Jamaica has always been way ahead of the world when it comes to being fair.

There’s an absence of discrimination and the encouragement and acceptance of freedom of religion, racial equality, and tolerance of immigrants and immigration.

Even in the 1800s, our voting laws did not specifically bar blacks from the process, and this was the worst of times in relation to post-Emancipation.

Why then is gender discrimination still a reality?

Women have outperformed men in the field of academics for some time now. They make up the majority of students in all universities. Yet the bias in the corporate world and in Government still exists.

Political representation generally utilises individuals at the parliamentary level who are university graduates. So does Cabinet. Why then are women not represented in a similar ratio in Parliament as demonstrated in our universities?

It’s the same with our Cabinet as well. It is neither a representation of our population nor our tertiary graduation ratio.

The judiciary is the only organisation that does not have this issue. Its system selects individuals based on performance, not gender. There is not even the shadow of a consideration on whether or not you are male or female when they are selecting judges. This simply doesn’t matter. Judges are selected based their likelihood to perform well on the bench.

This is most evident in the recent appointment of Marva McDonald Bishop to the job as president of the Court of Appeal. She was a standout from the start. A brilliant prosecutor, an outstanding judge who, from the beginning, demonstrated that there was something incredible happening. You knew that she was going to the top, and it would be a meteoric rise.

This is how the judiciary functions. She was not selected because she is from a long line of great lawyers, or because she is from an influential family. None of those two conditions existed. Neither was she picked because she is a woman. She was picked because she is the right person for the job. This should be the only consideration that matters when selecting someone for a position.

When Paula Llewellwyn was appointed director of public prosecutions the question of her gender was never even considered. She was a brilliant prosecutor and a competent senior deputy, so she was selected.

History will remember her as the most successful director of public prosecutions since Independence.

If the judiciary can be this minded and sensible, why is gender discrimination still a feature of other aforementioned segments of our country.

I am not an advocate against discrimination against women, I am an advocate against discrimination. Period.

It’s just that as time passes the other types are disappearing, but sexual discrimination still exists.

No group must experience any type of discrimination.

I recall my early days in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) I was told all forms of hogwash why Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) members could not do certain jobs or command JCF members. The day the merger took place no one ever mentioned it again. So all the solid reasons that existed just went up in thin air. The reason they did is that they were never true to begin with.

It was just human desire to be better than another; to divide with one group with dominion over the other. Racial discrimination is the most symbolic of the desire of one group to be better than another group. In the southern region of the United States whites fought to keep segregation in the 1960s. You would hear people speak with straight faces as to why it was necessary.

Decades later, it was obvious it was rubbish. Segregation ended, life went on, and it really was not that big a deal.

Recently, because of the crisis in Israel and the extensive Palestinian suffering I am seeing a rise in anti-Semitism. It’s like people believe that the decisions taken by generals and soldiers give everyone else the right to spew hate towards Jews.

Hating someone or the racial group they are from because of the behaviour of individuals they don’t even know is a staple out of the racists’ handbook. If you justify hating Jews because of the war in Israel then you have a similar mindset to white supremacy.

They cite the existence of black, violent ghettos as a reason they don’t want blacks settling in their community. Gangs function similar to racist groups. They just don’t have the wherewithal to vocalise it.

The gang is an elite group that creates a segregated micro society that then preys on the rest of society, slowly sucking the life out of the community.

All discrimination is wrong; it doesn’t matter the conversation that you twist it to fit.

We are all guilty of it

Sex offenders in the United States have to register once released, and they have to inform their neighbours. I find myself approving of this rule even though it makes rehabilitation impossible. It’s discrimination, though, irrespective of how much I think it’s right.

The core of my myopic view is because I don’t see how when someone destroys another person that it is reasonable that the punishment is just restricting you to stay in a building for years. It doesn’t seem equitable.

You shoot me, I should get to shoot you back.

But society has moved away from “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. I am just not sure that society is correct.

I agree it works, and we must follow the rules. But is it justice?

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