Malawi: Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga are pardoned, but ...

A welcome pardon

I welcome the pardoning [1] of Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, who were given 14-year jail terms after being convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts in Malawi by President Bingu wa Mutharika.

This was announced during the visit of the Secretary-General Ban ki Moon of the United Nations who probably had this matter on the table for discussion along with other UN matters that he might have discussed with the President.

The President said, “These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws, however, as the head of state I hereby pardon them and therefore ask for their immediate release with no conditions.”

Of culture, religion and laws

One might say that just because a majority follows a particular culture it could not be incumbent on the majority to impose with menace and aggression that culture on others who might not be so persuaded – on that point, the case against the young men was unfair.

We have to come to a point where the use of religion to abridge, abort or proscribe the beliefs or adherences of others must be frowned upon and condemned in the sternest terms, again, I am forced to drag up the ruling that presents that argument in the starkest possible words.

Lord Justice Laws said only a few weeks ago and that is the standard by which every society, community and people would be subjected to as our global village becomes smaller and every activity in the social realm receives global scrutiny.

The state’s thinking

“We do not live in a society where all the people share uniform religious beliefs. The precepts of any one religion – any belief system – cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic.”

“The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments. The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the state, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself.”

In Malawi, it would appear that the state has thought for itself to have had the law that lead to that judgment imposed on the young men, but one does wonder if certain of our laws now pass the muster of respecting the rights of minorities, the different, the uncommon, the alternative and where they appear to do so, if respect also includes protection from menace meted out by people who have strong views against the liberal stance of living and letting live.

A guarantee of safety too?

This is the new chapter in the young men’s lives; having tasted with great opprobrium the almost martyrdom to a cause and a type of life or lifestyle we pretend does not exist in our midst, their release without conditions hopefully would not mean their release into the hands of the lynch mob.

The President’s humanitarian action would only be fully commendable if these young men can live in Malawi as free Malawians able to pursue their dreams and visions without sanction, discrimination or ill-will.

It is a big ask from a very conservative – and I use that word with reluctance – society, because in the true sense what passes for conservatism these days is really intolerance, bigotry, hatred and persecution of the right to free expression of self and the pursuit of happiness.

No prying on any life or lifestyle

I would that societies, cultures, countries or governments do not have to suffer the duress of global pressure to adopt a more liberal stance to accommodating minorities and difference, more so, the repeal of laws that deny the right to existence of minorities no matter the strength of feeling against such minorities has to be the best and correct direction for humanity and civilisation.

There is a public place for scrutiny and there is a private place for activities that have no victims where adults who have consented to entertain mature, meaningful, fulfilling and honourable lives – no state, no public, no religion, no culture, no tradition, no law or view should have the inalienable right to encroach on that private space for the sake of assuaging the sensibilities of the disgusted – Not in Malawi, not in Africa and not anywhere else where humanity has expression of life and purpose.

Source

[1] BBC News - Malawi pardons jailed gay couple

Other references

Malawi: Free Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga [akin.blog-city.com]

The case for State law over religious guidance [akin.blog-city.com]

The Fate of the Union Address - 2007

The gambler and his cards

If I confessed to once loving the music of Kenny Rogers, I cannot imagine where the yo-yo of my ‘street-cred’ would rest with readers – as if I do really care.

Now every gambler knows that the secret to surviving

Is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.

Cause very hands a winner and every hands a loser,

And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.[1]

As George W. Bush delivers the Fate of the Union Address, he might have at the back of his mind what he has thrown away of opportunity and goodwill as president and what he has kept in what would no doubt be his legacy and an enduring record of history.

We are told we are not to expect any new initiatives with regards to Iraq apart from the well worn mantras of freedom, democracy, liberty and choice. If anyone had worn those statements as shoes, that person would now have the extremities of their legs at the knee.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

You never count your money when you’re sitting at the table.

There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealings done.[1]

The gambler and his debts

The gambling tendencies that George W. Bush has might eventually pay off, but on the eve of his Fate of the Union speech the 2-I-C of Al-Qaeda was back in the media taunting him – We are here, you are there and you can’t get us anywhere.

You can only begin to feel pity for the President and records are getting broken with the number of deaths in Iraq, Iran starts testing its fireworks, China has done some fireworks, Lebanon is on fire, the President of Israel is being charged for a peccadillo – these must be interesting times.

I am of the mind that what the President should get for giving his speech is a copy of The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, because, it seems he has broken every gambling rule; spent all his money and he is still sitting at the table about to gamble away everything and possibly dignity in the hope that he might win something back.

At which point, the best that everyone might hope for when it is all so dire is to die in one’s sleep.

By 2009, when the new president delivers the Condensate of the Union, what would be left for us to scrape of what has been plundered in the last 8 years?

References

[1] The Gambler – Kenny Rogers

The Gambler Returns

The Dubbiyew Report Card - 2003

The numbers do not add up

The world waited anxiously for the State of the Union address, which was supposed to be the precursor to the Presidential re-election campaign in 2004.

After 56 minutes of one-sided applause that occurred 69 times containing more rhetoric than substance, the Americans were left asking, "What is in this for me?"

The numbers speak for themselves on the front-page spread of the Independent newspaper of the UK – The Real State of the Union.

Take a walk of the right edge

Enforcing the sanctity of marriage, encouraging abstinence, child discipline, faith-based institutions in the fore-front of social security and the renewal of the Patriot Act – this is the March of the Right over the whole of American.

Many of the issues whilst sensible did also expose the divisions of society in American. This leader leads to divide, the privileged from the under-privileged in every strata of society.

A closer scrutiny of all the presumably far-reaching announcements was sops to the privileged few in American.

The savings schemes for health and pensions to help the financial and insurance institutions, the energy issues to aggrandise the oil and energy lobbies, the faith-based institutions firmly placed in the polity to gain from the largesse of waste and tax cuts that benefit the very rich.

Choose your friends vigorously

The highlights of the speech include:

• There are more votes in the Hispanic population than the gays of America
• The war of terror enforces the Big Brother focus of the Patriot Act
• Iraq and the coalition of the cajoled masquerading as global consent - See Blog
• Healthcare issues should raise the stock profiles of the drug companies
• Spare the rod and spoil the child

Finally

Americans and friends,

The lobbyist groups are strong

The special interest groups are emancipating

The crusades are marching on

The union, I cannot fix but give to you but more of the same, division, friction, unilateralism and pandering to the contributors to my campaign funds.

God bless America.