Glenda Simms

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon in September 2006. All the old-timers and the members of the younger posse were huddled together on the verandah of the one-stop shop in the village to avoid getting wet by the torrential rains that were drenching the ridges of the Santa Cruz mountain, on this particular day.

True to form, Miss Mattie drew close to Maas George, not because she particularly enjoys proximity to men who have no teeth, but because she wanted to discuss a very important development that had presented itself to the good people of St. Elizabeth.

CATTLE HOTLINE

From one of the local newspapers, Miss Mattie had learnt that the chief of police in the parish, one Superintendent Maurice Robinson, had announced the establishment of a cattle hotline to catch cow thieves.

In fact, Maas George was being encouraged to take note that there were four telephone lines that could alert the police to the activities of the bare-faced thieves who have been robbing the poor St. Elizabeth cattle farmers for an extended period of time.

As usual, Maas George put on a knowing smile when he is sure that he has more information on any topic than Miss Mattie.

It was, therefore, with much energy that he informed Miss Mattie that not only was the hotline established, but that the police had caught four cow thieves, including one woman.

Maas George was beaming from ear to ear that these brazen, immoral and low-life individuals were paraded on the television screen. Of course, only their torsos were shown so the district people had no opportunity of identifying their faces.

Miss Mattie informed Maas George that she was not interested in their faces. She just want to see them locked away in jail for a long, long time.

After all, St. Elizabeth farmers deserve to reap the spoils of their labour without interference from people who think that they have the right to pillage and to rob rural folk on a regular basis.

What really puzzled Miss Mattie was that one of the apprehended cow thieves was a woman. She wondered whether this prove that some women are as wicked as some men or is it because even a bunch of cow thieves needs to have a woman to clean the cow tripe and to burn the cow foot.

WOMAN'S WORK

This train of thought did not get a quick response from Maas George, and Miss Mattie sensed that this silence was a show of solidarity with the male prerogative.

After all, Miss Mattie has spent over 90 years observing that every time a ram goat was killed to prepare the mannish water and curry goat for the many funerals and the few weddings in the district, it was the women who were expected to clean the goat tripe and to burn and scrape the goat head and feet. The men usually stand around supervising the preparation of the ingredients for their favourite soup and to guarantee that the testicles were not left out of this potent concoction.

To Miss Mattie's mind, the men who steal cows and goats were no less chauvinistic than Maas George and the other old-timers who still think that women should know their place even on a 'tiefing' expedition.

Maas George listened, but did not show his patriarchal propensities on this particular occasion.

In fact, he pointed out to Miss Mattie that he found it rather interesting that it took cow thieves to prompt the high command of the St. Elizabeth police force to identify the need for a hotline.

He wondered why they did not see the need to establish hotlines for women and girls who are battered and bruised on a regular basis, raped and carnally abused far too many times and children who are beaten as a matter of course by their mothers, fathers and other care-givers.

Maas George also came to the conclusion that there should have been established, a long time ago, a hotline to turn in the participants in vigilante justice especially in communities where the citizens think they have a right to chop up the 'two-foot puss' who raid the barns.

All of a sudden, Miss Mattie grudgingly admitted that Maas George has some sense after all.

What the police need to do is to set up a multi-purpose hotline that will go beyond cow thieves and deal with all of the types of crimes that affect the social landscape of these deep rural mountain regions.

Every one at the one-stop shop agreed that multi-purpose hotlines should be featured in the nation's drive to reduce crime. If it works for the cows, it can also work for human beings - women as well as men.

Dr. Glenda P. Simms is a consultant and gender expert.