Dear Editor,
I’m a father and grandfather and I have raised males and females and have a clear idea of the arena of parenthood, of fears and expectations, of managing with a limited budget, and sacrificing to deal with expensive demands. Like most fathers, we have a clear understanding that demons are not invisible mythical creatures, that they lurk, male and female in designer clothing with coercing smiles all around us; some of them are in authority and appear innocent. Thus we must be on guard to protect our over-anxious, clueless offspring. Had it been my daughter who had left for school and returned the following day, I would have whipped her; yes, I have beaten my children, slapped and even cuffed. In this case as related by both Kaieteur News and Stabroek News on June 23, 2012, this father is a parent of three; there are two other girls yet the Magistrate sentenced this parent to six weeks in prison – to achieve what? The same Magistrate (June 26, 2012) fined a woman $15,000 for hitting her husband in the head with a rolling pin, while in another court a man who hit his wife with a rolling pin (in front of another female Magistrate) was remanded (Stabroek News, June 23). Were the male offenders sentenced and sent to jail because of their gender?
This society has gone on an anti-male crusade; the politicians don’t want to say that the rise of unemployment, the cost of living and meagre paychecks are contributing factors to domestic violence, so a stereotype is perpetrated and one gender pronounced innocent and the other guilty.
Unreasonableness, deceit and a demented nature are qualities shared equally with the presumed vulnerable gender. On the eve of Father’s Day 2012, a close relative called me to say that his wife had made a report that he had assaulted her and he was at the police station. I immediately went to the station, where the constable told me that he would have to be kept in custody, as their orders were that such allegations meant mandatory detention. His wife has a niece at PHG so she was able to get a medical report in record time. The scene was set until a police officer related to her that since he had also made a report that she had assaulted him, that she would also have to be charged.
The wife then began to morph, and to explain that she was upset over some postings that the husband had made on Facebook and that she was prepared to reconcile. This police officer handled this matter with a professionalism that revealed a malicious fabrication that was meant to extract a certain outcome to appease a different contention. The Pandora cauldron that our lazy, insincere and blame-disposed authorities have unleashed is evident. It will take the heterosexual male in this society to participate in rendering a human face to our domestic abuse problems and to add reason where emotions and the cunning of the ‘victim syndrome’ are in the ascendant. Can you believe a man is taken before the court for breaking a ‘tea cup’?
My heart truly goes out for that father who has to spend time in prison for losing it in trying to prevent the worst, for I have also lost it many times with my children and applied the maleness that nature has equipped us with, which our mothers nurtured as we defended our sisters and even her honour and that of our female relatives when the case demanded.
Yours faithfully,
Barrington Braithwaite
