In the Mandela Mould

Yes, this guy does give me the same thrill as Mandela does. A real living hero.

When Mbeki refused to appoint him on the Court, I thought it too petty. But, Mbeki was petty, though for some reason, he forced through Gay Marriage in South Africa. He had refused to appoint Cameron because of some personal reasons. But now, Cameron is on the court, and it is a good thing, for South Africa, and I bet you, for all Gay Africans. And for HIV positive people all over the world.

He is a real living hero.

Here is his story.

HIV+ judge appointed to South Africa's highest court
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • January 5, 2009 - 15:28


Edwin Cameron has been appointed to the Constitutional Court

An openly gay man living with HIV has been appointed to the Constitutional Court of South Africa by the country's President.

Edwin Cameron, 55, was described by Nelson Mandela as a "hero" when he became the first prominent public official in the country to reveal his HIV positive status.

He was unanimously backed for promotion by the Judicial Service Commission.

There are eleven Constitutional Court justices who serve a non-renewable term of 12 years.

HIV activist Zackie Achmat told The Star newspaper he had spoken to the judge after his appointment was announced on New Year's Eve by President Kgalema Motlanthe.

"I think this is one of the most important events in his life," he said.

"The Constitutional Court needs judges who will continue its legacy of independence and rigour."

Justice Cameron's appointment to the Constitutional Court had been blocked by former President Thabo Mbeki.

"I was a gay man who came to terms with being a homosexual about 20 years ago," Justice Cameron told the BBC in 2005.

"And not long after I came out.

"I was infected with HIV.

"I experienced the diagnosis not only as a terrible shock because it was without my consent or knowledge but I also had this tremendous feeling of shame, a sense of contamination, of defilement.

"I thought the shame about my HIV diagnosis was because I'd got it as a gay man, and I was wrong.

"At that very time in Africa, we began to realise - it had been evident for the past few years - this was going to be a mass heterosexual epidemic."

He has campaigned against criminalisation of HIV exposure and transmission and spoke at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August.

"HIV is a virus, not a crime," he said.

Kenya Bleeds. Let the Elders intervene

My mind, and heart, and soul are with our neighbour to the east.

She was so calm, she seemed dull. Now the fires, embers have been fanned, and she is ablaze. I quail before that heat.

It is almost comically funny. Because we are dark-skinned, the lighter skinned races on earth are prejudiced to look down on us, a lot. (I am, and will seek to remain, painfully politically incorrect, as long as it is a truth that I write of, as I see it!) Yet many people fail to see our racism. Oh, yes, we are racist, in upbringing, in outlook, in the way we look at the lighter skinned races, the Indians, Asians etc. In Africa, the African is politically not incorrect to be racist. It is expected.

And we are extremely clannish.

My ethnic group is my identity. When we vote in elections it is Kikuyu against Luo, and Acholi against a Munyankore.

From the Kenyan point of view (depends whether you are Kikuyu or Luo), the Kikuyus have either won or stolen the election. Now they control the government and the government soldiers and police is killing the Luos. Maintaining law and order, according to another point of view.

Police shooting live bullets into the crowd. That is something that is going to inflame tensions. Yes, for a short time, people may flee the bullets. But they will go back home and brood, and try to find a way of hitting back at the government.

The president is Kikuyu, so they will seek to torch the homes of their Kikuyu neighbours, and will burn Kikuyu children sheltering in a church.

Madness and Chaos. True.

And listen to the rhetoric of the politicians. Despite the church and homes burning, despite the children massacred, the pangas sharpened, they cannot talk to one another.

Is Africa hopeless?

No. We are not.

So, what can be done?

Last year, a group of elderly statesmen and influential people formed a non partisan pressure group to work behind the scenes in the worlds pressure spots. They call themselves the Elders. They include Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton and others.

This situation is made for them.

We venerate old age. The elderly man, in our patriarchal societies, is the voice of wisdom and god. Kibaki is an irascible old man. He was once thought to have western progressive ideals. He might still, maybe. Odinga is not much different. These are guys who have grown arrogant in their demigod status as African leaders. They are African men, they are African leaders, almost royalty to their constituencies. So, who can have them talk together, though war and genocide looms in the country they all do love?

If the elders send in Bill Clinton, both will see a white man who does not understand what is happening. He does not understand the pride and prejudice that has been their heritage into their old ages. Bill Clinton was a mortal man who even at the top of his service to his nation, was hounded by his detractors, shamefully, by a woman! Odinga and Kibaki will not understand him. They would despise him. I know Gordon Brown has spoken to both, but the passions currently present are not logical from the western point of view. Threats of economic embargo, and pariah status in the outside world when put against the adulation of the nation and the clan and tribe pale into insignificance in Africa.

Museveni, who happens to be chair to the Commonwealth, is another discredited leader. He is in the ilk of Kibaki, and that is what Odinga will see.

The Elders. Mainly men, in patriarchal Africa. Venerated. Demigod status. They do not have to be perfect. They just have to want to do something about what is happening.

Desmond Tutu is too western in thinking. Too tied down into ‘Christian’ ideals to remember that our ideals are a mix of western Christian and African. And that the African dominate. Yet a man who could dare the wrath of a killing mob is worth of note. Mandela has not been too troubled by this. He does still think like an African chief of old. At least that is my assessment.

Amongst the elders, Mandela may be the one to get the Kenyan Kibaki and Odinga to talk.

Kenya bleeds. Let the Elders intervene.

GayUganda

The Pain of a Censor

Last week I caught the tail end of a discussion. The Minister of Ethics and Integrity, the Hon. James Nsaba Buturo was not happy with DSTV, the satellite TV provider from South Africa. What was irking him was the fact that DSTV had in its bouquet some series and films dealing with homosexuality. The L Word, etc, etc.

Now, beyond from Pastor Sempa, this gentleman is irked by homosexuals. Last year he wrestled the production of the Vagina Monologues to a stop because it was a lesbian play. (according to him). Then later in the year, he had a problem with the man who is forcing some poor Ugandans to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. Hornsleith. His problem with him was that the guy is a homosexual.

Dr Nsaba Buturo is a PhD in economics. He is also a born again Christian, and for some reason, above many others, he is irked by homosexuality. And he has used his position in government to do all he can to stop the spread of that virtue!

I pity him, in a way.

Homosexuals are arguably a minority. We are only about 3% of the population. I know that more optimistic calculations come up with the 10% figure, which is a possibility. Gay sex is a taboo in a whole lot of communities and few would like to admit to it.

Yet, this small minority seems to have a proportion of achievers that the world has recognised. Why? A question for an evolutionary psychologist. There must be something, a survival advantage to this sexual orientation.

Back to Nsaba Buturo. If we are to censor everything with a homosexual bent (that is, apart from approved hate materials) we would have to censor Shakespeare, Alexander the Great, Allan Turing (Father of Computers), Oscar Wilde, Leornado da Vinci. Have you ever thought of the irony that His Holiness Ratsinger was elected Pope under the Sistine Chapel roof, with Michelangelo masterpieces in attendance? And of course contemporaries like Elton John and others.

What a world it would be, without the genius of these guys. They happened to be gay. A hated thing.

Pastor Sempa wants us to go further. We should also censor gay lovers- Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Mbeki. Because they are lovers of gays. What a heaven on earth we would make.

So, we shall love the sinner, but frown on the sin. We shall make use of the computer, and forget our sins against the ‘Father of Computers’. We need to make a world that has no support for homosexuals. So help us god.

Will that work for you?

GayUganda