Lawyer, Maia Eustace, is questioning the emphasis on the woman whose voice appears in a sex tape involving a male whose voice is strikingly similar to a prominent official of the ruling Unity Labour Party.
“… leh me say one thing on behalf of women, whether it’s Madonna Barbour or any of the beautiful women here tonight: why is it that in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, every time there is a recording of some sex act, yo’ only ever focus on what the woman did?” she told a rally of the New Democratic Party in Walvaroo on the weekend.
Barbour is the mother of the woman, said to be 26, who voice allegedly appears on the sex tape.
“The woman is not alone. All of us are here by virtue of a comingling of a man and a woman,” said Eustace, who is daughter of NDP head, Leader of the Opposition, Arnhim Eustace.
“Why is it that we take our gaze completely off the person who has put themselves forward as a moral and political leader of this nation and focus it instead on a young woman who could barely make ends meet. As women, and as the sons of women, we must never allow this to happen in this country,” Eustace said.
There has been much emphasis with Joseph Burns Bonadie, an activist for the ULP, mentioning what he said is her name and travel details on radio shortly after the tape began making the rounds on social media earlier this month.
While persons say they have been able to identify the woman by her voice, they claim that the male voice, who many agree is strikingly similar to a ULP official, is not the official’s real voice and may have been generated digitally.
“Every time there is a sex tape, if it’s school children, ‘Oh, the school girl bad. Alyo see that schoolgirl? Yo’ see how she behave?’ Does that make sense to any of us? The schoolgirl was acting on her own?” Eustace said as the crowd shouted “No”.
“Then why you only focusing on her? Let us give women their due and let us also defend women when they need to be defended,” Eustace said.
Ms. Eustace forgets the old Caribbean saying, “What’s fame for the man is shame for the woman,” an expression that is as alive today as it was a century ago.
While the civilized world has long gone through both a feminist revolution and a sexual revolution, we in the back part of the Caribbean still seat our women folk — our mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives — at the back of the bus.
No wonder so few females have had the strength and resilience to run for political office, knowing they will be roundly vilified head to foot for doing so.
Tell us what plans the NDP have to enhance the development of St Vincent and the Grenadines , Socially , Economically , Health wise etc . We do not want to hear nothing about people personal lives .
I think its time you people in the NDP camp realize that we are more educated than before . We stopped stoop to GUTTER politics a while now .
This is such a bogus argument. We focus on the woman because she damn dotish to allow herself to be used as a political tool. Lets be clear here, the motivation for the recording of the conversation, is done purely for political assassination and have absolutely nothing to do with any exploitation of this woman, as Ms Eustace wants us to believe. As a matter of fact, if there is any exploitation of this woman, it’s by those who orchestrated the recording and release of this tape.
The real issue here is the invasion of privacy. The woman on the tape deserves every ridicule coming her way, for one reason, she is in one form or another, complicit in the taping of the conversation. I think she deserves a bulwood but Ms Eustace wants us to focus on the man, she want us to be morality police and vilify him. Here is the hard truth, until we know differently, the real victim here is the man, as he got more to loose given his prominence in the society but more importantly, he didn’t give consent to be recorded nor to have his most private deeds to be in the public domain.
I am no morality police, so I have no criticisms of the Male on the tape, let him deal with his significant other, that is their private affairs to work out. I think its pretty dotish on the part of any NDP candidate or surrogate to mention this tape because, there is no redeeming value or any political milage to be gain from this tape.
The last thing the ndp want is to have a public backlash for any perceived or real involvement on their part in this sordid affair. The NDP needs to drop this issue as a talking point. Why? If you live in a glass house….
I shake my head in sorrow as I read what both Smithie and TeacherFang have written. In their haste to vilify Ms. Eustace and to defend certain behaviors that might be perpetrated by those whom they embrace, they miss the wood for the trees. Yes, personal behavior and privacy must be recognized and respected. Yes, the tape should not be a political issue. Yes, to all these things. But when ULP operatives themselves make it an issue, by wildly and blindly lashing out at people, it brings the tape into contention. This has been done by the ULP itself. Why? Why did Burns Bonadie and Ralph Gonsalves simply not ignore it, if as they claim it is fake, etc. All they had to do was to leave it alone. Yet they are not being chastised for placing it on the political agenda, but when there is a response to what they have put on the table, their surrogates then follow the lead and lash out. It the tape is inconsequential, then leave it alone. The accusations levied at Ms. Eustace are uncalled for, unsubstantiated , and should not be defended by the likes of the two authors of the comments referred to. Further, Ms Eustace has a right to defend herself . Finally, Mr. Fang, public example and morality is critical to the fundamental backbone of any society. If we adopt the “anything goes” posture, and we do do not set expected standards of behaviors for our leaders, can we then complain of the social breakdowns that set the foundation for so many failed societies? Read your history friends! The Fall of the Roman Empire? The French Revolution? Positive examples by the leaders are essential to nation building.