When a man kills a woman

Yesterday some very strange things happened in my country and I am trying to understand them to put them in perspective, to the big picture. The day started out the same way, much like any other, I stayed away from the news because the daily diet of negatives, lying politicians, cynical radio talk shows and reports of traffic accidents and brutal murder by the gun, is at times just too much to unravel and understand and make sense of.

So I stayed away for the drama most of the day, I was almost at the end of the day, feeling quite proud that I had heard none of the news that day, when I did what I promised myself I would not do; I listened to the news, and oh Lord I was once again taken- aback. The first story made the point that every month over one hundred girls go missing, there are serious allegations in Jamaica of girls being used in human trafficking. Some of these girls return home at a point, while some are never found and are presumed dead. In this case the Jamaican Children's Registry is tying to arrive at a strategy which will see and island wide sear h when a girl goes missing. I was just shocked at the numbers, over one hundred! Incredible.

Then the Minister of Education, proudly announced that the government would not make condoms available in high schools as Jamaica is a Christian society which holds to the ideal that one man and one woman should use the sanctity of marriage as the space within which intimate relations are negotiated between a man and a woman. He said as well that while Jamaica believes that every man woman and child should treat every Jamaican with respect and tolerance. He also announced that girls who get pregnant before graduation would not be expelled, imagine that.

And while I was thinking that through I got the news that everyone already knew and I did not up to this point: a policeman had shot to death his common law wife. Her mother told the news that she was about to end the relationship with him because she discovered he was married. So this morning three more children are motherless even as citizens accuse the police of bias in the treatment of their colleague.

I am trying to put this and so much more into perspective, what does this say about this country and its women, how do we understand the national sentiment towards women, I am not sure what I will conclude but for now I know that things do not look well for women in this country.