The Archbishop of Port of Spain (as part of) the religious organization MOST notorious for raping young children is alarmingly hypocritical and i want to take him to task.
I put to His Grace that 'Dan the man in the van' arrested yesterday is no different to Catholic priests who have raped and buggered young children over the years, yet not one of them has ever made a jail in T&T.
An issue overdue for addressing, while changing the law that allows for children to be wed to adults is an excellent step to take to prevent 'legal statutory rape' as His Grace put it, there are far more important steps that also have to be taken if we want to protect our nation's children from sexual abuse.
Steps such as:
- Call for the arrest of every father of every child born to females under the age of sixteen years delivered through the public health care system over the last fifty years
- Call for investigations that lead to the arrest and prosecution of every priest, pundit, imam, teacher, preacher and other adult who, like 'Dan the man in the van' arrested yesterday, took advantage of minor children for sex
- Call for the Archbishop of Port of Spain to release files to the police and DPP of every accusation, allegation and report of sexual abuse made against a member of the clergy over the last fifty years
- Call for consultations between the Ministries of Education and Transport that lead to official chaperones being placed on maxi taxis that work the school districts
- Call for a national consultation on the impact of the hyper sexualization of the national cultural expression (Trinidad Carnival), the nudity and behaviour of masqueraders, the overtly sexual content of soca music and the behaviour of entertainers on stage and in videos with specific regard to the messages that they are sending
- Give the Children's Authority the funding it needs to properly supervise the nation's children against abuse, to provide rescue shelters for cases of abuse, to strengthen the foster care system and to provide officers with powers of arrest and detention in cases of abuse
- Establish a sex abuse registry to compile a database of known sexual offenders to protect the public
These measure will not bring an end to child sexual abuse overnight, but they will put a major dent in some of the drivers of the abuse, create alternatives for dealing with cases of abuse, and take some notorious and serial abusers out of circulation.
'Dan the man in the van' is no different to the fathers and family members in Tobago and the advantageous male figures all through society who believe that 'if they minding the cow, they should be the one drinking the milk.'
The message must not be one rule for some and another for others where allegations of sexual abuse and child rape is concerned.
We must be evenhanded with our application of the law, as with our willingness to name and shame abusers.
Phillip Edward Alexander