The Man Talked The Truth

THE SOLILOQUY OF CHAOS


Dr. Lester CN Simon


Please afford me the opportunity to register my agreement with Dorbrene O’Marde on at least two of the points in his two-part article following his appearance on Without Limits. The “men had moved on” fact that riled the women on the programme is indeed a worldwide phenomenon. In my lifetime I have seen male cashiers move on and leave a void that women filled. In the last couple of years female cashiers have moved on and left spaces for some males who were willing to take the job.

The few men and women with whom I spoke about the “riling up” (“without limits”) suggested that some men, in like situations, where they face such extreme, unwarranted and emotional reactions to an unexamined statement of fact, simply choose to move on.

However, the more significant point in his article was his proclamation that “the education system, not the family, is the most influential vehicle in our country for socialization.” We have all been afraid to say this because we were concerned that someone would reply, “Not my family, if you please. Talk for yourself”. But this is all part of the dishonesty of adults when we regard our childhood.

Maybe we were afraid to make Dorbrene’s declaration because we would be forced to ask who, male or female, is running the education system these days. Before the misguided men run away with their short-sighted answer, like the dish running away with the spoon, Dorbrene makes the tipping point: It “is not about the gender of leadership; it is about the system within which the leadership operates and seems reluctant to challenge, much less change.”

That women and men challenge and change wrong is a noble fight, an inalienable duty. To this end the words of Senator Massiah regarding the victory of Mrs. Portia Simpson-Miller in Jamaica are noteworthy for their dual inferences. She reminded us that women have always been the backbone of political parties in the Caribbean.

If we continue to charge after quixotic windmills instead of engaging the real whirlwinds it will be, as the rapper says, “the soliloquy of chaos”.