When Regret Becomes Recruitment: A Dangerous Message to Caribbean Girls by Brent Simon
There is a part of this conversation we keep dodging, and it’s time to stop pretending it doesn’t exist.
Across the Caribbean, there are women who know—deep down—that their health has declined beyond easy repair. They live with chronic pain, limited mobility, medication dependency, and silent fear about the future. Many will admit privately that if they could rewind time, they would make different choices.
But instead of warning the next generation, too many are doing the opposite, because misery loves company.
They are encouraging younger women to follow the same path—to eat recklessly, reject discipline, dismiss movement, and frame concern as hatred. Not out of confidence, but out of something far more troubling: unresolved regret.
This isn’t empowerment.
It’s recruitment.
When someone reaches a point where change feels overwhelming—or impossible—there’s a psychological temptation to normalize the damage. If everyone joins you, then the consequences feel less personal. If the lifestyle becomes a “movement,” then the mistake becomes a statement.
And that’s where the real danger lies.
You can see it not only in the messaging, but in the attitude: hostility toward health conversations, aggression toward fitness, mockery of effort, and outright contempt for anyone who chooses differently. Exercise becomes “self-hate.” Nutrition becomes “selling out.” Personal responsibility becomes “colonial thinking.”
That’s not cultural pride.
That’s defensiveness wearing a costume.
Young Caribbean girls are absorbing this—watching women who are clearly unwell tell them, with absolute certainty, “This is fine. This is freedom. This is power.” Meanwhile, the same women struggle to walk long distances, depend on daily medication, and quietly fear what the next medical visit will reveal.
Let’s call it what it is: misguided mentorship.
There is a moral line between loving yourself where you are and encouraging others to damage themselves so you don’t feel alone. One is healing. The other is selfish.
And no—this isn’t about blaming women. It’s about stopping the cycle.
Because when older generations pass down unhealthy habits as identity, they’re not preserving culture—they’re exporting illness. They’re turning preventable suffering into inheritance.
The Caribbean already carries a heavy health burden. We don’t need elders—intentionally or not—training the next generation to repeat it.
Wisdom is not pretending your scars are trophies.
Wisdom is warning others where the road collapses.
If you are struggling with your health, you deserve compassion.
But compassion does not require silence.
And it certainly does not require recruiting young women into the same struggle.
Our girls deserve honesty, not ideology.
They deserve examples of strength, not rationalized decline.
They deserve futures that are longer, freer, and healthier than the present we are normalizing.
This editorial will offend some people. That’s fine.
Truth usually does—right before it forces growth.
Because the real betrayal of Caribbean women is not telling them they’re beautiful.
It’s telling them that health no longer matters.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
The trouble is, too many persons are seeking to change after been diagnosed with chronic illness and its not confined to one sex only. As a habit, we all eat badly and as we get older, it becomes a strain on our health system. High blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, kidney problems and more, we were not born with them. Our lifestyle choices are killing us slowly. And just examine the foods and snacks that are sold in and around schools. All killers! Yet it’s encouraged and are widely consumed by students. KFC is the food of choice for many and it does more harm than good. We have to do better than that!
Message received.
Now, do one for the men next.
What messages are Caribbean men sending to boys? What of their health? Drug and alcohol abuse. Irresponsible amd deviant sexual behavior. What about how they treat girls and women? Reflect on the rampant violence across our land where the majority of victims are female. Talk to the young men who butchered that teenager at the beach and got off scott free!
Brent Simon, what message do YOU have for your fellow brethrin and young boys coming up?
It can’t always be about pointing out the flaws of women. Especially as a man. Look in the mirror. Speak to men as well.
We’re waiting.
The drug alcohol which goes hand in glove with the entertainment industry from the rum shops to the fetes, concerts, house parties spreading like wildfire across Antigua and used by many to self medicate due to stressors from all angles is one of the biggest contributing factors to the unhealthy lifestyle causing these chronic diseases.
And with the uptick in usage of the synthetic marijuana masked as medicine is contributing to the unhealthy lifestyles as well.
I dont know why this spin was used to highlight that WE ALL AGE
Everyine has a story and we are all jyst trting to survive
What’s the saying in Antigua. Bone ah fu dogg, meat ah fi man…Obesity is culturally encouraged here. It’s an African thing they say. Good luck changing that mindset.
Before ah oooman start tlk to you buy me ah KFC me wah ice cream me wah pizza them think them ah break man pocket smh ah u own rass u ah kill
Comments are closed.