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Tag Archives: Feminism

Have we become too polarized?

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The following statement was posted with breast beating bravado by de pedantic word ‘né’ Dee Word to blog A Time to March. It was in reply to an observation the world today is as polarized as it has ever been.

There is quite a lot that’s “new under the sun”, but we have allowed ourselves to get into an absurdity of easy-speak behaviours.

Accept the old saying: “Those who do not learn (or remember) history are doomed to repeat it.”

Is Barbados MORE polarized today than it was in 1962- 65??? Based on the electorate acceptance with the 30-0 victory of one political party – twice – the fundamental answer should be a resounding NO, not so!

Yet on the other hand, we actually have more political parties now than ever …

However, based on an understanding of the historical context of the time then the answer must still be NO, not so.

The US fought a freaking civil war and endured years (still) of grave civil strife due to the rage of involvement with wars, social justice etc … yet because of a megalomaniacal narcissist it’s automatic to speak now of how polarized it is!

No David, I am not dismissive of our massive NEW and fresh challenges I am simply a realist!!!

Dee Word

The blogmaster in all sincerity invites Dee Word to watch the short clip sent to BU inbox by BU family member Bentley a few days ago. There is a subtlety in the argument which is elusive for some.

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Brother, Where Art Thou?

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Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

Men are truly in crisis! Ralph Boyce and his MESA group are giving promotion of the interest of men their best shot, but I am not sure the extent to which they are succeeding. I see some very alarming trends on the horizon.

I am not speaking here of the disproportionate number of females enrolling at tertiary institutions. Neither am I concerned, on this occasion, about the virtual takeover of the leadership of the public service by members of the fairer sex.  Indeed, there is also the matter of every other driver on the road being female.

None of these issues, though deserving of evaluation, is as striking to me as driving around Barbados on weekends and viewing the social scene. Take for example my “passing time” in the lobby of the Barbados Hilton last Saturday evening and observing as literally hundreds of persons arrived for what was clearly a dapper social event. I was not invited and I did not care to enquire of the occasion. What, however, was striking was the near 70 percent to 30 percent ratio of women to men. For every “male and female” couple that waltzed into that hotel, there were two and probably three of females only, comprising two, three or four individuals. I was in the company of a visiting associate from overseas and it was he who asked the alarming question “but where are the Bajan men?”

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Women Grabbing The Upper Hand

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Submitted by ROK

womenI have to agree with Mr. Boyce. BANGO’s perspective on this is that it takes two. Women unleash their strength on men and cry fowl when men unleash theirs. What is the woman’s strength, words and emotion. They unleash it and when you hear the feminists, you see what I mean. It is unbridled.

If relations are to get any better, then women must learn to control themselves in as much as they are asking men to exercise the same control.

Women must learn to stop telling men that they “never” did anything for them”. They must also stop bashing men if they expect to seriously address this problem and as Ralph said, seek to deal with the real problem rather than the symptoms.

Furthermore, men must deal with the unfair situation where the courts of law remove them from their homes and place them in great hardship and straining their ability to support their children. You place them at a disadvantage and then heap them with burdens.

International Women's Day 2008

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Today is a special day; it is International Women’s Day. It would be a very dumb man who would deny the importance of the woman to our existence. Never mind that today we live in a world that trivializes the existence of life. Procreation which is considered one of the most sacred acts of mankind, and one which can only be performed by a woman has now been relegated to Abortion Clinics which can now be visited on many street corners around the globe. What a sad state the homo-sapiens species have become. Back to the point of this blog! Barbados Underground congratulates all women for the strides they have made in the last twenty years. Gender equality is something we will always support even though we may differ with how some women apply interpretations!

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The Family Law Council, Long In Coming But Will It Work?

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What About The Rights Of The Father?

The public relations committee of the Family Law Council held a press conference this week, our best guess is they were trying to counter the perception that Barbados’ law courts have an inherent bias against men in family matters. In this they failed miserably.

To quote the Nation news story:

“ABOUT 99 per cent of the men who challenge the paternity of children in child maintenance cases turn out to be the biological fathers.

Magistrate Faith Marshall-Harris, who is assigned to the juvenile and domestic courts, said men abused the court system by using DNA testing as a tactic to avoid paying child support for as long as possible…. (snip)

…”Some men unfortunately, protest paternity because they know if they do that, that will put us back several months before they have to do anything,” Marshall-Harris said.”

Now, we’re not saying that such abuse doesn’t happen. However, it would seem to us that before accepting what really is a lifetime financial and emotional commitment the prudent thing to do would be to ensure that it is in fact your responsibility. For a family court magistrate to dismiss this as a delaying tactic is not a particularly good illustration of lack bias on the part of the law.

Source: notesinthemargin

BU also read this article which appeared in the Nation Newspaper of 18 July 2007 and was appalled at the blatant gender bias which was evident. Can any reader provide information on the composition of the Family Law Council? We hope that MESA or men have been included on the council. So far we have seen and heard only women speaking to Family Law Council issues. It is noteworthy that in the article the learned legal luminaries have all focused on the few deadbeat men who challenge with paternity suits. We are surprise that MESA or our friends from the “Gated Mens Club” would not have triggered to rebut what was reported in this article.

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Can A Woman Ever Be Equal?

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Military Mom’s are Stressed and in Need of Help


 

Photo U.S. Specialist Jennifer Fifield of the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Cavalry Regiment attends a briefing at the forward operating base of Liberty camp April 1, 2007, before leaving for a mission in Baghdad’s northwest Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliya. Mothers in the U.S. military are stressed, poorly paid and need more help caring for their children, according to a report issued by Congress on Friday. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Military Mom’s Stressed and in Need of Help

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mothers in the U.S. military are stressed, poorly paid and need more help caring for their children, according to a report issued by Congress on Friday.

Nearly half of all women in the active-duty military have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and 24,475 women are there now, the report by the Joint Economic Committee said.

Yet child care services are not keeping up with longer and more frequent deployments, said the report, released to coincide with Mothers’ Day in the United States on Sunday.

Moreover, women get only 6 weeks of leave after the birth of a child, it found. — read full article

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Picked up on this story while reading some of the international blogs and BU readers may ask how is this relevant to the Barbados scene. The punch line in the story seems to suggest that the US female soldiers deployed in Iraq all appear to be of the lowest rank and therefore the lowest paid. The idea that the USA is a co-educational system and one would assume that if one in seven soldiers in Iraq is a woman then there should be a high probability that that should be reflected in the number of senior female officers in Iraq as well. Why is it that in every other area of the society the success of women who are penetrating the glass ceiling is evident but not the army. It just seems that men have an innate belief that we must protect our women. Perhaps the fact that US female soldiers are lowly placed in rank is to act as a disincentive,

Here in Barbados we quibble about the merits and demerits of co-education but in the USA which is regarded as the freest of all democratic countries the old but innate primal male characteristic is still alive!

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