A Senate meeting was held today in Belmopan - the first time in memory that the Senate has met two days before Christmas. And while it was all business - which we'll tell you about later - things took a turn towards the personal at the end, when the Leader of Government Business, Godwin Hulse, rose to speak on the adjournment.
As you know, Hulse's adult son, Kenzel was recently charged for harm in a domestic dispute with the mother of his child.
That raised a firestorm of commentary on Facebook - and in the middle of all that mess, is where Jumoke Castro - adult son of Minister Edmond Castro - chose to make the vile post threatening Shasta Wade with gang rape. That was in response to the comments made by her husband, Luis Wade. Wade had made post characterizing the sons of a few UDP Ministers as feeling entitled. In response, Castro suggested that he, his brothers and Kenzel Hulse could be a part of this hideous assault on Shasta Wade .
Today, Godwin Hulse joined everyone else in rejecting the post and said his son is no part of that - and he then went unto speak of his son's recent domestic and legal troubles - steering clear of laying any blame at anyone's feet:
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Leader of Government Business
"Commenting which I have not seen and some vile outrageous disgusting post by one Mr. Castro, in which very unfortunately included the name of my son. We want to say categorically as a family he is not on facebook, had nothing to do with it, would never have had anything to do with it and completely denounce and condemn such ignorant and vile statements. We further do not condone as a family any act of violence against any person male, female or minors and we denounce any kind of physical, emotional or psychological violence against an person."
"As a family we have taught from small that any kind of physical or verbal abuse is unacceptable. The boys should not hit the girls or one another, neither should the girls hit the boys or each other."
"We also denounce the social media attacks and threats and also verbal abuse levied against my son and our family and against members of the other family, as well. We would never, ever respond in kind, because we are cognizant of the fact that violence begets violence and no one should fan the flames of confrontation. However, Madame President, in all the turmoil the real victim, the real victim is a beautiful innocent child who carries the DNA of two families and makes us inextricably connected for all eternity. The mistakes or poor judgment calls of these two young parents should not dilute the child's needs for love and care of both parents, of grandparents and a family on both sides. King Solomon's wisdom instructs us that we cannot separate the child physically and distribute the parts. Therefore we must find a way to work this out away from the noise, public spotlight and turmoil."
"Madam President, I nor my family will engage in criticism of no one in the media, social or established, but we pray that we as a society, all our leaders, political, social, religious and media would find a way to purport positive messages and lessons."
Notably - when he spoke to the media in anger last week - Hulse said the baby was "allegedly" for his son. Today, he backed off that stance and embraced the infant as his grand-daughter.
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