By Oswald Brown

She attended Eight Mile Rock High School and claims to have been a fairly good student. But an incident that occurred back in the year 2000 quite possibly derailed her ambition for a career in tourism.

As she recalls, her 11th grade class at Eight Mile Rock High had gone on a field trip to the Container Port, where then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was attending a function. As the prime minister's car approached, she and a group of her classmates surrounded it. She was pushed forward and landed on the windshield. When the class returned to school, she said she was called to the principal's office and told that she was expelled because of her behavior.

All of her subsequent efforts to get into another high school failed, and today, at the age of 23, she is a barmaid in a popular club Over-The-Hill in New Providence. This is not what she had planned to be doing at this stage of her life, but that's the hand life has dealt her, and even though her current job is not in the tourism industry, she provides the kind of quality service to customers that is missing in many of our up-scale establishments that cater to tourists.

She is an attractive woman, about 5 feet, 3 inches tall. Her perfectly sized eyes, evenly spaced on a blemish-free face with a mahogany hue, sparkle as she engages in conversation with patrons. But the sparkle is replaced by a veneer of sadness as she discusses her expulsion from Eight Mile Rock High, after finding out that the patron she is speaking with lives in Freeport.

She has not given up on her career in tourism, but accomplishing her goal will not be an easy task. Aside from not having completed high school, an even bigger mountain for her to climb is the fact that her parents are not Bahamians - her father is from Haiti and her mother from Jamaica - and although she was born in The Bahamas, she has not yet obtained Bahamian citizenship. She fully intended to apply for citizenship when she turned 18, but she did not have the money to do so at the time; however, this is now a top priority for her, along with continuing her education at BTVI.

Hopefully, her ambition to have a career in the tourism industry has only been temporarily derailed.

In the meantime, she is earning a living in an environment where her charm, grace and engaging personality greatly improve her chances of getting a decent tip. Obviously, because of her attractiveness, she is very popular and is frequently the target of advances from men old enough to be her father, some of whom do indeed tip her excessively. Age is of no concern to these lecherous old men, who view her as merely another sexual conquest.

Sadly, the exploitation of young Bahamian women has become a favorite 'hobby' of many older men, especially some of our politicians, successful businessmen and religious leaders. Many of them make no secret of the fact that they support two or three sweethearts, and despite the fact that they are supposedly 'happily married', they take very little evasive action to disguise their liaisons with their young lovers.

A survey of who in our society are the most egregious exploiters of Bahamian women, would most certainly confirm that whomever said that power and money are two of the most effective magnets for attracting some women, was absolutely correct.

Bahamian politicians tend to do very well in this area, not only because they are considered to be powerful, but also because they have a reputation for being very generous with their lady friends. What's more, their sexual exploits tend to enhance, rather than hurt their political careers.

And this is not a new phenomenon. The Progressive Liberal Party's victory at the polls in 1967 ushered in more than an historic, political change in this country; it also emboldened a cadre of previously staid men, who were now the movers and shakers in the country politically, with the courage to pursue women they probably admired over the years, but were too timid or socially boring to approach. Several of them openly had 'two families' that everyone knew about.

At Christmas time, jewelry stores did bumper business, and it became somewhat of a contest among the more generous politicians to see which one could buy the most expensive gifts for their sweethearts. A few who were considered to be in a league of their own, so to speak, were known to purchase new automobiles for that special 'other woman'. The same was true with regard to some of our nouveau riche businessmen who benefited from the entrepreneurial opportunities that were now open to them as a result of the political change.

This practice continues unabated today, and it is unlikely to change anytime soon, given the increasing number of young women who are being forced to seek companionship with older men because of the dwindling pool of acceptable young men with whom they would consider establishing relationships. Of course, the pool of acceptable young men will continue to get smaller and smaller unless something is done on a massive scale to redirect the lives of the many young men in this country, who have embarked on a life of crime that leads to long-term confinement at Her Majesty's Prison on Fox Hill.

It is a bleak picture that gets even bleaker when you consider the fact that those young women with ambition beyond being just 'kept women', are using the financial support provided by older men to assist them with their educational pursuits; consequently there will be fewer 'acceptable' young men for them after they graduate and begin to move up the ladder in their respective careers. This sad state of affairs clearly can lead to a further deterioration in the structure of the Bahamian family, which in many respects is not what it used to be when those older men, who are contributing to its further decline, were growing up.

There is a body of opinion, of course, that politicians and successful businessmen can take lessons from some so-called religious leaders when it comes to exploiting women. These charlatans may represent only a small minority of those who are 'ordained' to preach the gospel in this country, but there are far too many of them who have established their own ministries and are using their religious base as a camouflage for their sinful lifestyles.

To be sure, there are many 'good sisters' who resort to that tried and tested remedy of taking their troubles to the Lord and asking for his help, when the pressures of life threaten to overwhelm them. Unfortunately, some of the 'pastors' they turn to for solace and comfort often have other things on their minds, in addition to ministering to them. Because of their vulnerability, these sisters mistakenly believe that these so-called 'men of God' have their best interest at heart and relationships evolve that often end up being more than what is normally accepted between a pastor and a female member of his congregation. Such exploitation is beyond being detestable and pales in comparison to the sexual peccadilloes of politicians and businessmen going through a mid-life crisis who have a fetish for younger women.

But given the advancements that women are making and the bleak future on the horizon for far too many young men in this country, women may soon be the majority of those with the power and money in The Bahamas. Unfortunately, the tables may not turn soon enough for those who now engage in the exploitation of women to get a taste of their own medicine and find out what it is like to be sexually exploited. What a pity!