Lout of Africa

I really didn’t think this waste of a human life would go ahead with it. But he did.

In yet another infamous day on the African continent, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda signed into law a bill that could (and most likely will) imprison for life anyone convicted of (repeat?) homosexuality. The law goes further in requiring that heterosexuals denounce anyone suspected of homosexuality, effectively demanding that ordinary citizens become spies for the government, which brings back horrifying recollections from history of how this was abused in Medieval Europe and during the Salem witch trials. No doubt the keepers of the law will find ways to “deal” with those who refuse to out homosexuals.

I don’t have to defend my position to all good people who are upholders of basic human rights, but neither am I going to attempt to convince those who find this reprehensible act of cowardice and bigotry justifiable. You are simply not good people, no matter how much conviction, solace and comfort you find in your archaic religious texts. If you really must know why this is so reprehensible, read this journalists column here.

This law isn’t just bad and evil on a purely discriminatory level, but is an indictment on Africa, Africans and the state of leadership on this continent. Africa is telling the world that it simply refuses to move forward to a progressive world order, preferring to indulge antiquated customs, traditions and contracted thinking. In short African leaders insist on reminding the world that it will live up to its label of the “Dark Continent.”

While it would be fitting if the US and the EU makes good the threat to impose harsh economic sanctions on Uganda, it would only adversely affect the ordinary citizens of this country, because the fat cats in government such as Museveni and that ghastly excuse for a human, Simon Lokodo with the pompous title of Minister for Integrity and Ethics, will still be able to live it up at the expense of the people.

Meanwhile to add to the ignominy that this day has spawned, almost due South in Zimbabwe, another shameful specimen in the form of Robert Mugabe, used his 90th birthday celebrations to launch into a tirade (as he does annually on his birthday) against homosexuality. Why this arrogant little tyrant cares about such things at his age is truly baffling.

In all of this, the silence from the so-called leaders in my own country (South Africa) is deafening and ominous. Is this a sign of things heading our way too?

The year of dressing dangerously

Over the years there were probably many isolated incidences around the world where a person’s dress, appearance and style of living attracted unwanted attention from a few loons, mostly from one type of religious persuasion or the other. But in 2013, these incidences started making the news.

In January, the same religious extremists who had earlier banned women from wearing jeans and tight trousers, inspired the mayor of Aceh, Indonesia, to propose a ban on women straddling bicycles and motorcycles when riding pillion. Then in February a Saudi cleric raged about forcing babies and young woman to wear burkas, which he claimed would prevent rape.

In March Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood opposed a UN Declaration on Woman’s Rights saying that granting them any basic rights would destroy society. They  proposed among other more absurd things that woman should not be allowed to travel freely, work, use contraception and control the household finances.

Earlier this month Hamas, the ultra-conservative government of Gaza passed an education bill mandating separate classrooms for boys and girls. This week in another act of pure madness Hamas lap-dogs who pass for Policemen were reported pulling young men off the streets, loading them into jeeps, insulting them and then cutting off or shaving their long or gel-styled spiky hair.

Now lest you think I’m singling out a particular religion by exposing this insanity, let me assure you that I’m not. If an adherent of [place your religion or political organization of choice here] compels me to dress or behave in a certain way, or inhibits me from exercising certain basic human rights, because it infringes some stupid law from their archaic religious texts, then I’m most certainly going to tell them to kiss my ass.

It’s not so much the religion that concerns me, as the jackasses that try to impose their understanding of it.

No religionist (or political organization) will ever prescribe to me how to dress, what to eat, how to live or what to believe.

*****

This just in…

Seems the madness has spread to Uganda too. Simon Lokodo an ex-Catholic priest, a misogynist and homophobe who is now masquerading as the Ethics Minister [fancy that?] is proposing legislation that will govern what women wear in public, including on television.

This same government-appointed keeper of the public’s morals was at the forefront of persecution and discriminatory laws against Uganda’s homosexual community not so long ago.