(Jamaica Gleaner) Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has responded to the disparaging comments by Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe against Jamaican men calling them unfortunate, misguided and disrespectful.
In a release from Jamaica House a week after Mugabe made the comments, Simpson Miller said the remarks must be dismissed as untrue and disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of Jamaican men who are excellent fathers, professionals and outstanding citizens.
“The remarks, regardless of whether they were spoken ‘in jest’ as was stated in yesterday’s edition of the New Zimbabwe Newspaper, were grossly unfortunate, misguided and untrue,” Simpson Miller said.
She continued: “We are confident that the remarks of President Mugabe do not represent the sentiments of the people of Zimbabwe, other African countries, and the rest of the world.”
The Prime Minister said her confidence is predicated on the fact that there are many outstanding and globally accepted examples of the character and contribution of Jamaican men, who have set the benchmark as exceptional achievers.
Mugabe, on September 5, said Jamaican men were drunkards who were caught up with smoking marijuana and were had therefore deferred leadership to women.
The Zimbabwean president was speaking at the launch of the 2012 Research and Intellectual Institute Expo, in Harare.
