EDITORIAL - AJ's sexist faux pas

Mr A.J. Nicholson, the foreign minister, was obviously well-intentioned and, indeed, got part of the equation. For the rest, his tone was boorishly sexist, amplified by the fact that he seemed to have been blissfully unaware of the faux pas.

We expect that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will have had a word, or two, with the foreign minister.

The issue has to do with Mr Nicholson's recent speech at the Jamaica Stock Exchange's investment and capital market conference. We commend his pitch for a clean Jamaica and agree that foreigners are less likely to pump capital into a dirty country, as opposed to one that is clean and orderly.

But we do not believe that such a response would be contained to outsiders, or limited to a layout of the capital.

Clean communities

Indeed, this newspaper has long urged the Jamaican authorities to get the little, and relatively inexpensive, things right - like keeping drains clean, verges trimmed and communities free of garbage. For people who live in clean communities, even with the other stresses of their existence, feel better about themselves and less prone to the kind of antisocial behaviour which the experts say annually deprives the country of several billion dollars in potential output.

Or, as Mr Nicholson hyperbolically concluded: "I do not believe it is right to ask people to invest in your dirty country. It is my view that a clean Jamaica will be a rich Jamaica."

Exaggeration apart, it is the other element of Mr Nicholson's remarks with which we have concern.

He said: "We might be able to get away with a dirty Jamaica being presided over by a man. You won't get away with a woman presiding over the country."

Of course, Mr Nicholson's logic is, at best, tenuous.

Nice and Clean campaign

In the event, we must inform the foreign minister that the gender of the leader notwithstanding, this newspaper does not want a dirty country. Nor, we suspect, did Mr P.J. Patterson, in whose Cabinet Mr Nicholson served at a time when it promoted a so-called Nice and Clean campaign hoping to reverse what Mr Patterson termed the "uglification of Jamaica".

What, in effect, Mr Nicholson has achieved - we feel this is a valid interpretation of his remark - is the stereotyping of women, who are at their best in a domestic environment - cooking, washing, cleaning, etc. So, a female prime minister, even one who struggled hard for the job and fought off challenges, may deep in the subconscious mind of a male subordinate be perceived in stereotypical gender terms. She is expected to keep the country spic and span - physically, that is.

It is notable that at an investment conference, the Jamaica foreign minister did not signal to the world that it could expect that his prime minister would lead a government that would run a tight economic ship, shaping policies that rein in the fiscal deficit, encourage productivity, generate growth and create jobs.

But then, Mrs Simpson Miller has male ministers who can look about such hard stuff while she can ensure that the country, and maybe the cabinet table, are clean - literally.

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