Based on the comments that the Hon. Ronald Jones reportedly made to a gathering of young members of the Democratic Labour Party, our Minister of Education seems to believe that a fairly typical or traditional feature of girlhood in Barbados is a phase of development during which Barbadian girls engage in intimate sexual relations with other girls.
I do not subscribe to this point of view, and I would therefore like to publicly refute this, and to challenge the Minister to produce hard evidence to support his position. And if he cannot produce such evidence, he should publicly withdraw this very negative statement that has the potential to cast a pall over our female population.
The Minister also seems to have a very casual attitude towards the idea of Barbadian young people being exposed to so-called "alternative lifestyles" from international sources - life-styles based on male homosexual and female homosexual behaviour - and going through a phase of experimenting with such homosexual lifestyles until, according to him, "they find their basis of being." Surely, the idea of Barbadian boys and girls exploring and experimenting with homosexual lifestyles is not something to be taken lightly, and deserves a serious response from the Ministry of Education!
Barbadian and other Caribbean people do not have to simply sit back and imbibe all the cultural rubbish coming from North America and Europe. We too can produce "alternative life-styles" for our young people - alternative life-styles based on positive, powerful, self-affirming and culturally elevated values and practices that truly belong to us. But this calls for visionary and enlightened national leadership.
Please take note Mr Minister!
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