hey reader,
having finally made peace with the fact the name for this blog was quiet a mouthful and realizing i wasn't getting all i wanted from blogspot.com, i have made a decision to move this blog to a new address...i am now on http://randomwithlaone.wordpress.com/
see u there.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE
I am sitting here, trying to contemplate the delicate tapestry that is life. In a country that has swept so many issues under the rug and hidden behind phrases like, “gase segarona”, “dilo tseo ke botlhodi”or some other variation of the same basic theme – “don’t ask me questions that I have no answers to”. The past few weeks have been very interesting for me, having just come into my new job, where part of the daily duty is going through a load of newspapers- I have come to realize a truth that I long suspected. We seem to have grown our own ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy here in Botswana. We have hidden for so long from so many issues in our country that we can barely recognize one another with our masks off. Botswana’s constitution remains rather ‘vague’ on a number of issues, homosexuality, abortion and prostitution, to name just a few, and a lot people always react rather fiercely whenever they are confronted with these issues.
In the past few weeks, I have seen a reflection of what echos on the streets of Botswana every day. After many years of passive existence, the gay society of Botswana is finally speaking up, and the homophobes that have hidden behind so many disguises are finally shifting about in their chairs, trying to get comfortable. I was humored and pleasantly surprised recently by responses in newspapers to a ‘hate-statement’ made by one Member of Parliament when he declared, “I hate gays!” The responses by straight, and not so straight people alike, mostly the latter, have made for very interesting newspaper foliage in recent times.
Another interesting debate has been on the legalization of prostitution in Botswana, which interestingly is NOT illegal. Not explicitly anyway. Once again the constitution is very sketchy on the matter, leaving people to the general assumption that it must be illegal simply because they say it is, their grand ma shames it, or some preacher said it was surely the gateway to hell.
So I’m sitting here, trying to sort out all my thoughts and feelings over all the excitement that has been the last couple of weeks, and I am struck by a question of whether any of it will actually matter in the long run. I mean when you meet someone in a park, or at a party and randomly strike up a conversation, at the end of the day should it even matter that your new friend is gay, or straight, or bisexual anymore than it would matter that they are fat, or black, or white, or really skinny? When you honestly come to think of it, does it take away anything from what was obviously a great night, during which you made some great friends? Are our lives really all black and white like that? I doubt that anyone can ever honestly say they are any one, single thing, and that thing only. You are a Christian, but also a sinner. You can be an alcoholic and still be a great father, why does it seem unfathomable that one would be anything more than just ‘the gay’, or ‘the prostitute’? And who has been given the mandate to judge?
Anyway, here is a poem by Bessie Head, a Motswana author who hailed from humble beginnings to world-wide celebrity status despite a continuous struggle with schizophrenia.
SELF PORTRAIT – Bessie Head
Idealist
And, low down,
Apathetic,
Indifferent, earth worm;
Plunging, leaping,
Flickering, wavering,
Stammering, hesitating,
Bold, reckless, impatient;
Static, placid,
Of no certain direction,
Of no certain direction;
Isolated, like driftwood
On the tossing, heaving ocean-
Flung to the top of a high-sounding,
Dazzling wave,
Engulfed in the anonymous depths;
Oh contradiction
That is I.
In the past few weeks, I have seen a reflection of what echos on the streets of Botswana every day. After many years of passive existence, the gay society of Botswana is finally speaking up, and the homophobes that have hidden behind so many disguises are finally shifting about in their chairs, trying to get comfortable. I was humored and pleasantly surprised recently by responses in newspapers to a ‘hate-statement’ made by one Member of Parliament when he declared, “I hate gays!” The responses by straight, and not so straight people alike, mostly the latter, have made for very interesting newspaper foliage in recent times.
Another interesting debate has been on the legalization of prostitution in Botswana, which interestingly is NOT illegal. Not explicitly anyway. Once again the constitution is very sketchy on the matter, leaving people to the general assumption that it must be illegal simply because they say it is, their grand ma shames it, or some preacher said it was surely the gateway to hell.
So I’m sitting here, trying to sort out all my thoughts and feelings over all the excitement that has been the last couple of weeks, and I am struck by a question of whether any of it will actually matter in the long run. I mean when you meet someone in a park, or at a party and randomly strike up a conversation, at the end of the day should it even matter that your new friend is gay, or straight, or bisexual anymore than it would matter that they are fat, or black, or white, or really skinny? When you honestly come to think of it, does it take away anything from what was obviously a great night, during which you made some great friends? Are our lives really all black and white like that? I doubt that anyone can ever honestly say they are any one, single thing, and that thing only. You are a Christian, but also a sinner. You can be an alcoholic and still be a great father, why does it seem unfathomable that one would be anything more than just ‘the gay’, or ‘the prostitute’? And who has been given the mandate to judge?
Anyway, here is a poem by Bessie Head, a Motswana author who hailed from humble beginnings to world-wide celebrity status despite a continuous struggle with schizophrenia.
SELF PORTRAIT – Bessie Head
Idealist
And, low down,
Apathetic,
Indifferent, earth worm;
Plunging, leaping,
Flickering, wavering,
Stammering, hesitating,
Bold, reckless, impatient;
Static, placid,
Of no certain direction,
Of no certain direction;
Isolated, like driftwood
On the tossing, heaving ocean-
Flung to the top of a high-sounding,
Dazzling wave,
Engulfed in the anonymous depths;
Oh contradiction
That is I.
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