I Died Today
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franklyne ogbunwezeh
Feb 27, 2014, 10:59:53 PM2/27/14
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I Died Today!!!
By
Emmanuel Franklyne
Ogbunwezeh
I died today.
I died today in shame and anger and annoyance.
I died today in those lifeless bodies of innocent school children of Yobe State, whose only "crimes" were going to school to conquer ignorance.
Ignorance proved too strong and fatal.
She proved murderous and self-righteous.
Ignorance not only slaughters the mind enslaved to it;
It battles to waste the lives of those who are massed against it.
The schizophrenic ignorance packaged as religious fanaticism invaded the citadels of knowledge and exacted vengeance.
The price was the body and blood of over 43 innocent young Nigerians.
I died today!
Nigeria killed me.
The country of my birth, took its posterity to the Golgotha of hate.
She had her crucified in between a troop of thieves.
I am busy dying over and over again in my brothers and sisters massacred by the fiery hate of a fanatical horde of thieves;
And the thieves of Abuja are busy DISAPPEARING billions of dollars that would have made my poor life here a bit livable.
I died today.
Nigeria killed me.
I died today in those men and women lynched by the hateful ignorance of homophobes;
who instead of pursuing solutions to Nigeria's problems,
are taking out their angst on minorities that do not fit into the conceptual schemes of their morbid faiths.
I died today.
Nigeria killed me.
I died in all who would lose their lives today on Nigerian deathtraps of roads.
Roads constructed with corruption and embezzlement, to the furthest reaches of dysfunction and non-existence.
I died today in all whom Nigeria has fucked over, and sodomized without Vaseline for so long.
I died today in Nigerians, in whom hate, ignorance and atavism have built up a cocooned vision of the world that was sired in hate and lives by peddling hate.
I died because our education degenerated into dsyfunctionality as to teach them anything.
I died.
Nigeria killed me
Emmanuel F. Ogbunwezeh
25.02.2014
I died today in shame and anger and annoyance.
I died today in those lifeless bodies of innocent school children of Yobe State, whose only "crimes" were going to school to conquer ignorance.
Ignorance proved too strong and fatal.
She proved murderous and self-righteous.
Ignorance not only slaughters the mind enslaved to it;
It battles to waste the lives of those who are massed against it.
The schizophrenic ignorance packaged as religious fanaticism invaded the citadels of knowledge and exacted vengeance.
The price was the body and blood of over 43 innocent young Nigerians.
I died today!
Nigeria killed me.
The country of my birth, took its posterity to the Golgotha of hate.
She had her crucified in between a troop of thieves.
I am busy dying over and over again in my brothers and sisters massacred by the fiery hate of a fanatical horde of thieves;
And the thieves of Abuja are busy DISAPPEARING billions of dollars that would have made my poor life here a bit livable.
I died today.
Nigeria killed me.
I died today in those men and women lynched by the hateful ignorance of homophobes;
who instead of pursuing solutions to Nigeria's problems,
are taking out their angst on minorities that do not fit into the conceptual schemes of their morbid faiths.
I died today.
Nigeria killed me.
I died in all who would lose their lives today on Nigerian deathtraps of roads.
Roads constructed with corruption and embezzlement, to the furthest reaches of dysfunction and non-existence.
I died today in all whom Nigeria has fucked over, and sodomized without Vaseline for so long.
I died today in Nigerians, in whom hate, ignorance and atavism have built up a cocooned vision of the world that was sired in hate and lives by peddling hate.
I died because our education degenerated into dsyfunctionality as to teach them anything.
I died.
Nigeria killed me
Emmanuel F. Ogbunwezeh
25.02.2014
* ************** *************** ****************** *************** ***********
What constitutes a disservice to our faculty of judgment, however, is to place obstacles in the way of assembling truth's fragments, remaining content with a mere one- or two-dimensional projection where a multidimensional and multifaceted apprehension remains open, accessible and instructive.
What constitutes a disservice to our faculty of judgment, however, is to place obstacles in the way of assembling truth's fragments, remaining content with a mere one- or two-dimensional projection where a multidimensional and multifaceted apprehension remains open, accessible and instructive.
Wole Soyinka, Between Truth and Indulgences
Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
Feb 28, 2014, 7:24:47 AM2/28/14
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
I love this poem - minus line 31.
What made me cringe was not the f- word but
the v- word , surprisingly.
But who am I to query a poet?
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of franklyne ogbunwezeh [ogbun...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:59 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - I Died Today
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What made me cringe was not the f- word but
the v- word , surprisingly.
But who am I to query a poet?
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of franklyne ogbunwezeh [ogbun...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:59 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - I Died Today
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ojod...@gmail.com
Feb 28, 2014, 11:13:04 AM2/28/14
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Scathingly touching!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
From: franklyne ogbunwezeh <ogbun...@yahoo.com>
Sender: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 19:59:53 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - I Died Today
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Prof. Alfred Zack-Williams
Mar 1, 2014, 6:28:12 AM3/1/14
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I wonder if folks have seen Adichie's rebuttal to the wave of homophobia
sweeping through our continent.
Apologise for cross posting if you have seen it already.
Tunde Zack-Williams
Anti-Gay Law: Chimamanda Adichie Writes, 'Why can't he just be like everyone
else?'
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By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I will call him Sochukwuma. A thin, smiling boy who liked to play with us
girls at the university primary school in Nsukka. We were young. We knew he
was different, we said, 'he's not like the other boys.' But his was a benign
and unquestioned difference; it was simply what it was. We did not have a
name for him. We did not know the word 'gay.' He was Sochukwuma and he was
friendly and he played oga so well that his side always won.
In secondary school, some boys in his class tried to throw Sochukwuma off a
second floor balcony. They were strapping teenagers who had learned to
notice, and fear, difference. They had a name for him. Homo. They mocked him
because his hips swayed when he walked and his hands fluttered when he
spoke. He brushed away their taunts, silently, sometimes grinning an
uncomfortable grin. He must have wished that he could be what they wanted
him to be. I imagine now how helplessly lonely he must have felt. The boys
often asked, "Why can't he just be like everyone else?"
Possible answers to that question include 'because he is abnormal,' 'because
he is a sinner, 'because he chose the lifestyle.' But the truest answer is
'We don't know.' There is humility and humanity in accepting that there are
things we simply don't know. At the age of 8, Sochukwuma was obviously
different. It was not about sex, because it could not possibly have been -
his hormones were of course not yet fully formed - but it was an awareness
of himself, and other children's awareness of him, as different. He could
not have 'chosen the lifestyle' because he was too young to do so. And why
would he - or anybody - choose to be homosexual in a world that makes life
so difficult for homosexuals?
The new law that criminalizes homosexuality is popular among Nigerians. But
it shows a failure of our democracy, because the mark of a true democracy is
not in the rule of its majority but in the protection of its minority -
otherwise mob justice would be considered democratic. The law is also
unconstitutional, ambiguous, and a strange priority in a country with so
many real problems. Above all else, however, it is unjust. Even if this was
not a country of abysmal electricity supply where university graduates are
barely literate and people die of easily-treatable causes and Boko Haram
commits casual mass murders, this law would still be unjust. We cannot be a
just society unless we are able to accommodate benign difference, accept
benign difference, live and let live. We may not understand homosexuality,
we may find it personally abhorrent but our response cannot be to
criminalize it.
A crime is a crime for a reason. A crime has victims. A crime harms society.
On what basis is homosexuality a crime? Adults do no harm to society in how
they love and whom they love. This is a law that will not prevent crime, but
will, instead, lead to crimes of violence: there are already, in different
parts of Nigeria, attacks on people 'suspected' of being gay. Ours is a
society where men are openly affectionate with one another. Men hold hands.
Men hug each other. Shall we now arrest friends who share a hotel room, or
who walk side by side? How do we determine the clunky expressions in the law
- 'mutually beneficial,' 'directly or indirectly?'
Many Nigerians support the law because they believe the Bible condemns
homosexuality. The Bible can be a basis for how we choose to live our
personal lives, but it cannot be a basis for the laws we pass, not only
because the holy books of different religions do not have equal significance
for all Nigerians but also because the holy books are read differently by
different people. The Bible, for example, also condemns fornication and
adultery and divorce, but they are not crimes.
For supporters of the law, there seems to be something about homosexuality
that sets it apart. A sense that it is not 'normal.' If we are part of a
majority group, we tend to think others in minority groups are abnormal, not
because they have done anything wrong, but because we have defined normal to
be what we are and since they are not like us, then they are abnormal.
Supporters of the law want a certain semblance of human homogeneity. But we
cannot legislate into existence a world that does not exist: the truth of
our human condition is that we are a diverse, multi-faceted species. The
measure of our humanity lies, in part, in how we think of those different
from us. We cannot - should not - have empathy only for people who are like
us.
Your ads will be inserted here by
Google AdSense.
Please go to the plugin admin page to set up your ad code.
Some supporters of the law have asked - what is next, a marriage between a
man and a dog?' Or 'have you seen animals being gay?' (Actually, studies
show that there is homosexual behavior in many species of animals.) But,
quite simply, people are not dogs, and to accept the premise - that a
homosexual is comparable to an animal - is inhumane. We cannot reduce the
humanity of our fellow men and women because of how and who they love. Some
animals eat their own kind, others desert their young. Shall we follow those
examples, too?
Other supporters suggest that gay men sexually abuse little boys. But
pedophilia and homosexuality are two very different things. There are men
who abuse little girls, and women who abuse little boys, and we do not
presume that they do it because they are heterosexuals. Child molestation is
an ugly crime that is committed by both straight and gay adults (this is why
it is a crime: children, by virtue of being non-adults, require protection
and are unable to give sexual consent).
There has also been some nationalist posturing among supporters of the law.
Homosexuality is 'unafrican,' they say, and we will not become like the
west. The west is not exactly a homosexual haven; acts of discrimination
against homosexuals are not uncommon in the US and Europe. But it is the
idea of 'unafricanness' that is truly insidious. Sochukwuma was born of Igbo
parents and had Igbo grandparents and Igbo great-grandparents. He was born a
person who would romantically love other men. Many Nigerians know somebody
like him. The boy who behaved like a girl. The girl who behaved like a boy.
The effeminate man. The unusual woman. These were people we knew, people
like us, born and raised on African soil. How then are they 'unafrican?'
If anything, it is the passage of the law itself that is 'unafrican.' It
goes against the values of tolerance and 'live and let live' that are part
of many African cultures. (In 1970s Igboland, Area Scatter was a popular
musician, a man who dressed like a woman, wore makeup, plaited his hair. We
don't know if he was gay - I think he was - but if he performed today, he
could conceivably be sentenced to fourteen years in prison. For being who he
is.) And it is informed not by a home-grown debate but by a cynically
borrowed one: we turned on CNN and heard western countries debating 'same
sex marriage' and we decided that we, too, would pass a law banning same sex
marriage. Where, in Nigeria, whose constitution defines marriage as being
between a man and a woman, has any homosexual asked for same-sex marriage?
This is an unjust law. It should be repealed. Throughout history, many
inhumane laws have been passed, and have subsequently been repealed. Barack
Obama, for example, would not be here today had his parents obeyed American
laws that criminalized marriage between blacks and whites.
An acquaintance recently asked me, 'if you support gays, how would you have
been born?' Of course, there were gay Nigerians when I was conceived. Gay
people have existed as long as humans have existed. They have always been a
small percentage of the human population. We don't know why. What matters is
this: Sochukwuma is a Nigerian and his existence is not a crime.
Read more
http://newswirengr.com/2014/02/19/anti-gay-law-chimamanda-adichie-writes-why
-cant-he-just-be-like-everyone-else/
usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue+unsu
bsc...@googlegroups.com>.
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sweeping through our continent.
Apologise for cross posting if you have seen it already.
Tunde Zack-Williams
Anti-Gay Law: Chimamanda Adichie Writes, 'Why can't he just be like everyone
else?'
Your ads will be inserted here by
Google AdSense.
Please go to the plugin admin page to set up your ad code.
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I will call him Sochukwuma. A thin, smiling boy who liked to play with us
girls at the university primary school in Nsukka. We were young. We knew he
was different, we said, 'he's not like the other boys.' But his was a benign
and unquestioned difference; it was simply what it was. We did not have a
name for him. We did not know the word 'gay.' He was Sochukwuma and he was
friendly and he played oga so well that his side always won.
In secondary school, some boys in his class tried to throw Sochukwuma off a
second floor balcony. They were strapping teenagers who had learned to
notice, and fear, difference. They had a name for him. Homo. They mocked him
because his hips swayed when he walked and his hands fluttered when he
spoke. He brushed away their taunts, silently, sometimes grinning an
uncomfortable grin. He must have wished that he could be what they wanted
him to be. I imagine now how helplessly lonely he must have felt. The boys
often asked, "Why can't he just be like everyone else?"
Possible answers to that question include 'because he is abnormal,' 'because
he is a sinner, 'because he chose the lifestyle.' But the truest answer is
'We don't know.' There is humility and humanity in accepting that there are
things we simply don't know. At the age of 8, Sochukwuma was obviously
different. It was not about sex, because it could not possibly have been -
his hormones were of course not yet fully formed - but it was an awareness
of himself, and other children's awareness of him, as different. He could
not have 'chosen the lifestyle' because he was too young to do so. And why
would he - or anybody - choose to be homosexual in a world that makes life
so difficult for homosexuals?
The new law that criminalizes homosexuality is popular among Nigerians. But
it shows a failure of our democracy, because the mark of a true democracy is
not in the rule of its majority but in the protection of its minority -
otherwise mob justice would be considered democratic. The law is also
unconstitutional, ambiguous, and a strange priority in a country with so
many real problems. Above all else, however, it is unjust. Even if this was
not a country of abysmal electricity supply where university graduates are
barely literate and people die of easily-treatable causes and Boko Haram
commits casual mass murders, this law would still be unjust. We cannot be a
just society unless we are able to accommodate benign difference, accept
benign difference, live and let live. We may not understand homosexuality,
we may find it personally abhorrent but our response cannot be to
criminalize it.
A crime is a crime for a reason. A crime has victims. A crime harms society.
On what basis is homosexuality a crime? Adults do no harm to society in how
they love and whom they love. This is a law that will not prevent crime, but
will, instead, lead to crimes of violence: there are already, in different
parts of Nigeria, attacks on people 'suspected' of being gay. Ours is a
society where men are openly affectionate with one another. Men hold hands.
Men hug each other. Shall we now arrest friends who share a hotel room, or
who walk side by side? How do we determine the clunky expressions in the law
- 'mutually beneficial,' 'directly or indirectly?'
Many Nigerians support the law because they believe the Bible condemns
homosexuality. The Bible can be a basis for how we choose to live our
personal lives, but it cannot be a basis for the laws we pass, not only
because the holy books of different religions do not have equal significance
for all Nigerians but also because the holy books are read differently by
different people. The Bible, for example, also condemns fornication and
adultery and divorce, but they are not crimes.
For supporters of the law, there seems to be something about homosexuality
that sets it apart. A sense that it is not 'normal.' If we are part of a
majority group, we tend to think others in minority groups are abnormal, not
because they have done anything wrong, but because we have defined normal to
be what we are and since they are not like us, then they are abnormal.
Supporters of the law want a certain semblance of human homogeneity. But we
cannot legislate into existence a world that does not exist: the truth of
our human condition is that we are a diverse, multi-faceted species. The
measure of our humanity lies, in part, in how we think of those different
from us. We cannot - should not - have empathy only for people who are like
us.
Your ads will be inserted here by
Google AdSense.
Please go to the plugin admin page to set up your ad code.
Some supporters of the law have asked - what is next, a marriage between a
man and a dog?' Or 'have you seen animals being gay?' (Actually, studies
show that there is homosexual behavior in many species of animals.) But,
quite simply, people are not dogs, and to accept the premise - that a
homosexual is comparable to an animal - is inhumane. We cannot reduce the
humanity of our fellow men and women because of how and who they love. Some
animals eat their own kind, others desert their young. Shall we follow those
examples, too?
Other supporters suggest that gay men sexually abuse little boys. But
pedophilia and homosexuality are two very different things. There are men
who abuse little girls, and women who abuse little boys, and we do not
presume that they do it because they are heterosexuals. Child molestation is
an ugly crime that is committed by both straight and gay adults (this is why
it is a crime: children, by virtue of being non-adults, require protection
and are unable to give sexual consent).
There has also been some nationalist posturing among supporters of the law.
Homosexuality is 'unafrican,' they say, and we will not become like the
west. The west is not exactly a homosexual haven; acts of discrimination
against homosexuals are not uncommon in the US and Europe. But it is the
idea of 'unafricanness' that is truly insidious. Sochukwuma was born of Igbo
parents and had Igbo grandparents and Igbo great-grandparents. He was born a
person who would romantically love other men. Many Nigerians know somebody
like him. The boy who behaved like a girl. The girl who behaved like a boy.
The effeminate man. The unusual woman. These were people we knew, people
like us, born and raised on African soil. How then are they 'unafrican?'
If anything, it is the passage of the law itself that is 'unafrican.' It
goes against the values of tolerance and 'live and let live' that are part
of many African cultures. (In 1970s Igboland, Area Scatter was a popular
musician, a man who dressed like a woman, wore makeup, plaited his hair. We
don't know if he was gay - I think he was - but if he performed today, he
could conceivably be sentenced to fourteen years in prison. For being who he
is.) And it is informed not by a home-grown debate but by a cynically
borrowed one: we turned on CNN and heard western countries debating 'same
sex marriage' and we decided that we, too, would pass a law banning same sex
marriage. Where, in Nigeria, whose constitution defines marriage as being
between a man and a woman, has any homosexual asked for same-sex marriage?
This is an unjust law. It should be repealed. Throughout history, many
inhumane laws have been passed, and have subsequently been repealed. Barack
Obama, for example, would not be here today had his parents obeyed American
laws that criminalized marriage between blacks and whites.
An acquaintance recently asked me, 'if you support gays, how would you have
been born?' Of course, there were gay Nigerians when I was conceived. Gay
people have existed as long as humans have existed. They have always been a
small percentage of the human population. We don't know why. What matters is
this: Sochukwuma is a Nigerian and his existence is not a crime.
Read more
http://newswirengr.com/2014/02/19/anti-gay-law-chimamanda-adichie-writes-why
-cant-he-just-be-like-everyone-else/
bsc...@googlegroups.com>.
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ugwuanyi Lawrence
Mar 3, 2014, 2:48:18 AM3/3/14
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Some people are just thieves or mad by the genes they may have inherited from their parents,grand parents or great grand parents,etc.Shall we then tolerate stealing and madness for this reason?
Indeed Immanuel kant the giant of western thought and morality is believed to have held that some forms of criminality are genetical.
Shall we because of this tolerate or endorse criminals and refuse to criminalize those who are established to have committed them for this reason
A society promulgates law to establish order and focus.Those who are abnormal are helped by the society to key into the moral and legal order even by and through the law.
In matters of morality and law a community can be corporate agent that can offend and be offended.
Assuming that I urinate on American flag,I have not offended any one person in particular but I have offended the American communal pride and sensibility.I deserve to be punished.
Here in Zim to be caught with a pornographic material is against the law and it could lead to prosecution.
Shall we because of the some democratic/reform challenges of the country write or campaign against this law.
What if any, is the link between corruption or misgovernance and the criminalization of same-sex marriage in Nigeria.Is the inference not fallacious?
Some years ago at Asian high school,a student informed me that their phones were given to them at school and were programmed in such a way that it could only make some communications that are not perceived to be morally harmful.
That might seem wrong to some minds but there would have be a reason for doing so found valid by the state.
Freedom is a legal/moral capital which could and should be managed prudently or it consumes the individual or society.
Every law serves an end so the question should be to what end does this law serve?-The answers are too many for this short reaction.
However the position of this eminent story teller,even more than the immediate implication or import, serves to interrogate the western academy/intellectual industry and whether it is the best place for an African intellectual;how African he or she can be operating from there and which or what Africa would dominate his or her imagination operating from there and why.
Indeed from an African perspective,it is almost as if the young emergent literary star is already heading towards darkness too soon .
Time will tell!
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religions
Great Zimbabwe University
Masvingo/
UNIABUJA
Indeed Immanuel kant the giant of western thought and morality is believed to have held that some forms of criminality are genetical.
Shall we because of this tolerate or endorse criminals and refuse to criminalize those who are established to have committed them for this reason
A society promulgates law to establish order and focus.Those who are abnormal are helped by the society to key into the moral and legal order even by and through the law.
In matters of morality and law a community can be corporate agent that can offend and be offended.
Assuming that I urinate on American flag,I have not offended any one person in particular but I have offended the American communal pride and sensibility.I deserve to be punished.
Here in Zim to be caught with a pornographic material is against the law and it could lead to prosecution.
Shall we because of the some democratic/reform challenges of the country write or campaign against this law.
What if any, is the link between corruption or misgovernance and the criminalization of same-sex marriage in Nigeria.Is the inference not fallacious?
Some years ago at Asian high school,a student informed me that their phones were given to them at school and were programmed in such a way that it could only make some communications that are not perceived to be morally harmful.
That might seem wrong to some minds but there would have be a reason for doing so found valid by the state.
Freedom is a legal/moral capital which could and should be managed prudently or it consumes the individual or society.
Every law serves an end so the question should be to what end does this law serve?-The answers are too many for this short reaction.
However the position of this eminent story teller,even more than the immediate implication or import, serves to interrogate the western academy/intellectual industry and whether it is the best place for an African intellectual;how African he or she can be operating from there and which or what Africa would dominate his or her imagination operating from there and why.
Indeed from an African perspective,it is almost as if the young emergent literary star is already heading towards darkness too soon .
Time will tell!
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religions
Great Zimbabwe University
Masvingo/
UNIABUJA
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ugwuanyi Lawrence
Mar 3, 2014, 2:37:37 AM3/3/14
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Some people are just thieves by the genes they may have inherited from their parents,grand parents or great grand parents,etc.Shall we then tolerate stealing and madness for this reason?
Indeed Immanuel kant the giant of western thought and morality is believed to have held that some forms of criminality are genetical.
Shall we because of this tolerate or endorse criminals and refuse to criminalize those who are established to have committed them for this reason
A society promulgates law to establish order and focus.Those who are abnormal are helped by the society to key into the moral and legal order even by and through the law.
In matters of morality and law a community can be corporate agent that can offend and be offended.
Assuming that I urinate on American flag,I have not offended any one person in particular but I have offended the American communal pride and sensibility.
I deserve to be punished.
Here in Zim to be caught with a pornographic material is against the law and it could lead to prosecution.
Shall we because of the some democratic/reform challenges of the country write or campaign against this law.
What if any, is the link between corruption or misgovernance and the criminalization of same-sex marriage in Nigeria.Is the inference not fallacious?
Some years at Asia a high school student informed me that their phones were given to them at school and were programmed in such a way that it could only make some communications that are not perceived to be morally harmful.
Freedom is a legal/moral capital which could and should be managed prudently or it consumes the individual or society.
Every law serves an end so the question should be to what end does this law serve?-The answers are too many for this short reaction.
However the position of this eminent story teller,even more the immediate implication serves to interrogate the western academy/intellectual industry and whether it is the best place for an African intellectual;how African he or she can be operating from there and which or what Africa would dominate his or her imagination operating from there and why.
Indeed from an African perspective,it is almost as if the young emergent literary star is already heading towards darkness too soon .
Time will tell!
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religions
Great Zimbabwe University
Masvingo/
UNIABUJA
On Saturday, March 1, 2014 1:11 PM, Prof. Alfred Zack-Williams <ab...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
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kenneth harrow
Mar 3, 2014, 9:26:38 AM3/3/14
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i have a few thoughts on lawrence's post.
first, kant was not a scientist
second, homosexual and heterosexual behaviors are, like almost all behaviors, matters of choice. as for desire, we are born with the mechanisms that enable desires to be oriented in such a way as to reach their goals, but we don't all act on those desires in the same way. it may be easier for some to have desires for same-sex than others because of genetic predisposition, but that doesn't mean they will choose to act on them.
surely everyone on this list remembers when gays were in the closet, and when a large percentage chose the "normal" route of marriage. i know many men who had done so, and had children. but in some cases, eventually, divorced and took gay partners. it happens.
so just as sexual behavior is ultimately an act of choice, so too is "normalcy" a consequence of choices. i want to say that genes have a voice in our behavior, but don't decide for us. we decide.
i am saying that because i dislike the argument that gays ought not to be criminalized because they can't help it. at the same time i want to say that heterosexuals and their desire to see their own behavior as the norm, to seek to impose it universally, is also a choice, a social choice, but influenced heavily by psychological needs to the point where some insecure or psychically challenged men are willing to see people who have made other choices criminalized.
third, some of us enjoy the prospect of the american flag being pissed on.
fourth, neither science nor logic excuse the immorality of criminalizing those deemed abnormal by the dominant group in society.
lastly, there are times when you just have to refuse to give up your seat on the bus because the law that says you can sit only in the back seat, which happens to be full, is an ass.
that's called standing up for justice, for what's right. you don't have to like gays to be tolerant, just stand against intolerance. if your society says that's wrong, then work to change your society. it isn't frozen, like genes, it is a product of our collective views and acts, and sometimes it needs prodding to be improved.
lastly, lastly, there is no good reason to change laws in africa because they are different from laws in america, say. after all, we have some of the worst laws imaginable when it comes to "terrorism," and those laws of undue state repression are giving the flag-covering with the name "patriot act." in that case, not only is the law an ass, but so, too, were the legislators who passed it, and who continue to reaffirm it periodically. they are a disgrace to humankind. god forbid african states would emulate that.
so tolerance for gays is not a western thing, it is a decent thing. laws that criminalize gay behaviors are indecent, regardless of where they are passed, and regardless of whether the majority favors them (in the last vote by the people of michigan on gay rights, they were turned down by the electorate. it isn't a western thing, it is a simple issue of tolerance than many people have trouble with accepting. if there is change, it is due to the youth who are more tolerant than their elders in this regard)
ken
first, kant was not a scientist
second, homosexual and heterosexual behaviors are, like almost all behaviors, matters of choice. as for desire, we are born with the mechanisms that enable desires to be oriented in such a way as to reach their goals, but we don't all act on those desires in the same way. it may be easier for some to have desires for same-sex than others because of genetic predisposition, but that doesn't mean they will choose to act on them.
surely everyone on this list remembers when gays were in the closet, and when a large percentage chose the "normal" route of marriage. i know many men who had done so, and had children. but in some cases, eventually, divorced and took gay partners. it happens.
so just as sexual behavior is ultimately an act of choice, so too is "normalcy" a consequence of choices. i want to say that genes have a voice in our behavior, but don't decide for us. we decide.
i am saying that because i dislike the argument that gays ought not to be criminalized because they can't help it. at the same time i want to say that heterosexuals and their desire to see their own behavior as the norm, to seek to impose it universally, is also a choice, a social choice, but influenced heavily by psychological needs to the point where some insecure or psychically challenged men are willing to see people who have made other choices criminalized.
third, some of us enjoy the prospect of the american flag being pissed on.
fourth, neither science nor logic excuse the immorality of criminalizing those deemed abnormal by the dominant group in society.
lastly, there are times when you just have to refuse to give up your seat on the bus because the law that says you can sit only in the back seat, which happens to be full, is an ass.
that's called standing up for justice, for what's right. you don't have to like gays to be tolerant, just stand against intolerance. if your society says that's wrong, then work to change your society. it isn't frozen, like genes, it is a product of our collective views and acts, and sometimes it needs prodding to be improved.
lastly, lastly, there is no good reason to change laws in africa because they are different from laws in america, say. after all, we have some of the worst laws imaginable when it comes to "terrorism," and those laws of undue state repression are giving the flag-covering with the name "patriot act." in that case, not only is the law an ass, but so, too, were the legislators who passed it, and who continue to reaffirm it periodically. they are a disgrace to humankind. god forbid african states would emulate that.
so tolerance for gays is not a western thing, it is a decent thing. laws that criminalize gay behaviors are indecent, regardless of where they are passed, and regardless of whether the majority favors them (in the last vote by the people of michigan on gay rights, they were turned down by the electorate. it isn't a western thing, it is a simple issue of tolerance than many people have trouble with accepting. if there is change, it is due to the youth who are more tolerant than their elders in this regard)
ken
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 har...@msu.edu
Segun Ogungbemi
Mar 8, 2014, 7:14:50 AM3/8/14
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"Indeed Immanuel kant the giant of western thought and morality is believed to have held that some forms of criminality are genetical."
Kindly show a reference in Kant's work where the above statement has its legitimacy.
Segun Ogungbemi.
Sent from my iPhone
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John Maunu
Mar 9, 2014, 2:51:54 PM3/9/14
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http://www.faculty.umb.edu/lawrence_blum/courses/465_11/readings/Race_and_Racism.pdf
Perhaps this can help in this discussion. And thank you for this list serve. American history curriculum has long been a continuity over time of inadequate "African" history.
John Maunu
AP College Board World history consultant
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Joseph Iyke
Mar 9, 2014, 6:59:23 PM3/9/14
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<img src="http://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/18/77/59/44/welcom13.jpg" />
<span style="font-size: 18.18181800842285px;">
<br/>Harry Mordi, 28, whos is known to be Popular Nigerian Hiphop
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dead</span></strong></a>
>> usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com<mailto:
<span style="font-size: 18.18181800842285px;">
<br/>Harry Mordi, 28, whos is known to be Popular Nigerian Hiphop
producer, who was well known as Hcode is dead . H-code was the
producer of 2face Idibia and Vector's- "Get Down", Saucekid hit single
Na Me Be Fine Boy, Pype, Vector, Waje and many more </span>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 18.18181800842285px;"> Read More....
</span><a href="http://www.paradiseng.com/t379-popular-nigerian-hiphop-producer-h-code-is-dead#717"><strong><span
style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size:
23.636363983154297px;">Popular Nigerian HipHop Producer H-code is
dead</span></strong></a>
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