Fathers on the rebound

- Norman Grindley

Shawin Samuels gives his son, Kimoy, a comfortable ride home on his shoulders, sharing a pre-Father's Day moment last week in Golden Valley, St. Andrew.

Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter

JAMAICAN fathers may be slowly regaining their true positions as role models in society, but the call is still on for an even more visible presence.

"We would like to challenge fathers to take a more visible presence in the home, in the marketplace and to come off the back-burner," says Reverend Al Miller, a prominent spiritual leader and counsellor.

Nonetheless, the pastor of the Fellowship Tabernacle in St. Andrew says that the original role of fathers in society has never changed but has instead reflected a change in people's perspectives.

"I don't believe that the role is 'shifting'. From my perspective, it is that we always have to go back to the beginning. So, if it is that the role of father was established by the Creator, it is a distinction that is for all times and cuts across cultures."

But, a recent United Nations Educational Scientific and Cul-tural Organisation (UNESCO) paper on 'Male roles and Mas-culinities' (March 2001) reports that "gender relations are dyna-mic, and can change rapidly; though they are widely believed to change slowly or not at all". It continued, "Masculinities do not move only from 'traditional' to 'modern'. Globalisation may introduce 'Western' models of domesticated women and aggressive/competitive men, to communities that had relative gender equality; or may create other dislocations in patriarchy resulting in an upsurge in violence."

Still, the Rev. Miller said that over the years the Jamaican male image had suffered from a breakdown in 'morals and spirituality'. But things may be changing.

"A lot of teaching has taken place over the last 10 years to motivate our men to their responsibilities, and yes, we are now seeing one or two pleasant things happening," he said. "In the last 10 years fathers have become more noticeable, more functional, more positively active in the lives of their children."

Still, Lonnie Davidson, a single father with a 14-year-old son he has raised since age four, is convinced that men are often at a disadvantage in society.

"There is no question about it. Society is very unfair to men. The way it is set up is that when either males or females do certain things we have terrible names for them. But the difference is that when the woman does things like give up her parental right, give her child away or give her child up for adoption, we sympathise with her and make allowances for her. No one has any patience for the father who has fallen on hard times or is under stress," he said.