By Pat Roxborough,
Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THERE'S NOTHING wimpish about Rohan Lightbody-Shaw.
At six feet four inches, he's taller than the average man, although his slim build justifies the first part of his double-barrelled surname. As the power forward and centre player on Montego Bay's champion basketball team, Rainbow Storms, he's stood his ground in several rough tackles with his opponents to see his team through to victory.
But since last Wednesday, the 24-year-old who works in the maintenance department of one of Montego Bay's popular resorts has been fielding another type of tackling from his teammates and everyone else who thinks he should not have apologised to his girlfriend in a newspaper advertisement.
On the other hand, his 27-year-old girlfriend, who also works in the accounting department of another popular resort, has come in for a lot of admiration from women who wish that they could get their own men to make a gesture even half as grand.
Neither dreamt that the apology would get the attention of so many people.
"Ever since the ad come out is pressure, pressure, pressure from a lot of people. The women congratulate me, but the man dem sey me a eediat. Dem sey she going to use it against me and control me with it. Dem sey me should a never do it," Rohan said. That's putting it mildly.
The facts are that ever since the ad came out, several men in Montego Bay have been making a laughing stock of Shaw. He's even being teased on the Internet on one of Jamaica's popular Web sites -- Reggae Boyz.com. At worst, his detractors are calling him a jackass, a disgrace to the male community, and threatening, half-jokingly, to organise a beating for him.
This may be traced to the view that a man must be dominant party in every aspect of a relationship, a notion given credence by one man's response. "Because, this can only send the wrong signal to women. This is going to make her feel like she's in charge," a 50-year-old sales executive explained.
People like the salesman have been trying to make Rohan ashamed of what he did, but so far they have not been able to. "I meant every word of it. If I didn't mean it, the teasing would get to me, but I am sincere," he said.
But it is still unusual that the apology would get to the newspapers.
"Shaggy has a song 'Angel'. There's a line in it about showing his appreciation to the nation. That's all I was trying to do," Rohan explained.
