Your Eyewitness takes this matter of violence against females very seriously. It’s long past the time to be pussyfooting around the issue. From the newspapers, it’s clear that no category of female is sacrosanct – rich, poor, black, white, (and every combination and permutation of in-between shades) etc. What this signals, of course, is that the problem ain’t just a result of idiosyncratic males, but a systemic problem in males as a category.
And a systemic problem needs a systemic solution – and then we can hone in on the outliers who’ll always crop up. Now, this problem has been here with us as far back as we can tell – probably all the way back to the Cave Man days. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Even when they were “hunting and gathering”, the men – being bigger – had an advantage, and it’s inconceivable they wouldn’t have taken advantage of that disparity.
And it’s been that way ever since…to a point where women would’ve seen it as “just the way things are”. But, in the last hundred years, we’ve come a long way…haven’t we? There’s been a gradual acceptance that all human beings are intrinsically equal – and should be treated equally. The fact that some might be bigger, smarter, or taller shouldn’t – in and of itself – be used to treat anyone as a punching bag. And this is where we come to this thing we invented called “the state”, that’s supposed to make and enforce laws to ensure equality of treatment for all.
The problem was, the laws themselves were skewed against women – not surprisingly, since they were made generally by men! It was a long grind for women to join that exclusive club, but there’s been some progress. But to return to the question posed earlier, the answer is, “No, we still have quite a way to go as far as women being treated equally!” So, the struggle continues; and continue it must because, you see, dear reader, unless women are treated equally everywhere, no one will be treated equally anywhere…whether you’re male, LGBT, coloured, or whatever.
And we arrive at one specific instance in which the rule can be tested – intimate partner violence (IPV) – with women at the receiving end and what’s being done about it. According to recent UN data, IPV is pervasive in Guyana; so much so that more than half of the women in relationships – across racial and socioeconomic lines – report it!! Yet, in 2020, while there were 1672 reports of domestic violence, only 893 cases were filed and 112 convictions secured!!
Looks like the deck’s still stacked against women!!
…and PNC in Parliament
The PNC’s whining (not to mention “winning” in Parliament!) about what the PPP is and isn’t doing in Government. THEY, of course, had led Guyana between 2015 and 2020 to the land of milk and honey! And the PPP has just as obviously shown – in the three years since it held off the PNC from rigging their way back into office – that it’s determined to prevent the PNC from destroying our parliamentary democracy.
But what bothers your Eyewitness is that the PNC aren’t using ANY of the available mechanisms to assert their power in Parliament to upstage and possibly oust the PPP from power. Now, you might say they don’t have the votes to outvote the PPP. But if they do their research, they can show – with “chapter, verse and numbers” – where the PPP might be clueless, rather than screaming about “creeping apartheid”!!
Or they can use half of the Sectoral Committees they Chair to summon any Minister of Bureaucrat to query them on programmes and projects being executed in real-time!!
Rather than just kvetch!
…in Cricket
In case you didn’t realize it, today’s cricket is big business. BIG, BIG BUSINESS! With all the US hype and chutzpah, did you realize that Cricket in India alone pulls in more revenue annually than American Major League Baseball? Take that!!
