Green Party condemns brutal killing

The SVG Green Party has condemned what it called the “cold-blooded, brutal, wicked and senseless killing” of Stacy Williams at the Leeward bus terminal last week Monday.

“The SVG Green Party sends its sincere condolences to the family of the young lady. Such a revolting attack against women is an attack on every Vincentian and a blight on our society. Attacks on women are unacceptable. Women should be respected at all levels of society and represented in all spheres of society.{{more}} Women should be treated equally in all aspects of our society as a right. There are statutory boards of directors in SVG which are all male, one of which is VINLEC. This type of inequality and discrimination against women demeans the status of women in our society,” the party stated in a news release.

The party called for an end of what it termed the “ULP regime hypocrisy” towards women asking for the immediate appointment of women to all statutory boards so that they are 50 per cent women; stronger laws and penalties for crimes against women; and a higher profile of women’s rights to improve women’s value in society.

Party leader Ivan O’Neal, quoting the 1991 Housing and Census report as stating that the country was losing its young males in terms of academic progress to their female counterparts, said that the country needed pro-active policies to uplift the self-esteem of the male population “as it is only someone with low self-esteem and a lack of respect for women and society in general, that would commit such a heinous crime”.

“Fifteen years have passed since that census report and both ULP and NDP governments have done nothing to diffuse this social time-bomb. The SVG Green Party has stated on a number of occasions that boys who attend the Grammar School do equally as well or better than girls at the Girls’ High School. We have recommended that there should be either single sex primary schools or single sex classes in primary schools.

“We need to put policies in place at the primary and secondary school level to fully utilize the spare time of our male pupils in a positive and productive manner to avoid liming on the block at too early an age. The issue is a mentality issue. Empowerment and responsibility taking extra-curricular activities enable people to build up self-esteem. This would help young males and our country in general.

“The pull-down approach adopted by the ULP regime of referring to young males as ‘vagabonds’ only exacerbates this serious situation. It is a weakness on the part of ULP government ministers to use this phrase and they need a mentality change too,” said O’Neal.