I’m no politician... I don’t

#Metoo doesn’t facilitate thoughtful discussion about sex assault, demands unthinking participation

One of the advantages Prime Minister Andrew Holness has is almost a surfeit of bright, talented and experienced people in his Cabinet. But something that concerns me is how quick they are to apologise, even when it is not necessary.

Jamaica is admired the world over for its handling of COVID-19 matters. People coming from the US — a country known for is mishandling and poor leadership in this matter — are taken in at Government’s expense, and some housed in luxury hotels. A few of them made frivolous demands and Health Minister Christopher Tufton rushed there to apologise.

The latest target is Justice Minister Delroy Chuck. He is accused of saying “We don’t want the situation that now happens in the #Metoo movement in the US, where 30 years later you talk about ‘I was harassed in the elevator’… If you don’t complain in 12 months, please, cut it out.”

Why are you apologising, Minister Chuck?

In 1995 a man who wanted to work for me told me that one night, in a drunken stupor, he said “some very hot words” to a woman, most of which he was told about but could not remember. The woman made a formal report to the police that he had raped her and he ended up spending some years in prison. I dismissed this as being highly unlikely until the most senior politician in Portmore assured me that he was speaking the truth.

If there was still any doubt in my mind, a young worker on my farm had a fuss with his girlfriend. She stopped a passing police car and told them he had raped her. They threw him in the trunk of the car and drove away. He spent almost a year in jail before he was finally released when the lawyer I provided convinced the judge that this was one of the ways women successfully take revenge on men.

It seems we have a way of borrowing ideas from the United States. The #Metoo movement, by whatever name it goes by here, is one of them.

Perhaps I may be permitted to give some examples of what this movement has accomplished in the US.

Andrea Constand is an impressive-looking athlete. She is tall and will be the first to tell you how fit she is. She played and coached basketball. She frequently visited Bill Cosby’s house and claims that on one of these visits Cosby gave her some blue pills to “relax”. Something no experienced athlete would accept. She claims that she soon felt weak and Cosby touched her on her private parts and used her hand to touch him before she passed out. She woke up at 4:00 the following morning and found her clothes “all over the place”. She put them on and went home. A year later she made a report to the police. The matter was investigated and the detectives concluded that they found “…nothing that was credible enough to hold up in court”. So she went the civil route. A non-disclosure settlement was signed and a transfer from Cosby’s account to hers made her an instant multimillionaire.

Matt Lauer was a host on the Today show. He was married with three kids and earned US$20 million a year. Brooke Nevils got a job at the station. First she was required to run errands, serve coffee, etc, before moving up to better assignments. She was a member of the station’s crew to the Sochi Olympics. One night, after drinking, she went to Lauer’s room, twice. About four years later she reported that he raped her on that occasion. Without a proper investigation, a statement was read on-air on the Today show. Keeping his accuser’s name private, NBC News said, “Matt Lauer’s conduct was

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