the students in the US, the army man and police man in Guyana 2026; and the silent men

 

Students in the USA

A woman filed a civil lawsuit against 7 students of Cornell University. 

 The 7 students, all male, violated her in 2024 . The evidence includes messages in a group chat which included about fifty other men  who did nothing .  This suit has revived the revelations about the incidence of sexual violence on colleges and universities.  In India , hundreds of women marched in Delhi to protest rape and other forms of gender-based violence, some of them connected to life at University.  

There is another story of two male students who held another man who was about to molest a woman. However, many people, including young men, have commented on the silence of the 50 men in the brotherhood which facilitated rape.

Army man

In Guyana, a youngish army man turned politician allegedly assaulted his relatives. Charges were laid in 2023. His brotherhood in the PNC then in 2023 hoped he would do the right thing and resign, the brotherhood of the PPP led by Jagdeo wondered where all the activists were , mostly women, who had called for his brother Dharmlall to resign. 

The PPP though did not call for resignation, instead in 2025 Daniel Seeram left the brotherhood of the PNC who did not ask him to leave, and joined the PPP with brothers there who had no comment to make about the violence.

A long time ago, a young man who thought men should control women had told me he hoped to join the army. A senior officer in the army at the time told me .. 'don't worry, we will make sure he doesn't come near the army'. I don't know what happened to the young man, and if he is controlling women. 

The army man's professional and political credentials have his brotherhood in the PPP assigning him to help guard the borders. So far, he has not resigned, and the PPP , like the PNC in 2023, have not asked him to leave. 

There is no news that the brothers in the PNC and the PPP are joining together to work on dealing with some behaviour change and transformative work. 

A PPP man I know who used to be vehement against gender-based violence has succumbed.. he told me recently .. "yeah so what .. they have abusers everywhere" and so he has to be silent and complicit in the PPP.  

Police man

News broke that a senior police man has allegations of rape and other sexual violence against him. 

The PPP are silent, except for the Minister of Home Affairs who seemed powerless to deal with gender-based violence even if she wanted to. 

The police man's brothers in the Guyana Police Force are also silent.

I think Deputy Commissioner Karimbaksh should step aside and the Commissioner of Police should submit to independent investigations. 

Another man resigned his seat in Parliament while investigations proceed against him for sexual offences.

Meanwhile, news broke that the President issued a challenge to fathers to cook for their families once a month. I know many abusers who cook and clean and 'provide' for their families while gaslighting and otherwise abusing them in between the lovely food and home and so on.

The President had at one time when he launched the Men on Mission had hoped that MOM would help with stopping some of the violence. It seems that the President, like the other PPP man I know, has had to be silent since about how MOM and the PPP can stop the violence of their brothers.

Silent men

And so men who might not abuse women or other people remain silent. Some might fear the scrutiny - who is you to talk? 

One man, and one woman have told me separately that my behaviour to them was abusive. I accepted what they told. They gave me opportunities for redemption. 

In another online community, the administrators told me that my behaviour had made another members uncomfortable. The administrators did not say what behaviour it was, but also said they did not think they needed to kick me out of the community. 

In all three cases, I had no intention of being abusive to anyone. 

I  hold myself accountable to others, even as I call on other men to not be silent when it is clear men around us are abusing girls, children and others.  This includes trying to stop a bus driver who playing the woman hating DJ , but it is difficult when the bus driver also despises women. 

If we really are going to transform the masculine behaviour which believes in abusing women, girls and others not considered masculine, then we have to start modelling accountability and begin the process to admitting to the need for attitude and behaviour change.

 

Feature image by Defrino Maasy on Unsplash

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