Random thoughts on things mentioned as I prepare for trip #50 to Negril... years ago, when visiting a friend at his apt. in Red Ground, a young child ~5 y.o. standing in the middle of the street, started flirting & coming on to me. Really??? This was at least 15 years ago. "Hey baby, you want me?, etc." I didn't find it amusing. Sad, not amusing.
Last summer a man who claimed to be a 40 year visitor to Negril mentioned to me that child molestation was a new trend in JA. Again, really??? I told him it had been happening as long as I've been visiting the island, then 27 years.
I've read over the years about young girls who were prostituted by their mothers for lodging, school fees, food, etc.... at Hedo & anywhere else on the island. "Dancehall Queen" is an old movie &, in part, addresses this issue. Taxi drivers having sex w/ young school girls, mother's boyfriend, "uncle", you name it. NOT new, needs to change.
Yes, sexual abuse of young girls happens in many places, happens too frequently. I remember a student one year who wrote a letter to me at the beginning of the school year (an assignment when I had new 7th graders). She had been sexually abused & told me about it; by then her abuser had been tried & was imprisoned. I wondered how many others there were. She was so brave to share that w/ me. I've had many several close friends through the years who have shared their childhood abuse stories w/ me. Makes me glad I made it through my childhood w/out that aspect. I still think it's, sadly, more common than not in Jamaica.