THE EDITOR, Sir:RECENTLY, PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller bemoaned the fact that 58 per cent of Jamaica's children are not registered each year as having a legitimate father.
According to Mrs. Simpson Miller, it is the 'strength of a woman' that has kept these mothers going when the fathers abandon their responsibilities, leaving the women to struggle on their own with the children.
I got the impression that the PM is ascribing this social sickness solely to irresponsible male behaviour. If it is true as I believe, that a large portion of the 58 per cent of Jamaican mothers who can't or refuse to get the father's name on the birth registration don't know who the father is, then the PM is misleading the nation.
The problem of absentee fathers is as much a woman problem as it is a man problem. We need to ask ourselves at what stage of our development it became OK for 'decent' women to be calling these 'careless' men Cookie, Sugar Bun, Daddy, Tutus, and mi Doops?
It seems to me that we need to urgently place the whole socialisation process and family role on the national agenda. I am not condoning irresponsible male behaviour, but we need to treat the issue fairly and objectively, even if it will make a block of voters disgruntled.
What worries me though is that the PM has said nothing about legislative attempts to help curb this social sickness.
I am, etc.,
ANDRE A. O.
WELLINGTON
Christiana Leased Primary
Manchester
