Dear editor,
The five of us, retired professionals, over 80, looked at the people from Zimbabwe in Arnett Gardens, Jamaica, as they angrily demonstrated against a grieving mother who seemed to have hinted that her daughter was murdered by in-house ‘shottas’ because she rebuffed the s*xual advances of hankering community male.
Infuriated women denied the mother’s report by screaming: “di man dem can get s*x anytime dem want, from any of wi. Dem didn’t bodda di dead girl”. The men shouted: “Di ooman dem in ‘ere don’t wear clothes. Dem naked and any time wi want dem and say “ruuu” dem say yes. Wi ave no trouble fi s*x”. An irate young woman, obviously s*xed beyond her years, asked: “so wat if de man dem want it? Afta (it) is nat gol’.”
We prayed that our relatives abroad did not see the news, for we grew up at a time when boys and girls sat side by side in school and church and they never even talked, out loud, about s*x.
Virginity was precious. It was indeed gold to the girl with an unstained reputation.
Those who grew up in the ‘Born Again’ churches would be kicked out of the church and flung out of our safe homes to go far away to ‘chop wood and carry water’. We were afraid to think of s*x for the severe, primitive consequences.
Those of us who worked as doctors, nurses and teachers know how some of the girls in certain areas are pressured by the so-called don or ‘big-man’. We know that some mothers take the money and send their un-willing daughters to the slaughter.
Some of us have helped girls to escape to safe places. Others of us know how the family is hurt — the house burnt, and other forms of revenge effected — when the poor virgin escapes the clutches of the rapists, for that’s what they are when they force themselves on helpless children.
Another thing that hurts this independent country is ‘bad mind’. Neighbours seem to be jealous of the children who ‘stay inside’, study and do well in exams. We know so many examples where these children who pass many subjects are envied and have to leave their uninspiring neighbourhoods.
When we watched the hostile demonstration we realised what a champion that 17-year-old was, to have managed herself in an A grade school, passed 11 CSEC subjects and was predicted to be Head Girl in 6th form.
Our hands are tied; all we can do is talk.
Veronica Blake Carnegie
I watched this and cringed. The level of ignorance displayed was baffling smh.
I can attest to the “envying of children who stay inside”. They would say my mother act like she better than people…but the one I remembered vividly, was a lady saying “your daughter goodly a run battery pon herself when u gone a work”. At the time I didn’t even know what battery was or even thinking about sex. After passing my gsat for a prominent all girl school, my mother sent me to live with her sister “uptown”…and ironically, that’s where I was raped. To this day I have not uttered a word.
Sorry to hear of your ordeal but why did u keep it a secret?
Sorry for your ordeal. It has happened to a lot of us and we just cannot speak about it, not to anyone. Its our shame that we will take to the grave.
Envy and badmind is not restricted to the ghetto. It happens everywhere in Jamaica and other countries. The problem is, in the ghetto, people will act on the issue.
@met…Ninjaman a done Shauna chin ova Instagram..check it out..
Mi nuh see o
How ninja man and Ishawna thing relevant in this serious conversation of a young woman life taken because she have dignity. Another illiterate fool like the people demonstrating. Kmt.
Gonna send u to you..
Defying Age One Book At A Time
Veronica Blake Carnegie:
Nashauna Drummond, Lifestyle Coordinator
She greets you with a hug and will have you laughing within minutes of first meeting her. Eighty-year-old Veronica Blake Carnegie is the consummate storyteller, a trait she must have inherited from her mother.
Blake Carnegie has defied her age and the arthritis that gets worse each year, and has penned three books in three years. Leaving Home in 2009, The Tie Came Back in 2010, Dear Pastor Paul in 2011, and she is now working on her fourth book, The Fly. A fifth one is in the pipeline.
Her computer is now her daily companion, but she told Outlook that she began making jottings in notebooks in the 1970s. After dropping off her children at music lessons in Gordon Town, she would sit by the river and make her notes of things that had happened or that she had observed. However, they were relegated to boxes as she raised her children and cared for her husbands.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120101/out/out1.html
Ninja man is still walking n threatning people, him too disgusting. Dutty jamaican man ninja man be, dam face look like wen pot bottom chip up. I cant stand how dem behave nuff a dem like ninja man soon nyam out a rubbish bin. A nuff badness n people ninja man beat up n kill. See 2 a him son a male dyke dey, him a bad man but was nit a good father to grow up his bad breed kids. Ole parasite boy ninja man. Shauna chin go oneside cause u a gold digger, ur days done. However i hate it wen dem dutty man yah threaten females n promise female beating, ole nastiness boy ninja man.
Keyword – church – the day will come when homosexuality will be legal, key term – we used to – the old Jamaica as we know it, is long gone. Dancehall has replaced church and homosexuality has replaced families (a lot of coulee have 3somes regularly – like its nothing. Then there is (Poverty, sickness and hopelessness) they soon implement a system and label it “HELP” the answer has always been and will still remains……….
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. This is no joke man!! This is the kind of stuff the Rasta movement could have seen and wanted to fight against. You see how they are robbing and killing – all people who get barrel soon dead feh it, just watch – it’s all due to oppression!