Ay me,
How weak a thing,
The heart of woman is.
- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Let's face it, women are basically strong, they have to manage households, bring up children when there is no father around, and even when the father is living in the house, it's often the woman who still has to run things. They know how to make a dollar stretch, how to feed, clothe and send kids to school on a strict budget.

They can work and school themselves at the same time and can multitask better than any man. After all this, they can still manage to please their men upon demand. Basically they have more common sense than men, and if you ask more husbands, they'll tell you that it's the wives who really make the major decisions. "Man, my wife has an instinct for people and things and can always tell when something is good or bad, when I don't even see it."

Yet with all this, women still have a chink in their armour, a flaw in their diamond, a breach in their dyke, an Achilles heel that is more than often their emotionally fatal weakness, their weak heart, as Shakespeare said above. No matter how bright, intelligent and educated a woman is, somehow her heart always manages to let her down, prompting people to ask, "Why would she do that, why would a woman of her stature do something as silly as that?" Well, it's been a question of the ages, why women defy what we consider as logic and do seemingly strange things, at times bordering on incredible.

I say seemingly, for to them it makes perfect sense, and no argument or pretty persuasion is going to make them change. We see it all the time, and usually it's in regard to some man. Ah yes, men, the bane of every woman's existence, the object of their desire, yet also the source of their pain and grief. Man, that elusive being that women profess to 'can't stand,' but still jump at their beck and call, often asking 'how high' when told to take that leap. It's the only thing in the world that turns smart women foolish, and the only way some women escape their clutches is to stay away from men altogether. "Me done with all man, I don't want another man in my life, all they do is cause crosses and hurt up me heart."

Still, those who opt to remain among the masculine gender do so at their peril, for as sure as night follows day, their hearts will override their heads, they do stupid things, and we ask, "Why would she do a thing like that?" For some strange reason, many women will take up with men who are nothing but bums and parasites, leeches who live off them and drain the very lifeblood from their existence.

The first sign is that they give the men their cars to drive, and usually it's a very expensive SUV. This goes on for so long that after a while you think that the vehicle belongs to the man and not to her, as more than often she sits and waits late at the office until he decides to pick her up. I personally know of such situations where men have been driving women's cars for years, yet never owned a car in their life.

All of the pleasure, none of the stress of car payments, insurance, licensing or expensive repairs as he rides for free. In many cases these men do not work, but are always on the verge of realising some great scheme to make money. She fuels his silly quixotic ideas, as he chases his elusive dreams and fights his windmills, and she fuels these dreams with her hard-earned cash. After a while this becomes the norm as he lives off her, becomes the stay at home man, while she leaves every morning and returns at night after a hard day's work.

Often they are bright, professional women, supporting these worthless excuses for men. Why do women do this? The only thing more incredible is the gall of these men who seem to have no shame as they exploit the weakness of these gullible women. Why is it that those looking on can see the folly of their ways, yet these women can't see the forest for the trees? Furthermore, if you dare to pass any comment, they will not only berate you, but defend the man. "Leave him alone, is just true you nuh have nobody why you grudge me my man." Ah my friends, the root cause is the weakness of their hearts.

I know of women who are quite beautiful and educated, some even with their Masters and PhD degrees, yet they end up with some bum of a man who not only fathers their children, but they also end up marrying them. Naturally the marriage goes bust after a while, but it's no financial loss to her anyway, for she was the one bearing the financial burden from day one anyway. Ironically for this reason, many men will never leave those marriages, as it's their feeding tree, their gravy train, their cash cow.

Apart from that, the trend now is to take up with much younger boys who have neither the ways nor the means to provide anything for her. Enter the era of the toyboy. It would be bad enough if it was only a sexual fling, but ever so often, these women take on these boys as projects, spending lavishly on them, moving them into their homes, living with them and calling them, 'My man'. We look on and we shake our heads and wonder, "Couldn't she do better than that, is she so desperate for a man, why would she do that?"

Now we can understand when they take up with men twice their age, for that is solely for financial gain, but who can fathom when the dollars are flowing in the other direction?! We see university lecturers, lawyers, doctors, media personalities, cohabiting with these bums. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about financially poor men who are not in the same pay scale as these women, but rather the worthless good for nothing men who have no intention to do an honest days work, preferring instead to live off these women. Still, it raises the question "Why do these women do that?"

There are even cases of women wooing men who are in prison, some on death row with no hope of release. These seemingly bright women will fall head over Achilles heel for these men, writing them letters, promising them much, and even offering to marry them. Now what power on earth could make me seek out a woman who is on death row and start wooing her? Yet women do it all the time, more often than you would think.

Why do women accept cheating from their men, yet that generosity and forgiveness is rarely reciprocated? So many wives will turn a blind eye to their wayward men, saying, "Ah well, what I don't know won't hurt me, and anyway, he's home every night." But she does know, but simply refuses to do anything about it.

Yet, on the other hand, very few men, if any, will know that their woman has another man, knows that she's sleeping with him and comes home late every night either reeking of his cologne, or surprisingly fresh, showered and squeaky clean. Which man will know his wife's lover and accept him as such, saying, "Cho, is so she stay, as long as she come home every night it's okay!" And yet, women do this. Why? Which man is going to accept a child borne by his wife, sired by another man, and act as if it's no big thing? Yet so many women do this all the time. Right now I saw where Hugh Hefner, legendary owner of Playboy Enterprises and now eighty years old, has not one, but three young beautiful girlfriends.

Which man is going to be one of three boyfriends to any woman? Woman accept so much from men, bright women too. They accept the lies, they live with the beating and the emotional abuse, they live with the late night coming home, the booty calls, and the long distance so-called relationships. They live without foreplay. Why do women do it? If anyone has the answer, please let me know, for it's indeed baffling. More time.

seido1@hotmail.com

Footnote: Now I'm not flogging a dead horse, but just touching on some sports issues. I have said so before, and I'll say it again, when certain people forced out our very own Courtney Walsh as captain of the West Indies Cricket Team, I foretold the demise of our cricket, and so it slid. In the same vein, when they ousted Captain Horace Burrell I also foretold the death of our football.

From the dizzying heights of World Cup in France 1998, to the doldrums, the depths, the nadir of now achieving the lowest ranking in the Caribbean for over thirteen years. Why are we so self-destructive? A glimmer of hope is the young Boyz's achievement in the Pan Am Games, but the overall programme is in big trouble, and we saw it coming. We are our own worst enemy.

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