Dear Editor,

At the beginning of the year we saw pictures of state minister in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Juliet Cuthbert Flynn celebrating the first infants to be born in the new year. Among those being celebrated was a teenage mother.

In a society in which grown men have sexual relations with underaged girls and even more widespread, men on the threshold of retirement are running around with young women who have not even completed their college degrees, it appears one need not be appalled. And sadly, the society seems to offer tacit approval.

A few weeks after the celebration of the new year births the public was faced with the unsurprising horror that disgraced American educator Carl Robanske had been in contact with young girls through his charity organisation, and reports from the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) allege that he had inappropriate interactions with at least three wards of the State. That, too, appeared to have had the tacit approval of the authorities as he was allowed to maintain contact with the wards of the State for three years after the the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) was made aware of the allegations against him.

How sad a reality for children already born into generational deprivation, lack of opportunity, and disregard for their human dignity to have been so shafted by the State.

The CPFSA debacle did not remain at the forefront of our conscience for too long, though, for, in characteristic fashion, displaying our inability to adjudicate on a multiplicity of issues simultaneously, this was overtaken by the debacle in the financial investment sector and soon after, the upheavals with the new Road Traffic Act. It appears nothing is serious enough to receive consistent, determined focus.

Entangled in this CPFSA disgrace is a societal trajectory of prejudice against those with little opportunity, reach, and influence. Some years ago a female principal of a prestigious girls-only high school was out in public to support a religious leader who was accused of sexual involvement with young girls. And we have had many cases of grown men in positions of authority, who abuse young women and girls, being given the support of a society whose value system is warped and selective.

Simply put, young women and girls are oftentimes issued a blank cheque whenever they seek support from the treasuries of opportunity in this country and those entrusted with protecting their well-being. From neglect to emotional and psychological abuse, physical violence, and early sexual exposure our children, girls in particular, have become veterans of untold horrors, whether in the home, in the care of the State, in the centres of business, or the walls of religious purity, it is the same.

None of this is unforeseen, though. In a country where it has been articulated in the legislature that women are having unwanted children because of the availability of government welfare programmes; where we have been told women must prove the paternity of their children through DNA testing; and where it was suggested that long dresses would mitigate the sexual abuse of schoolgirls, I am of the opinion that the abuse and disregard for females is informed by thoughtlessness and a foul sense of superiority and arrogance conjoined with moral decadence and greed.

Is it not a sad reality for some of the most vulnerable in the nation? And it is sad for the advancement of Jamaica, for it cannot be argued that there is no correaltion between the treatment of women and the socio-economic development of the country.

Mark A Hylton

Montego Bay, St james

markahylton@hotmail.com