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Mrs. Anumaana is at a loss to understand the goings-on in that supposedly august assembly known as Parliament. She had at one time harboured the naïve idea that the people’s representatives who gathered there were duty bound to conduct themselves with a sense of dignity befitting their office.
Wasn’t that the least that she, as a citizen and voter, expected of them – even if they couldn’t find all the answers to the weighty national questions that arose as speedily as people wished? Not only were they little concerned about weighty issues – other than perhaps their own, resulting from over-eating – they persisted in adding insult to injury by appearing to blame it all on women. And they persisted in doing so in true Neanderthal style, it seemed.

Take for instance the recent performance by the honourable minister of transport at question time in Parliament. He claimed he found himself unable to answer questions put to him by a woman MP for the very strange reason that he was besotted by her looks. While his colleagues cackled in the background, with never a word of rebuke from the Chair, the honourable minister held forth at length about how he was reduced to a trembling mess at the very sight of her beauty.

The honourable minister’s wife would not have been amused, thought Mrs. Anumaana, considering the thousands of TV viewers who would have been apprised of his lascivious inclinations as a result of his rather unexpected public announcement. Mrs. Anumaana realised that the word ‘sexist’ was probably outside the limits of the honourable minister’s vocabulary. Had that epithet been applied to him perhaps he would have mistaken it to mean ‘sexy,’ and responded as if it was a compliment, further embarrassing himself. No doubt the honourable minister believed a woman’s place was in the home and not the House, Mrs. Anumaana realised. Or was this simply a ploy to dodge the question?

She had to admit, however, that not all ministers and MPs were of his ilk. There seemed to be others who demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that they indeed believed a woman’s place was in the House.
Wasn’t that why some of them summoned the Chief Justice to appear before a House committee, at the snap of their fingers, expecting her to respond to 14 purported charges in one week and go through 1000 pages in 24 hours to face an inquiry? This time the Neanderthal stuff took place behind closed doors. But owing to those pesky media people whom they could not gag, the word has got around and we know about how the MPs behaved, the kind of language they used and how the CJ walked out, leaving them in a bit of a tither.
Perhaps this was just as well, thought Mrs. Anumaana — now they can carry on with their investigation, merrily making up the rules as they went along and shifting the goalposts at will, without any inconvenient interruptions by the subject of inquiry.

Mrs. Anumaana has noted with alarm that, in what appears to be an epidemic of Neanderthal behaviour, the law enforcers have begun to follow the example of the lawmakers. According to recent reports, female sex workers are at greater risk of transmitting AIDS now because they have given up carrying condoms.

This was because they were more likely to get booked if the law enforcement types found condoms in their possession. The officers were in the habit of displaying the condoms in court as ‘case productions’ to help prove their guilt, it was reported. So to be on the safe side the women have stopped carrying them. As a result neither they nor their clients are on the safe side when it comes to STDs, some concerned health officials have pointed out. Mrs. Anumaana could not but be bewildered at the logic of these law enforcement types. If carrying a condom in your handbag meant that you were a prostitute, then by the same token, would they conclude that carrying cash in your wallet meant that you were a thief?

Then there was the case of the dancer who had the unusual pet of a cobra that featured in her dance act. The reptile was seized by police during a raid on a night club. The alleged offence committed by the dancer (or was it the cobra?) still remains unclear. But reports say she was charged under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, and the police were concerned about the disruption of the creature’s natural feeding patterns etc.

Mrs. Anumaana could only wish that this outpouring of metta on the part of the police towards all sentient beings would be more evident when they were interrogating detainees of the human variety in police stations. She noticed that this particular story had a tentatively happy ending with the court directing that the cobra be returned to the dancer. Still it appeared to Mrs. Anumaana that the Neanderthals ruled the day, whether it was in night clubs or politics. And with just 13 women representatives in a parliament of 225, she has her doubts about the prospects of a reversal in the trend any time soon.

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