.
To all sexual predators and pedophiles. ..you will go to prison.
“Man jailed for slapping four women on their buttocks
Added by Barbados Today on October 24, 2017.
Saved under Court
2
A St Lucy man, who indecently assaulted four women by slapping and squeezing their buttocks before running off, was sentenced in the High Court today.
Troy Antonio King, of Josey Hill, previously admitted to committing the acts in May 2014 and June 2015.
In all four cases, the women were going about their business in Bridgetown when they were suddenly slapped on the buttocks.
In one instance, the victim, an 18-year-old student, was assaulted and told, “it feels good” while walking in The City with her mother.
Delivering the sentence today, Madam Justice Michelle Weekes pointed out that King, who has 27 previous convictions, repeated the offence several times even when he was on bail for similar crimes.
For three of the offences, the judge sentenced King to three concurrent three-year prison terms.
However, he was slapped with a four-year prison term for the offence committed against the 18-year-old girl.
Having already spent 1,038 days on remand at HMP Dodds, King only has 58 days left to serve on the three-year sentences and one year and 58 days on the fourth sentence, which runs concurrently.
Justice Weekes also ordered him to under go psychological and drug rehabilitation treatment while incarcerated.”
@Sarge
sometimes I am scared to believe what these judges rule
@Hal
good point.
I found it equally interesting to read, BOTH the PM and the arrested minister were overseas on CBI missions, at the time. The PM was reportedly in Montenegro.
We have the freedom to question why PM Browne revoked the appointment of the minister but there is the reality that we are not seized with the facts. Antigua has a diplomatic presence and must have been informed “unofficially” what led to the arrest. As mentioned by another commenter a PM does not have to comply with any legal process when appointing or disappointing a minister from Cabinet.
This article actually proves Browne made the right choice in relieving Michael of his duties until the mess, which he is hesitant to speak about, is sorted out in his favor, it’s obvious now that it is a national UK investigation his name got caught up in and he may or may not be innocent ……but with all his long talk, he is still stuck in UK….ya would think he would return to Antigua right away if the police did not require any further information from him as he said.
If nothing else it would put the other ministers in check..lol
“WIC News
Home Caribbean Antigua & Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda: Asot Michael speaks out after London arrest
By Joyce Loan – 24th October 2017
Share on Facebook Tweet on Twitter
Last updated: October 25, 2017 at 9:40 am
Antigua and Barbuda politican Asot Michael has made his first public statement since his arrest yesterday.
He said that it was “unfortunate” that the prime minister did not contact him prior to stripping him of his ministerial roles.
The St Peter MP stressed that when questioned by police he “denied any allegations made against me, and that I have not been involved in any wrongdoing” – although he failed to reveal what his arrest relates to.
Michael was met by police officers at Gatwick Airport, south of central London, after arriving on a flight from Antigua.
He was stopping off in the UK before continuing on to Cannes, France, for a conference on investment
Metropolitan Police told WIC News that if he was arrested at Gatwick it would fall under the jurisdiction of Sussex Police.
When contacted, an officer from Sussex Police said: “I understand that this is a National Crime Agency case.”
The National Crime Agency is a UK-wide law enforcement organisation, replacing the Serious Organised Crime Agency four years ago.
A request for further information has been lodged by WIC News with the National Crime Agency’s press office.
Explanation of events
Soon after news of Michael’s arrest emerged, Prime Minister Gaston Browne – who was travelling at the time – issued a statement that confirmed the veteran politician had been relieved of his duties.
Until yesterday, Michael was minister for tourism, economic development, investment and energy.
Addressing yesterday’s incident for the first time, the MP said that the arrest was simply standard UK procedure when people need to be questioned but are planning to leave the country.
“I attended an interview, in which I made it clear that I denied any allegations made against me, and that I have not been involved in any wrongdoing, which is the case,” he said.
“I then carried on my journey into London. I was not charged with any offence, I am not on bail, and the police did not seek to impose any restriction on my travel.”
WIC News has attempted to contact Michael at an address in central London but has been unable to.
READ: ASOT MICHAEL’S STATEMENT IN FULL
PM’s decision based on ‘misinformation’
Asot Michael is a heavyweight on the Antigua-Barbuda political scene.
He has represented the St Peter constituency since 2004 and held a number of high profile cabinet roles.
He was previously chief of staff to former Prime Minister Lester Bird.
The speed at which Michael was removed from office came as a shock, and has been criticised by some.
In his statement, the now ex-minister defended his conduct and said he had not been able to speak to Gaston Browne yet.
“I fully accept and respect the prime minister’s right to appoint and remove ministers in his government,” he said.
“However, in the circumstances I consider that the prime minister’s decision in this case, to relieve me of my ministerial responsibilities, is likely to be due to a misapprehension of what has taken place, and second hand information, indeed misinformation.
“I do not consider that any justifiable question has arisen that I have failed to comply with the highest possible standards required of public office.
“I am sorry that the prime minister did not contact me before the press release was issued. I propose to speak to him as soon as possible, and to explain the situation.”
Keep ya sexy comments to yaself…lol
“The woman who accused West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle of exposing himself has completed her evidence at a defamation trial in Sydney and left the courtroom in tears.
Massage therapist said she feared players were trying “to either try their luck or intimidate me”
Journalist said he was told Gayle’s “cards were marked” after a controversial TV interview
Sydney Sixers GM reportedly said cricket “missed an opportunity to come down more strongly” on Gayle
Gayle is suing Fairfax Media over a series of articles published early last year claiming he had exposed himself to a woman working with the team.
Leanne Russell worked as a massage therapist for the West Indies in 2015, and contacted The Age newspaper last year when she was angered by a TV interview in which Mr Gayle told a reporter “Don’t blush baby”….”
@David October 25, 2017 at 3:56 AM “Antigua has a diplomatic presence and must have been informed “unofficially” what led to the arrest.”
Unoffficially David?
You have your police arres a whole big Cabinet Minister and send unofficial information?
Methinks David that the British Authorities sent a diplomatic note/a very official communication to the Antiguan authorities.
Most Barbadian readers and commenters on BU would love for pm Stuart to take a page out of the Antiguan’s book.However,
this unfolding situation and the manner in which Browne dealt with it is most unfortunate and disturbing.
Any person/minister travelling abroad on their country’s business, and that person is accorded diplomatic immunity; at no time during their stay abroad, unless instructed to return home, should that immunity be revoked. While many persons over the years have been able to invoke immunity for serious breaches of the host country laws, there is more to that protocol than protection for dishonest politicians running off with their ill gotten gains.
Here a couple relevant links on the unfolding sage out of Antigua. Is this the respected SIR Ronald Sauders who is caught up in the mess as well?
x
Ah believe that is why prime ministers have revocation powers…lol
This is the reason that nothing politicians or ministers in the Caribbean or anywhere else say can be trusted…Aspt Michael failed in his statement to syt the real reason he was arrested in UK…as many suspected he would..
“Why was Asot Michael arrested in the UK?
October 25, 2017 OBSERVER media Breaking, The Big Stories 0 Comments
BREAKING STORY
The National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK did not pick up Antigua and Barbuda’s M.P Asot Michael for a routine interview as he suggested in a press statement Tuesday.
According to a document by the Head of Caribbean, Central America & Mexico Department, Patrick Reilly, the NCA arrested Michael on the morning of October 23.
The UK official wrote that Michael was questioned about bribes that a UK national allegedly paid for business contracts in the Caribbean.
At the time of his arrest, Michael was the Minister of Tourism, Economic development, investment and energy, but was stripped of the portfolios later that day on the order of prime minister Gaston Browne.
Reilly’s letter to Antigua and Barbuda’s government officials, says Michael was released pending further investigations. No conditions were imposed on his travel in, around or out of the UK.
According to the notification to the government, the NCA says it cannot rule out the possibility of criminal charges.
When contacted this morning, attorney general, Steadroy “Cutie” Benjamin said he was not aware of the document and therefore could not comment.
Efforts to reach Prime Minister Gaston Browne were unsuccessful. He’s said to be traveling back to Antigua from Jordan.”
Despite all of these criminal actions of the widely known lebanese Michael family, Michael ended up in the parliament again, …it actually serves Browne right for having him as a minister knowing his vile history, maybe now those who believe in politicians and ministers will see why Browne has to cut immediate ties with him, or suffer the consequences, like in the Allen Sanfird brou haha.
It gets even worse, there is a known lebanese, syrian, indian organized criminal network operating throughout the Caribbean, south america and have for decades, let’s hope everyone of them in every island is reeled in soon.
Note to Bajan politicians
If you are receiving kickbacks from an Englishman then meet him in France.. And for your sake, steer clear of the US.
@David
Wasn’t Antigua Allan Stanford’s base? Years ago, Antigua was famous for cheap liquor as there were so many coves that ships could slip in under cover of darkness which led to a smuggles paradise. They have since upped the ante, this latest Minister worked for former PM Bird, now where did we hear that name before?
Who were the “political Bandits” that barrow spoke of?
Yes Sargeant. Antigua is at the top of the pile of islands where corruption is rampant!
@Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. October 25, 2017 at 8:45 PM “Efforts to reach Prime Minister Gaston Browne were unsuccessful. He’s said to be traveling back to Antigua from Jordan.”
Question: Aren’t Prime Ministers just like the rest of us? Aren’t they MARRIED TO THEIR SMART PHONES just like the rest of us? Lol! Aren’t their phones fully charged just like ours are, just in case there is an emergency? And don’t they, UNLIKE the rest of us,mlol! get to send their phone bills to the taxpayers?
While we struggle to pay ours?
So how come neither Mr. Michael or the Antiguan media seem to reach Mr. Brown today?
I thought that “the Prime Minister is overseas and therefore cannot talk to you” went out the door around about 2008 when smart phones became available to virtually everybody. I believe that even Ninja Man has one.
Lol..
Lol..Simple…he been traveling from Montenegro and Jordan for the last 3 days….both countries must be in another dimension far removed from ours. ..not even traveling from Africa, Asia and the far east takes that long….by plane..lol
Sargeant October 25, 2017 at 9:30 PM #
Sargeant, allegations about corruption are not central to what has taken place regarding the Antiguan former minisdter. So far, to my knowledge, neither Mr Michael nor the National Crime Agency, the arresting body, has said what the concerns are.
What is important is the over-reaching arms of the British authority. Let us take a hypothetical case: if it is alleged that the former minister took a bribe from a British citizen or registered company; if this alleged offence did not take place within the UK jurisdiction, what authority did they have to arrest a minister of a sovereign state, exiting through London, presumably on a diplomatic passport?
It is true there is anti-bribery legislation on the statute books (I shall return to this later), but this can only apply to UK companies and citizens or to non-citizens committing offences within the UK.
To drift off about the extent of corruption within Antiguan political culture is to miss the point.
As to UK anti-bribery legislation, I have previously raised the point that if there is evidence that the many people we accuse of corruption in Barbados, and of having UK bank accounts, then report it to the UK authorities and an investigation will be launched.
There is a permanent Scotland |Yard operative based at the British high commission in Barbados. In any case, a letter, email or telephone call will do.
Sometimes we find it easier to smear people than to look beyond the surface for infringements of our sovereignty, which should deeply concern us.
As usual…being pendejo. ..the Brotish High Commission has moved to Trinidad..ya cant get any information in Barbados..
The Caribbean and latin american arm of the agency on UK national crimes outlined WHY Michael was arrested and the potentoal for rearrest…as they are duty bound to do..
“The National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK did not pick up Antigua and Barbuda’s M.P Asot Michael for a routine interview as he suggested in a press statement Tuesday.
According to a document by the Head of Caribbean, Central America & Mexico Department, Patrick Reilly, the NCA arrested Michael on the morning of October 23.
The UK official wrote that Michael was questioned about bribes that a UK national allegedly paid for business contracts in the Caribbean”
Dummy….ya cant find anything in UK newspapers yet…because he has not been charged with anything…yet…all ya will get are communique….ya will note that he is still in UK, why wont he leave, because his lawyer told him not to attempt to.
And you call yaself a journalist….steupps..
@Hal A
I didn’t condone the arrest of the Minister I just referenced the “coincidence” of corrupt activities centred on Antigua and the associated politicians.
I agree that if the Minister was travelling on a diplomatic Passport his “arrest” is questionable, however some of these countries (and the US comes to mind) prosecute both bribers and bribe takers even if the activity takes place outside of their jurisdiction as long as one of the individuals/company is a US citizen/registered in the US.
I don’t know what the law is in Britain maybe they have a similar one on their books, in any event they have “released” the Minister so he is free to continue his travels/work. The Brits may have sent a shot across the bow to alert others who may be operating along the same lines of “hey we see you and know what you are doing”.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/78dd-1
America’s ugly history will never, ever go away.
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Oct 26
Even Nazi prisoners of war in Texas were shocked at how black people were treated in the South
In Texas, some of the Germans actually befriended Americans of all colors
Prisoners forced to watch news reels of Nazi atrocities expressed surprise at the realization that they had been instruments in the perpetration of genocide. (East Texas History)
One morning in the spring of 1943, years before the end of World War II, Huntsville, Texas woke up to a startling sound: the clip-clapping boots of Nazi soldiers in formation, singing German marching songs as they made their way through the dusty streets of the small town.
Those soldiers were among the first prisoners of war sent to POW camps in the United States. The townspeople watched as barracks went up, surrounded by barbed wire and chain link fences, and wondered what, exactly, they were in for. Americans had only been in the war for a year when POW camps were being built, and residents of Huntsville had little time to prepare for the reality of thousands of Nazi prisoners taking up residence just eight miles from the town limits.
In fact, the United States entered the prisoner of war business very reluctantly in 1941, and then only at the insistence of the British. The Allies were winning the North African front of the war, and capturing soldiers they could not house. The British wore down the United States after months of efforts and a few frosty notes from Whitehall. “It is very hard to understand on this side why…it should prove so difficult even to get an agreement in principle,” complained one frustrated writer. The U.S. begrudgingly accepted their share of POWs in 1942, starting with 50,000 soldiers from the African front.
POW camps would spread out across the country in subsequent years, throughout the South, Southwest and Midwest, cropping up in California, New Jersey, West Virginia, and North Carolina. By the time the war ended, about 500,000 captured soldiers were housed in the United States, and 380,000 of those were German prisoners of war.
German POWs sit for mealtime at a camp in Hearne, Texas. (Arkansas National Guard Museum)
Huntsville was the first camp to open, built from scratch and fully outfitted to comply with Geneva Convention requirements for warm and hygienic living quarters, access to medical treatment, provisions for libraries and other intellectual activities, and open spaces that encouraged physical activities. Prisoners also had to be housed in a climate similar to where they were captured, which was why so many captured in North Africa ended up in Texas.
By the time they arrived at Camp Huntsville, the German POWs were thrilled. They’d already been dazzled by travelling to the prison in luxurious Pullman cars. Both the cityscapes and the rural beauty of the United States amazed them. “From New York to Texas, you saw the whole countryside. Cars driving. Buildings lit up….I came to wonder — how did we ever think we would beat the U.S. at this war?” former POW Heino Erichsen mused decades after the war ended.
Men like Rudolf Thill, who was transported to Huntsville in 1943, found sparkling facilities behind the chain link fences and rows of barbed wire. Enlisted men lived in bunk rooms. Officers had their own quarters. They ate food that the townspeople could only dream of during rationing, with items like milk, meat, and butter appearing on their daily menus. Angry local residents dubbed the camps “The Fritz Ritz.”
German prisoners line a funeral procession for one of their own at a camp in Fort Bend County, Texas. (University of North Texas Libraries)
At first, locals weren’t just resentful, but also feared the prospect of Nazi prisoners of war in their towns. Former prisoners of war remember Americans searching their faces, “looking for horns,” expecting the moral menace of the German soldiers to even manifest physically. Americans who gathered to gawk at the prisoners as they were transported across the country also expected to see a race of superhero-like men, blonde, muscular, tanned, and fearsome examples of men Hitler described as a “master race.” They were disappointed. “To our curiosity and surprise, they looked no different than other young men in the neighborhood,” a 14-year-old boy observed at the time.
The resentment passed quickly when the federal government decided, in 1943, that it would be safe to put the Nazi soldiers to work. Farmers had been complaining they couldn’t find anyone to work their fields. Most men were expected to fight in the war and for those who were left behind, the war-related industries paid far better than farm work. Farmers were thrilled to hire the prisoners to hoe and pick cotton. For the most part, the walls between the locals and the prisoners dissolved as soon as the Germans picked up hoes. Grateful farmers invited POWs to lunch and showered them with small gifts of candy and cigarettes. “They were just the best bunch of boys,” one Texan recalled.
German POWs tend to local crops in Fort Bend County, Texas. (University of North Texas Libraries)
American officials were frustrated by their inability to stop their citizens from fraternizing with the enemy after the walls between the prisoners and the townspeople came down (albeit metaphorically). Women lined up against the chain link fences to watch the POWs play soccer. People piled into train stations when a transport was scheduled to arrive, hoping for a glimpse of the prisoners. Edouard Patte, a Swiss delegate of the International YMCA who worked as a Red Cross monitor, put it this way: “it’s difficult to imagine that these nice blond lads with rosy cheeks had been war baiters and murderers a short while ago.”
The POWs also found friends in the most unlikely of places, as they worked alongside African Americans hoeing and picking cotton, talking away long days in the hot sun. African American field hands were painfully aware that white Americans treated Nazi prisoners far better than they did people of color. African Americans waited on POWs when they were transported in Pullman cars to their camps, and prisoners were also allowed to eat in whites-only cafeterias. At the camp, they were dealt the most menial jobs, including spraying the prisoners with delousing foam. The slights hurt all the more because the president had very recently ordered the Armed Forces to desegregate, and African-American soldiers had grown used to somewhat better treatment.
Yet, on an individual level, they got along with the Germans. And Germans were fond of them, in part because African American soldiers had protected them from the mobs of people who wanted to kill the POWs.
Surprisingly, given the blatant racism of the Nazi party, some of the German soldiers were also shocked by the shoddy treatment of their fellow farmworkers. “The blacks…didn’t do much better than us,” remarked one POW. “They were just in front of the wire, and we were behind the wire.” Another German soldier, who was a farmer in his civilian life, noted that African American were expected to pick two to three more times the cotton required of the POWs. “You have to see how they lived,” he said after the war. “These people were so exploited.”
At the time, Huntsville was conducting a re-education program for German prisoners, and the status of African Americans made Germans look askance at their classes on the land of the free. “They were being taught the meaning of ‘democracy,’” explained historian Matthias Reiss, “while outside the southern camps no black citizen dared to step on the sidewalk alongside white Americans.”
Re-education material at Camp Huntsville: “The Growth of Democracy in Early America.” (U.S. Army)
As part of their re-education, prisoners were also showed films of Allied soldiers liberating the concentration camps. “We saw the emaciated bodies and empty eyes of the survivors,” said POW Gerhard Hennes. “We saw the piles of naked bodies, starved to death. We saw the mass graves. We saw the ovens where tens of thousands had been cremated. We saw and stared in silence, struggling but unable to believe what we Germans had done to Jews, gypsies, prisoners of war and many others deemed inferior or expendable.”
They watched them in disbelief, and many refused to accept the truth of what they saw. “This just doesn’t happen,” former POW Herman Daumling recalled thinking as he watched the films. “Nobody does that.” The fact of concentration camps was an open secret, but German soldiers claimed that no one knew about the genocide that claimed the lives of 6 million Jews and 5 million others that the Nazis deemed undesirable. Listening to American radio news reports eventually convinced Daumling that the films weren’t propaganda, but unvarnished truth, but he was the exception. Fewer than half believed that the Holocaust was real by the end of the war, according to a poll conducted by the U.S. government.
Accepting the fact of the death camps had profound consequences for German soldiers. Hennes was one of the believers. “I turned in one profound transformation from being a hero to being a villain,” he said.
Thousands of German POWs moved back to the United States after the war, including Hennes. Historian Arnold Krammer estimates that 8,000 POWs eventually returned to the U.S. Some married American women, but most were sponsored by a resident to be eligible for residency, including former farmers supporting their former farm hands. POWs who didn’t immigrate to the States still visited Texas regularly for reunions with the farmers they once worked for. “Without exception, they recall their years as POWs in Texas as ‘the greatest times of their lives,’” Krammer observed.
Erichsen also moved to the United States after the war, eventually becoming a citizen and settling in Texas. He’s lived here most of his life. Yet he can’t shake what he learned as a young person. He still remembers the songs he had to memorize as a young man in Nazi Germany. He offered a few lines to a reporter reluctantly, at his wife’s urging: “Sharpen the long knives on the lantern post. See the Jewish blood flow.” He doesn’t want to think about what he learned as a child, but he has acknowledged it is a part of him, and he can never relax his vigilance against the hateful indoctrination of his youth.
“The POWs also found friends in the most unlikely of places, as they worked alongside African Americans hoeing and picking cotton, talking away long days in the hot sun. African American field hands were painfully aware that white Americans treated Nazi prisoners far better than they did people of color. African Americans waited on POWs when they were transported in Pullman cars to their camps, and prisoners were also allowed to eat in whites-only cafeterias. At the camp, they were dealt the most menial jobs, including spraying the prisoners with delousing foam. The slights hurt all the more because the president had very recently ordered the Armed Forces to desegregate, and African-American soldiers had grown used to somewhat better treatment.
Yet, on an individual level, they got along with the Germans. And Germans were fond of them, in part because African American soldiers had protected them from the mobs of people who wanted to kill the POWs.
Surprisingly, given the blatant racism of the Nazi party, some of the German soldiers were also shocked by the shoddy treatment of their fellow farmworkers. “The blacks…didn’t do much better than us,” remarked one POW. “They were just in front of the wire, and we were behind the wire.” Another German soldier, who was a farmer in his civilian life, noted that African American were expected to pick two to three more times the cotton required of the POWs. “You have to see how they lived,” he said after the war. “These people were so exploited.”
At the time, Huntsville was conducting a re-education program for German prisoners, and the status of African Americans made Germans look askance at their classes on the land of the free. “They were being taught the meaning of ‘democracy,’” explained historian Matthias Reiss, “while outside the southern camps no black citizen dared to step on the sidewalk alongside white Americans.”
A senior UK minister has just resigned over allegation of sexual harassment. This is the Westminster model at work. The allegation is enough to force the resignation.