Tell me something. Why is it that the state is not doing more to protect our young girls from what seems to be a growing number of paedophiles, a large number of whom are going around under the guise of being cab and bus drivers? Let me say here that not all cab and bus drivers are this way, but a significant number of them are giving the decent ones a bad name.

The last time I checked the age of consent in Jamaica was 16 years, so if taxi and bus drivers got some kind of waiver on that someone must have forgotten to tell me. Half the time you see a pregnant teen at some clinic or on the street somewhere, more often than not - if they know who the father is - they will tell you that the child belongs to a cab driver. And if, as I said before, they are not sure, there is at least one cab driver who is a factor in her equation. The worse-case scenario in such a situation is when a young girl is not sure which taxi driver got her pregnant.

I remember when I used to take a cab to and from work sometimes, whenever the cab showed up, there would be some girl in uniform with the breast-milk still fresh at the corners of her lips sitting in the front seat, and we're not talking about the cab driver's child here. And sometimes you just know he could not be the father because there is no way such a 'greasy' man could ever father such an attractive child, no matter what the mother looks like, which begs yet another question: what the heck is wrong with some of these children? Why are they so interested in cab and bus drivers?

I believe that girls, as they enter puberty, start to think of sex as some major mystery and they get caught up with the soaps on television and their friends' often fabricated stories of love trysts and romantic getaways. However, this should be a time when these girls should be thinking about their school work and their exams, and perhaps boys their own age, not when and how they are going to be hooking up with the first cab driver that makes a pass at them regardless of their financial situations. Oftentimes too, many cab drivers, by the very nature of their work, come into contact with scores of women, many of whom fall victim to their wiles, so these kids should be smart enough to know that should they hook up with a cab driver, it will not be an exclusive affair.

In short, I really don't think that a schoolgirl looking to get somewhere in life should be going to bed at night thinking "Some day I am going to find me my very own cab driver" before she goes off to sleep and dreams about her greatest fantasy.

On the other side of that coin, you would want to believe that some of these men become cab drivers so that they can have direct and unlimited access to schoolgirls. It's like somebody put an ad out saying "Want to get with some young, fresh schoolgirls? Want to become the single most important thing in her life and eventually get her pregnant? Well, here is your chance. Become a cab driver and fulfil all your greatest paedophile dreams. Call 1-888-cab-driver.

The saddest part in all this is that the authorities turn a blind eye to these situations and then, as a consequence, fork out millions providing prenatal care to 13-year-olds who should be doing homework instead of ultrasounds.

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