In last Friday's Amandala satirical columnist and humorist "Colin bh" wrote at length about the proposed amendments to section 46 of the criminal code. Speaking about rape, Hyde wrote, quote, "the rape of a male by a male is more heinous than the rape of a female by a male. Consider that (1) the female might one day fall in love with the male; (2), the female provoked the immature/crazy male to commit this act; (3), it is a natural act; (4), the female might be entirely whorish, so the act is of little consequence."
Those remarks have drawn an avalanche of criticism from a number of agencies and from within his own newspaper. The Women's Issues Network, the National Committee for Families and Children, the Special Envoy for Women and Children and the Women's Commission all issued releases today condemning the article. The Women's Issues Network release says, quote, "the comments portray the image of women as objects of shame, or as sexual objects. Women are still seen as something that exists primarily for men's gratification... to say that rape of a female by a male is not as heinous as the rape of a male by a male is beyond comprehension for rape is forced penetration and the trauma associated with such an experience is the same for both male and female." END QUOTE.
The NCFC release calls for a paradigm shift and says quote, "These comments contradict the very principle of human and children rights which calls for non-discrimination and equity in the protection of the rights of children and establishes that these rights are inalienable, indivisible and universal to all."
The special envoy for women and children Kim Barrow's release says, quote, "The statements made in this article advance a culture of rape and sexual violence against women and girls. It seeks to blame the victim while providing excuses for the perpetrator. The fact is that rape is not about sex, but about power and control. Rape is rape; it is NEVER excusable and it certainly NEVER is the victim's fault!
The Women's commission release says, quote, "We live in a society where sadly, several men see absolutely nothing wrong to abuse and violate women and girls. What is even worst is that these same men shamelessly speak about rape as being part of our culture. " END QUOTE.
And while all those are damning, perhaps the strongest censure is form Amandala's Associate Editor Adele Ramos, who today posted on The Amandala Facebook, page, quote, "This post will probably get me in trouble with my newspaper's management, but I want to put on record that I, Adele Ramos, in no way support the deplorable statements made by columnist Colin BH, Colin Hyde, in his column in the Amandala last week. Neither I nor the editor of Amandala, Russel Vellos, knew of it prior to its publication... Many do not understand the inner workings of the newspaper and may even assume the editorials are generally written by the editor - but they rarely are.
On behalf of the newspaper, I publicly apologize for the comments made by our columnist....As a Belizean, I am very concerned about the message the article sends to irresponsible sexual predators.
I am sorry that proper judgment was not exercised before the publication of the article."
Today, before all those releases gushed out, Hyde wrote that he has heard complaints but he doesn't know what readers found distasteful.
Email
Print