Thursday 27 February 2014

Uganda's Dilemma

One must have been living under a rock to not hear about the latest moves made by the government of Uganda against the LGBT people living in their country. Recently the Ugandan Parliament passed a bill making homosexuality a crime punishable by life imprisonment, this bill was later signed into law by President Yoweri Museven. This new basically puts not only every Ugandan LGBT individual but also those who advocate on their behalf at risk because now the state is authorized to adopt the most draconian methods to deal with such persons. This is a rather unique situation indeed even in many countries where gay rights are not recognized this method may seem a bit over the top, in an earlier post I had once stated that due to Putin’s anti-gay  stance, Russia might one day rival Jamaica as the most homophobic country in the world that goes to shows that even the best of us must eat our words at times because clearly Uganda has surpassed Jamaica and Russia to become the new most homophobic nation on earth.

                


Ever since the passage of this bill by Uganda there have been many different views weighing on from different sides of the political spectrum, Ranging from the far right who totally support the measures of the Ugandan government, to the more moderate conservatives, who agree with the idea of a nation standing up for its traditional beliefs and not being influenced by the LGBT agenda pushed by certain liberal western countries but at the same time they also feel that the methods taken to enforce this new law are a bit extreme while at the far end of the spectrum of the leftist who of course are totally flabbergasted by what they describe as a ghastly violation of human rights.
                                  


In all fairness, I think I stand  closer to  the  moderate right on this issue. It is no secret that the Jamaican Tory has never been a fan of the so called “gay rights” movement and anything that will halt the spread of their worldwide influence will certainly have my support. But that still leaves one important question that I’m sure a lot of moderates must be asking themselves right now, “does the ends really justify the means?”, sure the President’s intentions may not be all that bad his methods  can only be described as draconian, how far will this go?, what will be the end result of this? No one knows for sure. To illustrate my meaning earlier this week it came out that a Uganda magazine printed a list of the top 200 gay persons living in the Republic, even some persons who have not previously identified themselves among that group are now on that list,  I cannot help but wonder why this was done. Almost everything else I can understand but this was just plain bizarre as now 200 people will be living with a target on their back every single day that they remain in the country, that was most certainly not a smart move on their part, as mass killings could end of being the result, and I’m not so sure that was the intention of the Ugandan government.

                      

Then of course there is the whole matter of the reaction of the international community, not surprisingly the US and several European countries as well as the liberal media houses and human rights groups that dominate them wasted no time in vilifying the Ugandan government, especially Mr. Museven, several countries have already cut or threatened to cut aid to Uganda. It is no secret that US President Obama is on a mission to spread gay rights all over the world, only a few months ago he found himself in the middle of a row with several African leaders over the very same issue while on a tour of the continent. So naturally this latest development has placed a serious dent in his plan, no wonder he is fuming.  But as I said before regarding Russia and I will repeat the same with regards to Uganda, a sovereign state has every right to enact laws that it thinks are in the best interest of its people and no foreign influence be it governmental or private lobby group has any real authority to dictate to the duly elected government of an independent country what it’s policy should or should not be, that right belongs solely to the citizens of said country.

                        


Before closing  I must say that I find President Museven to be a rather brave man, few would ever dare give assent to such a bill regardless of their personal views for the sheer fact that there are many factors at stake, Uganda is hardly one of the most advanced countries in the world and for its leaders to forego monetary aid in order to stand up for what they truly believe in takes a whole lot of guts.  In a world where it seems as though the LGBT agenda is taking over everywhere it’s refreshing to see that there are those who still refused to be bullied into acceptance but rather choose to follow its own path. For too long now when certain persons (especially celebrities) find it convenient to come out the closet, they are being hailed as being brave and having guts,  in truth however since so many of them are doing it nowadays I would hardly call it brave or unique but rather little more than a publicity stunt to gain more attention. It’s when a person (or in this case a country) chooses to stand up and defy the crowds, defy expectations and freely follow his God-given conscience regardless of the differing opinion that is what truly makes one bold and distinctive, this boldness is exactly what the Government of Uganda displayed with this latest law. 

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