A Government Senator today lamented a growing number of divorces being filed, suggesting that couples seemed hell-bent on ending their marriage instead of working things out.
Deputy president of the Senate, Rudolph Cappy Greenidge, who was speaking during the Family Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, said there were way too many cases coming before the law courts.
He declared: “Only this morning I looked at the case list I saw about 25 family law matters before one particular judge and that judge was not the only one doing Family Law or with Family law cases before them other judges have Family Law cases before them as well. So you could imagine the volume of Family Law cases we have in our courts?
Senator Greenidge said the numbers seemed to be a clear indication that couples weren’t willing to do what it takes to make a marriage work.
He said: “Sometimes you sit and wonder: Why is it that there is this ballooning of family law cases?
“One school of thought is that we have made divorces in Barbados too easy.
“Parties nowadays are more tempted to jump off the marriage train than to make the marriage work. There are young people who are not at all willing to compromise in the way that my grandmother and my mother did.
“Not this young generation….”
The senator said the fact too that some law firms make their business by dealing with Family Law cases proved that the numbers have increased.
“Three lawyers in particular I know each practice is 90 per cent family law; one of the three maybe as much as 99 per cent gives you some indication as to the amount of family law work that they have on their desk. They hardly worry about other legal matters.”
The attorney at law explained that it was now easier for couples to file for divorce.
“We have made it easy we have gone to something called no fault divorce. With no fault divorce one party only has to say this marriage has broken down irretrievably and that is the end of it.”
Greenidge pointed out that being able to file “no fault” has added to the numbers as well.
“In my mother and grandmother’s day you had to come with fault… you had to say there was desertion there was cruelty there was adultery not now. Some have said that divorces have skyrocketed since the “no fault” divorce came into being. When I started to practice family law was merely simmering now it is boiling over…”
“While filing no-fault has contributed to the increased number of divorces I have to say that independence of thought coupled with the financial independence of the Barbadian wife have contributed as well.”
He said the wives of this generation were way less tolerant that those ‘back in the day.
“Barbadians wives back then depended on everything from the husband. They couldn’t get a lawyer on their own. Those wives of yesterday were willing to put up with infidelity and verbal ause ’cause they thought themselves hemmed in. The wife of today would remove themselves from those situations and file for divorce.
Read our ePaper. Fast. Factual. Free.
Sign up and stay up to date with Barbados' FREE latest news.
I’m not sure why only grandmothers, mothers and wives were mentioned in his synopsis because women don’t marry themselves
Reading this article however, showed that men took advantage of their women because they women depended solely on their man’s income
When men had the upper hand they abused it
Now that women are also breadwinners accepting cheating or beating spouses have now permanently become a thing of the past
The Senator is right
Divorces have become to easy with the inttoduction of the ‘ no fault clause” in that all one the couples have to imply after a year is that the marriage has irretrievably broken down quit subjective to say the least.
It has led to the spectacle with the support of the domestic violence act of couples still married free to carry on adulterous affairs without sanction
the way this man compare wives from back in the day to today is mindboggling. If you dont know what goes on behind close doors, you need to shut your mouth. Women back in the day as you describe had to put up with beatings, no money, other women laughing at them, they the wife have the ring but the ouside woman got the real thing, thats no way a woman should live her life. Nowadays, good for the women who handle their own, get a job, and purchase your own stuff, dont wait around for no man and depend on him. Some men verbally abuse the woman, and leave her name all over the place with his friends. A human being should not have to live like that, a marriage should be two fold and a happy one. Women need to think twice before getting married, dont marry because you love the man,it needs to be more than that. If he going to disrespect or abuse you both verbally or psychically, get out of the marriage, dont listen to this people that condon abuse. Get out the abuse and dont let your kids see all that drama and hate going on in the home.
the more time pass, you more you learn and the better you learn to improve your life and the life for your children. When I was growing up, men beating up the women and kicking them out the house, anytime of the day or night was a normal occurrence, because adult women got married to a man, and think that was their source of happiness. The bible said it, when it talks about marriage and how a man should treat the wife and vice versa, if you live in a house with a husband, and he is making your life a living hell why on earth would you put up with that behavior just to save a marriage. Do you know mr how many women try to save their marriage and they now six feet deep? and the men still living, Women dont hold onto a man or a husband just to keep up appearances, your life is worth more than that. Demand respect from your husband, and the day and minute he put other women to disrespect you,get out,because why would you wait around for him to disrespect you again. Back in the day as this man said, all women didnt put up with abuse. Lots of women used to ran away from the blows, the stravation and the threats. Its not happening to him, so he can talk anything he want.
So why stay in a relationship where you are miserable?
And why blame women for being less tolerant of abuse and infidelity?
This does not make sense to me….
And what solutions is the good senator offering?
Pre-marital counseling? Counseling when problems are encountered? Educational programmes in schools and community centres, churches etc.?
Has the divorce rate truly increased? Bring some statistics like the percentage of marriages ending in divorce, please.
And are you counting the numerous marriages that are effectively in name only because one or both spouses have outside relationships and are only sharing accommodation?
Start talking sense, sir!