Last week, the title of my article was ‘Jamaica’s receding shoreline and God’s mysteries’. The article was basically about being on a beach in Montego Bay in 1971 while on a cadet camp and noting that by 1992 the beach had been reclaimed by the sea. I had already graduated from Jamaica College and had not yet got my adult rank, but was invited by the commanding officer, the late Colonel Robert Allen (then Captain Allen), to be a participant.

Captain Allen received a phone call that the Third Jamaica Regiment of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in Montego Bay had withdrawn permission for use of their campsite, but he decided to have the camp anyway. While the cadets were on the train heading to Montego Bay, Captain Allen was in Montego Bay seeking a replacement campsite. Could he have gone on a camp without knowing where the cadets were going to stay overnight today as there are now female cadets? Of course not!

The majority in a vote among cadet commissioned officers voted to include girls in the cadets in 1983. Since then, there has been a ‘watering down’ of certain aspects of cadet training to accommodate the girls. It cannot be the same training in terms of adventure, because that is unnatural to girls. But boys need rough and tough adventure as part of their development, such as sleeping on the road, if necessary, because there is no campsite. But the avenues for boys to achieve this are diminishing with each passing day.

Last week I stated that the then training major (now deceased) was adamant that the cadets be on parade at Up Park Camp on National Heroes Day, as was customary in those days. Captain Allen, however, went ahead with the Montego Bay camp that he had been planning for seven years. The training major admitted after the camp that it was he who communicated with JDF in Montego Bay to withdraw permission. The ‘diplomatic’ reason given to Captain Allen was that the roof was leaking — as if roof leaks were a good reason to cancel a cadet camp.

I inadvertently omitted to state that I was told by Captain Allen not to tell anyone, not even the sergeant major, that permission to use the JDF campsite in Montego Bay had been withdrawn. Naturally, Captain Allen would have been concerned that if the boys knew before that we did not know where the camp would be located, if held at all, many would have returned home. Can you imagine the pandemonium if the cadets had been informed immediately? Many would have left Jamaica College the Thursday evening and gone home. I drove to Montego Bay with Captain Allen, but could not ask any questions in front of the other cadet and the camp cook because I would have revealed what I should not. Some who were cadets on that camp perhaps only learnt this past week, nearly 44 years later, why we went to Cornwall instead of the JDF campsite in Montego Bay.

Readers, if you were Captain Allen, would you have gone ahead with your plans, or would you have sent the boys home immediately on learning that the campsite in Montego Bay was not available? There is no correct answer, as people differ. What I will state, though, is that there seems to be a lack of zeal and sense of adventure in our society today, so I imagine that many would argue that it would be the responsible thing to cancel at that point.

When I mention a lack of courageousness today, I am not talking about plain stupidity. For example, up to the 1970s, drivers of all sorts of motor vehicles would drive fast along the coast road in Montego Bay before the aeroplanes landed. Many are the stories of daringness when the coast road went around the Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. Was it true that pilots feared landing at Montego Bay for that reason? Eventually the road was blocked off, which is why for 21 years I never saw the beach we went to in 1971, that by 1992 was under water, as we now enter Montego Bay by another route. Intelligent bravery is what I mean by daring and zeal.

With girls in the cadet units today, the commanding officer would definitely have to cancel such a camp in the circumstances given. It would be grossly irresponsible to do otherwise. And this is where the boys have been victimised. Adventure is naturally very important to boys’ development, but today boys are not allowed to be adventurous in this respect because the girls hold them back — the tomboys among them notwithstanding. This is definitely one reason out of many our boys are growing soft.

And it is definitely a reason there is a need for more boys-only activities. Not even the conscious women in our society like to see the girls crowding out the boys in such a way that they cannot grow like boys. The last part of the final verse of my song Man fi look like man (which only Mutabaruka plays on radio) is: “We really need to have programmes for boys to act like men. So come forward men with show-grams, teach boys more things than 10.”

Last week I mentioned photographs from the Montego Bay adventure in 1971. I have sent in a few. Anyone who wants to see more photographs may e-mail me at the address below and I will send them to you.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com