O abused woman—thy fate is sealed

Apr 10, 2011 Features / Columnists, My Column

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By Adam Harris

Early Saturday morning I got a phone call. I had gone to bed pretty late which is not unusual since putting a newspaper to bed is not the most casual thing an individual could do. It certainly could be the most tedious, because there is always the decision about what to publish.
Sometimes when it comes down to crunch time there is the decision about what to leave out because more often than not the best stories would come in relatively late when the so-called early pages have already been put to bed.
There are the endless decisions that often include the likelihood that the opposition would print the very article that you are hoping to hold until the next publication. Then there is the question about pulling back one of the early pages and breaking it up to accommodate the late story.
Needless to say, the page makers would frown and grumble because at that hour of the night eyes are on the clock and minds are on the bed at home in preparation for yet another day. So it was that I got home late Friday night and was trying to remain in bed just that bit later when the phone rang. A man had killed a woman at Timehri. I also learnt that he had killed himself.
I assigned a reporter and contended myself to presenting another grim story amid the Sunday fare that we give our readers. On Sundays we try to give people a relatively light fare having bombarded them all week with the horrors of the society. This Sunday was not to be one of those days.
The year is less than four months old and already more than thirty people have been killed. These were thirty people who welcomed the New Year and made resolutions. Of interest is the number of women killed. It is as if they are now meaningless; as if the life of a woman is worthless.
A woman came to me to complain that a man who caused her to lose her right eye by striking her with a full bottle of beer in the face was out after she had to search for months to get the police to arrest him. She recounted her story and expressed regret that the court found it possible to grant bail to this man.
I told her that the offence was bailable and that an individual was innocent until proven guilty. But she would have none of that because she expressed fear that the man is now free to kill her and that she wanted to live for her child.
Then there was the woman who entered into a relationship with a policeman and lived to regret it. She explained to me that when the relationship started the man’s ex-wife called her and told her that she ought to be careful. The woman, who was prepared to have her face and her name made public, told me that at first she thought that jealousy had prompted the ex-wife to approach her.
Then reality set in. She began to hear that the man was HIV-positive and that two women from previous relationships had died. She also learnt that while he was living with her he was striking up other relationships, even within the Guyana Police Force and was infecting some of his colleagues.
The woman said that she made reports to the hierarchy of the force, but nothing could be done. Of course she is out of it and fortunately for her, she is not infected. She now tells us that the man once told her that he did not give himself AIDS and since a woman infected him he is going to infect as many as possible.
Men simply seem not to care about women these days and that is a sad situation. This policeman does not even consider that he is going to infect other men, some of whom may think like him. He does not even seem to care that one of the newly infected men would, in a fit of anger, kill the woman.
About a decade back, Guyana was toying with legislation to charge a person who willfully infects another. I sat in a forum and discussed this piece of legislation only to find that I was wasting time. Everyone sees the infected person as a victim. Stop the discrimination, they say. Treat the person as you would treat yourself.
This policeman would certainly not get my affection and the authorities are simply sitting by while the madness continues. Then they make token objections when a woman is killed. They set up commissions and a few take to the streets to protest. This is legalised hypocrisy.
But some women bring on their own demise. They ignore all the signs because they want to show the world that they could get a man. They take the beatings because they convince themselves that they would be helpless outside the relationship.
And these women are not only the grassroots type. Some of them are highly intelligent. Perhaps the Good Lord hotwired their brain to behave in such a stupid and senseless manner.
The Good Book reports that Jesus said to the sick man, “Take up thy bed and walk”. I wish I could say to the women in abusive relationships, “Pick up yourself and run.”

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