The last few days has given me some things to think about.
The recent cabinet reshuffle in South Africa seems, so far at least, to be something to be glad about.
Lulu Whatshername was reposted somewhere else, away from arts and culture, presumably where she won't be able to criticize and condemn works of art as "pornography" and "anti-family", and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba was also "redeployed" somewhere else. Hopefully those places will be spaces where neither of them might cause any further trouble by pushing their xenophobic religious fundamentalist bullshit into government narrative.
I wonder if Errol Naidoo is happy with the cabinet reshuffle?
I often think I would love to be a fly on the wall in his office in Parliament Street, Cape Town! Just think of all the entertainment I might have, listening to his rants about his latest Machiavellian schemes being foiled yet again. With his main contact at the Department of Home Affairs having now been relocated somewhere else, I mean. I guess getting all those ripe, juicy right wing Christo-fascist Bills shoveled - or, what is the word he uses to describe the manner in which human rights protections were introduced into Parliament? "Rail-roaded" was it? Well, I think he will find doing that a little harder now without assistance of Mr. Gigaba. Whoopsie-daisy.
On the other hand, there are already several new Bills currently lying on the table in Parliament, Bills which threaten the civil rights of Joe Public and - like that other nasty piece of legislation in Uganda that threatens a de facto state-sponsored and organized genocide of LGBT Ugandans - they are awaiting ratification, pending the outcome of decisions which will presumably be made while taking media and gauging the possible international public reaction into account.
Of course, certain kinds of people judge the morality of - well, a morality law - by how many lives can be destroyed, or by how many people they don't like can be killed by it.
We need to keep an eye on religious fundamentalists, you see, they bear watching. Close watching, or before you know it, people like the Museveni's, Ssempes - and the Naidoos of the world, would legislate all kinds of nasty little religious laws into effect, and then claim they were legitimately passed by means of democratic process - even though they were never publicly approved, or even opened for public discussion or input.
One morning you would wake up and suddenly you won't be allowed to open your shop on a Sunday, or hear or see anything but sanctimonious religious programming all day long on TV and radio. The internet would be restricted, and possibly you might need some sort of a license to access it, just like those ridiculous TV licenses the SA public still get ripped off with by the SABC. (Did you know you used to have to pay a radio license before that? Interesting fact. But wait, now I'm giving away my age!)
What better time to pass draconian laws in the under-developed world than when international attention is deflected away by events such as yesterday's Republican triumph in the USA? Lest we forget, Republican rule in the USA saw to the increase in religious fundamentalist "abstinence-only" education and homophobic social programs in the developing world, and for a decade or longer, Republican support saw to the devastation of human rights and equalities and the rise of xenophobia in countries like Uganda, whose homophobic leaders were wined and dined in the White House and praised for their efforts in "combating HIV" - and given aid and support to do it. These Ugandan heroes of the Bush administration are now, once again, on the verge of passing a law which will unleash a state-run Pink genocide in the central African state, and presumably, put this aid to work - and that's how it looks to me. But that's just my opinion.
The way the "Tea-baggers" have been campaigning in the US lately, trying to unseat the Democrats, it seems - incredibly - that the only issue they seem to be focusing on is the race of the President. Yes, he's black (in South Africa we would call him colored), but because of his race and his unwillingness to elaborate on his religious convictions, and because he supports equality and sound social and economic policies - and because he opposes homophobia, he's likely to be a bad, bad president.
It boggles the mind how the people who lost the election can seriously blame the state of the US economy on an administration that inherited that very same mess from THEM in the first place! I have to wonder at the gullibility of some people, considering how easily they can run back to the same people for leadership over and over again. Don't they ever learn?
Okay, no government is perfect - I know, because I spend a great deal of time criticizing the government of my own country for the silly and sometimes brutally stupid things they get up to - but I think Obama should have acted more decisively to make good his promises he made at election time.
I can only marvel at the sort of people who actually think that "election promises don't matter" - because if they don't matter when it comes time to deliver on them, then the ones who make these promises and break them are proved to be nothing more than deceitful scallywags who lied to get elected in the first place.
For one thing, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should have been gone long ago. The "Defense Of Marriage Act" should have been scrapped long ago. There should have been a public health care system long ago. Discrimination on grounds of any immutable characteristics being illegal should have been in the Constitution years ago. (It already is, under "all" - but the wording of the US Constitution, like the Christian Bible apparently - is too "vague" and thus open to interpretation.)
Democracy is a popularity contest. If you don't live up to your promises, you stop being popular, you sink. Failure to live up to expectations can sink an administration. At least, I should think it would.
If Obama wants to turn this thing around, if indeed he can, he can start putting his money where his mouth is.
In the past two years the cause of human rights and equality for GLBT people has advanced a lot in the USA. Imagine how the Republicans will try to undo all of that if they press home their attack? Imagine them resuming their attack on human rights and their Culture War in the third world with support of the US government, as it was under Bush? And with deplorable populists like Sarah Palin wanting to run for the presidency in the next election, I feel pretty pale myself. Goodness knows what the future holds.
Scary.
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