Jamaica Offended By Mugabe's Remarks About Jamaican Men

The Zimbabwean dictator is no fan of Jamaican men

Given that Jamaica's per capita GDP is more than 9 times that of Zimbabwe, Mugabe is in no position to talk about somebody's productive output lest somebody turn a critical eye towards Zimbabwean men. Nevertheless, in his remarks at the University of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean dictator in particular continued his longstanding mocking of Rastafarians. From the Associated Press: "In unscripted asides during a roughly three-hour speech last week at a research exposition, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Jamaican 'men are always drunk,' have no interest in higher education, and people freely smoke marijuana."

Some Jamaicans are clamoring for an official Zimbabwean apology: "Glen Harris, a laborer and father of two children, said he felt irritated when he heard about the Zimbabwean president’s chiding remarks on a local radio program. Like the large majority of Jamaica’s population, Harris is black. 'This is an African leader talking like this? Black man should stick up for each other. We’re all Africans,' he said on a Kingston street of low-slung concrete buildings and sheet metal fences."

However, some Jamaicans agree with the Zimbabwean dictator: "Still, a few Jamaicans aren’t aggrieved with Mugabe, who received a top government honor during a 1996 visit. They note that their island is the largest producer of marijuana in the Caribbean and that far more women graduate from university than men, and say Mugabe may have a point, even if he was being overly broad by disparaging Jamaican men. 'Is President Robert Mugabe really on to something? Certainly, his observation that our ‘universities are full of women’ while our ‘men want to sing and do not go to colleges’ is a truism, which none can deny,' Northern Caribbean University administrator Vincent Peterkin wrote in a letter to the editor of The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper."