FOR THOSE who missed the recent 'Man Talk' session during the Victoria Mutual Building Society Marriage and the Family series, we bring you the very interesting exchange of dialogue which occurred between three men: Moderator the Rev. Stephen Hyatt, clinical psychologist, panellist Dr. Kingsley Stewart (a.k.a. Ragga Ashanti) and Barrington A. Jones.
Rev. Hyatt: As men it is our responsibility to engage young boys in dialogue and help them discover themselves, and who they want to become. A man gives back to his roots, that is his family, is community, school, his church. As Morgan Heritage said: "A man is a man whether he wears jacket and tie or him walk barefoot. The only difference is whether he is good or evil. So a man being good seeks gainful employment. And I don't want you to misunderstand me. You have some strong brothers out there who are looking jobs, and seeking employment, but because of different factors, including the instability of our economy, they are not able to find jobs.
Jamaica (also) needs more men of character, more men who can restrain their emotions, and more men who have emotional mastery. So we have an understanding of what is to be man. And I guess the question at this time is what difference can we make as
men given our culture, our subcultures ...
Strong men
Dr. Stewart: There are a lot of men out there who are holding up, who are strong, who are exemplary ... in their conceptualisation of what it is to be a man ... but when you can have a man a ride a bicycle, right, and the taxi man dem go zig-zag pon him, end up on the sidewalk, lick wan lady down near to Ministry of Education, and de lick him go lick de lady pon har foot, she frighten', she turn round and she used one of our more colourful expressions. By using that term at him, it prompted him to immediately get up and give har about 15 stabs. That is a fragile masculinity. That is a very, very fragile masculinity. That is the masculinity if a man look pon you and disrespect de programme, you haffi go fi you gun and kill
