Glenda Simms
NOW THAT Christmas is just around the corner, one pot-bellied, white-bearded fictionalised man takes on a larger than life role as the father figure for countless boys and girls in Christian communities throughout the entire world.
The legendary Santa Claus is often lovingly referred to as Father Christmas, who brings home great gifts to many children who long for a real, live father to give them a bear hug on Christmas morning.
In a real sense, Santa is a universal father who frequents shopping malls in both hot and cold countries. In these places he spends his time punctuating his 'Ho ho ho' and 'Yow' with
picture-taking moments with bright-eyed youngsters and adults who have not yet found their age papers.
IN SEARCH OF DAD
Perhaps the love affair of children with this weird father figure should jolt all of us into the realisation that every child deserves to know who his or her father is. The search for father is not just about identity. It is also about the need to feel like a whole person. This idea was brought home forcefully in an article written by Amy Harmon and published in the November 20 edition of the New York Times.
In her article, Ms. Harmon described the efforts of two sisters who were conceived by the sperm of an anonymous donor and were born to two different mothers in two geographical locations in the United States of America. These teenage sisters found each other through a Donor Sibling Registries which have become very popular and important sources of information about the men who donate or sell sperms.
The man who contributed the sperm that produced the sisters was recorded as donor 150. He was like many other men who sell their sperm to sperm banks and walk away with US$50 or US$100 in their pockets and no concern for the child to which their genetic material will give life.
When these anonymous children find each other they establish strong bonds of friendship and kinship. According to Ms. Harmon ,"Donor-conceived siblings can provide clues to make each other feel more whole, even if only in the form of physical details."
In Jamaica there are many children who would like the opportunity to make a connection to their sperm donor, especially at Christmas time when the popular hype is about a mysterious man who slithers down chimneys and piles gifts under a tree and makes their mothers happy and penniless. At the one-stop shop everybody knows that 'your daddy ain't your daddy but your daddy don't know'.
That is why Santa is so popular he is not a sperm donor, but he provides for a lot of little children at a time when everyone wants to feel good and more whole.
Dr. Glenda P. Simms is a gender expert and consultant.
