Posted by More from Sen. Fred's column on November 14, 2001 at 10:24:55:
Women appear to have been in the ascendancy over the last thirty years in The Bahamas. The figures
show that women are succeeding in academics, in the business world, and not in prison, where there are
39 women today with 1500 men. But after the hurricane of this week, the impressionistic evidence would
give a sociologist lots of food for thought. The same observation has been made in the clear up after
the World Trade Centre bombing in New York. Clearing up and cutting down is a man's work. And as
you travelled throughout the island of New Providence following Hurricane Michelle, there were groups
of men, young men, out in the streets with cutlasses and chain saws clearing up the mess, cutting away
the fallen trees. There seemed to be a certain atavistic pleasure in it. Some of the sociologists have said
that part of the reason for the slipping of young boys is that there is no longer the traditional physical
role necessary to give men a sense of self worth. Perhaps, these sociologists ought to study the
phenomenon of the clean up after the hurricane.