Ian McDonald
THERE IS an old story of a Moghul king who visited a part of his realm where he had never been before and found the people living in dark caves. He was horrified at the gloom and ordered that every family be given lamps and oil to light them. Three years later, he came again to find the caves still in darkness; the lamps had been broken and forgotten; the oil had run out.
The king, though angry, gave new lamps, more oil, but in another three years when he came back the caves were as dark as ever. This happened twice more and at last, in despair, the king asked his vizier for an explanation. "Ah," said the vizier, who was a wise old man, "You gave the lamps to the men; you should have given them to the women." And the king followed this advice and the caves have been lit, the lamps kept burning, ever since.
I wish it were true, here at home and in our larger home the West Indies, that women were quietly but definitely taking over. But I do not think they are in ways that really matter. In the long run, this failure, will be a social, economic and, ultimately, a political disaster since the truth is that increasingly, women deserve the leading role.
Girls are simply doing much better, working harder, undertaking more serious pursuits, reading more, thinking more deeply, achieving more, than boys, as they come into maturity.
When did you last attend a function where school choirs performed? Did you not notice how sparse the number of boys? A friend in Barbados, with a shake of the head, tells me how in the school cadet corps (cadet corps!) the prizes are won by girls. "It's happening all around. I wonder when someone called Josephine Greenidge will open the Barbados batting!"
It is indeed happening all around. I noticed a big change in personnel in one business place and asked the manager (still, be it noted, a man) why the change. His answer was a simple one: he prefers to employ women these days - they are more punctual, report sick less often, keep deadlines, and do their work better than men.
Young men are opting out. The fascination of the fast buck has utterly captivated them. Study and the time-consuming endeavour to equip themselves over the long term to enjoy life fully and make a contribution to humanity are a waste of time to them.
YOUNG WOMEN OPTING IN
They want quick results - quick money, quick pleasure, quick possessions, quick power to do what they like. On the other hand, young women are opting in.
They are studying hard, reading more, applying themselves, equipping themselves with skills and knowledge to run businesses, enter the professions, and take over responsibility in every area of public life.
Of course, there are young women who live irredeemably superficial lives and young men who hold on to life's true values. But the general rule is otherwise and it is reflected more and more in today's West Indian world.
I cannot fathom why it should be so. Is it something to do with parental upbringing? Are parents more particular in keeping an eye on their girl children and teaching them values, more inclined to let the boys run wild from early on in this increasingly dangerous world of proliferating bad examples? I don't know. As it is, young women are simply outstripping young men in our world today.
It is reported that women comprise nearly 70 per cent of the graduation classes at the three campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI). This year at University of Guyana, 75 per cent of graduates were young women. In some UWI programmes, women outnumber men by more than two to one.
Even in the engineering and agricultural programmes, once thought to be male preserves, women make up over 50 per cent of graduates. It confirms my feeling that women are readying themselves to take over in the region.
A ratio of women to men graduates of seven to three is evidence that in a few years, women, holding the qualifications as they will to run our affairs better, will be in a position to push men aside in all activities and take over. And men have made such a mess of things lately in the region that it would be a good thing if women were indeed given much more of a chance to run things.
AGE-OLD RIGHT
But will this actually happen? Men are going to fight to the death to hold on to privileges and power and positions they will no longer deserve, but which they will continue to believe belong to them by ancient free-hold and age-old right. Even if they lose all along the way, men are going to fall back on their last line of defence, the biological imperative: Women, however qualified, should stay at home and mind the children - it is their destiny by nature's command.
Women will not accept this, but however hard they argue, inexorably, the majority of them will be tugged child-wards. Women's convincing ratio of success at university level will not convert into the same ratio of actual authority and position later on. Much of the expertise and knowledge and achievement which women are accumulating will not be used in long-term careers.
Women will not in the end inherit the executive world. Men will continue to rule the roost. They will not deserve it, but they will. They will not give up the lamps even though women prove again and again they can tend them better. And for that reason, the caves we live in will be darker than they need be.
Ian McDonald is an occasional contributor who lives and works in Georgetown, Guyana.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Regular columnist, Dawn Ritch, is on vacation.
