Last year the series I started in around 2009 then on 2010, 2011 and 2012 on Independence or Emancipendence as it is often referred to these days as a combination or Gaycipendence as I termed it several years ago towards an LGBT typed feel when we used to have the annual Gaycipation party to raise awareness and such for LGBT people was not published but so much has gone either unnoticed or just undone that warrants a revival of sorts.
old 2009 Clovis cartoon on the two Jamaicas syndrome that has held us back as a nation
today's cartoon
As today is independence Day I have to wonder what are we actually celebrating as the real meaning of such has gone nationally speaking the season seems more like a festivalization for respective governments over the years more so than a time for introspection as a nation as to our achievements and the freedom from the shackles of slavery physically and mentally instead it feels like we have swapped colonialism for something else as one public commentator mentioned recently, the house slave is now running the plantation with no real change in the concept of divide and rule. The actual events are a joke and have come to be used by some to promote homo-negativity more so than unity.
The actual steps where the emancipation proclamation was read to the world in Spanish Town
I tend to agree with him in a sense the concept of emancipation as a holiday was reintroduced in the late nineties on the back drop of an opening of emancipation park in New Kingston by former PM PJ Patterson (often used by MSM especially our homeless ones) yet it bears no effigy, museum or any real reminder or teaser to emancipation itself whilst the real thing sits in in the old capital Spanish Town going to slow decay where the actual proclamation was read to the world in declaration of such but all because it’s situated in an opposition stronghold it gets very little attention and use. Not even a ceremony was held there to commemorate the occasion this year. Let us not forget the same Patterson called for more tolerance for homosexuals earlier this year yet he seemed to have forgotten that under his own leadership he facilitated the very hate he now tries to retard. See HERE for more.
And while there is a misplacement of our historical priorities our national archive centers where the recording and storing of our past get very little attention either take for example the Institute of Jamaica on East Street which sits in an old building; a fire hazard waiting to happen and I doubt the materials have been scanned digitally to preserve them, one thing we have not learned from the British and used to our advantage is their overly frequent review of their past and the careful way in which they preserve it, their old archives of bills and parliamentary acts plus an endless supply of documentaries on subjects from as early as the 1100s is one such reminder and hence they are able to grow from that. I find we do not have that reverence and respect of history even from an LGBTQ point of view; the poor handling and subsequent erasure or oversight of our own development has greatly affected present day efforts. The Gay Freedom Movement archives comes to mind and if it weren’t for my intervention or interference they would not have been returned to their owner and preserved (at least what is left of them after poor storage caused several items to be destroyed)
Moving to justice the word equality has been banded about a lot in recent times but is it really a valid concept? In a previous post in 2013 I wondered aloud about the ideology surrounding this Americanized LGBT construct then I posed some questions to that effect:
Is it coincidental or sheer consequence that the agencies are made to become homeless themselves following the failure of nerves to directly address homelessness in key representative populations? (after JFLAG's eviction notice)
Is the eviction fiasco an attempt to start afresh so as to avoid addressing some key issues, a different location and geographical change connotes isolation and insulation from the problematic homeless populations?
Do you believe equality must also be an ideal to strive for within the LGBT community?
Was Jamaicans for Justice clandestinely sending a message to groups like JFLAG that their agitation is a mere peripheral attempt to seek LGBT rights in Jamaica or the decriminalization of buggery?
Is mere equality just a hairy fairy schism ideal just to play catch up with the heterosexual privilege?
Is it that due to the inability for one to live ones truth one is forced to be pretentious hence this practice to live in stealth has becoming ingrained in the population’s psyche?
Why not go for the greater goal that of justice and true fairness?
What about the context of a marginalized group being wholesome within itself before it attempts to reach out to more privileged populations?
Do we have a hypocritical advocacy then in terms of asking for virtues that are not espoused generally by them or leading the populations to such espousing?
Why are we afraid to really be truthful in our scope and ideologies towards truth inclusiveness, equality and justice for ALL?
Should persons at leadership of the agencies by held accountable for the recent evictions and failure to properly address the welfare issues?
And if after all the proper agitation devoid of the schisms and buggery is repealed, what is next?
Where is genuine openness and truth in the scheme of things?
Are you expecting any resignations given the recent developments?
When campaign decisions are planned are the general community issues taken into account and a plan B in case of a fallout?
My mind has been changing on this call for equality in Jamaica by the LGBT lobby not even a name change to an old campaign has convinced me thus before seeing this photo and now it has sped up my resolve, the ideal is indeed JUSTICE not just to be mere observers by the fence struggling to see over it on tippy toes as captioned in the little boy or the centre figure. The left partition of the photo suggest mere playing to the needs or hue and cries of aggrieved groups more so than the right partition showing ALL on an equal footing but also espousing the correctness of it where the crates are not mere rights handed out to silence a noisy penny section but rights privileges and freedoms on a truly equal footing to all concerned.
If on the onset the least amongst us are not viewed as equal then it should not be surprising that the corresponding programs, systems, strategies, public relations campaigns and so on will reflect those ideologies which explains why the only time in essence there is serious attention placed on any individual is when their lives are at risk via near death homophobic fallout and even that is troubling as after a while when they recover there is hardly any follow up. Overall then we can deduce that the one of the self made reasons why we seem stuck with very little gains made over the three decades plus is the oversight, dithering and ignoring of some key frontline issues that affect the representative populations chief among them homeless MSM, same gender loving women and transgender persons as the buggery law gets first priority. The fact that the present advocacies are male dominated is an issue as far as SGL women issues are concerned and the leaders in the groups are often way removed from the realities while getting close to them after the fact when the aggrieved makes a report.
See the rest of that post here: Equality Does Not Mean Justice
Want more on equality or inequality for that matter? Then check out how we ourselves and by extension the nation treats with homelessness generally, especially our own who these days seem to be more material to be paraded for HIV prevention funding more so than real assistance while making some persons and agencies look like superstars, integrity anyone? Even the latter has been tossed out the window at all levels it seems yet we want to espouse on matter of principles when the very voices do not have the virtue to back it up. For the LGBT “community” to have waited until the homeless issues have festered to become the stinking sore it now is is bad enough as the matter has not been raised to the level of importance as it ought to as the more combative buggery law and prostitution for HIV money reigns supreme while the government is being sleekly handed the role to address OUR LGBT developmental work!? Was this what the founding fathers of the LGBT groups envisioned when they laid the groundwork?
How can we be asking for tolerance when said tolerance is not demonstrably clear in our own backyard? To think the very word had almost become an expletive in recent times as more Jamaicans interpret the call to mean acceptance.
The divide and rule construct has worked well and is still being used by some to deflect real thinking on real unity as our motto claims “Out of Many, One People”
More on Justice
Nationally speaking the creaking nature of our courts is another matter which was why I had started this series of posts in the first place and the classist nature of how matters are handled, one form of justice for the rich and one for the poor, it has taken nine years for the Steve Harvey matter for example to finally come to some conclusion with sentencing next month while two of the four accused were set free due to improper arrests, how do we expect to grow as a nation when we always seem to forget justice delayed is Justice denied; the Chief Justice, the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP and others have repeatedly called for more court rooms, better support facilities so as to make their jobs more effective yet there seems to be a slow crawl with intermittent stops deliberately so to simply do the right thing by respective administrations than just lip service. Other cases that have some hint of homosexuality in them have been made to become material for comedic reporting or laughing sessions, how many times have we seen the poor court reporting by media where we are told the matter had members of the public in laughter as the trial played out? Do we expect real justice with distractions such as jokes in a place where seriousness is required?
Then there is the issue of blocked justice from the anti gay voices, if I may burrow a term or two from another article on religion being divisive in Africa, exceptionalism and homosexuality Father Anthony Musaala wrote:
And while there is a misplacement of our historical priorities our national archive centers where the recording and storing of our past get very little attention either take for example the Institute of Jamaica on East Street which sits in an old building; a fire hazard waiting to happen and I doubt the materials have been scanned digitally to preserve them, one thing we have not learned from the British and used to our advantage is their overly frequent review of their past and the careful way in which they preserve it, their old archives of bills and parliamentary acts plus an endless supply of documentaries on subjects from as early as the 1100s is one such reminder and hence they are able to grow from that. I find we do not have that reverence and respect of history even from an LGBTQ point of view; the poor handling and subsequent erasure or oversight of our own development has greatly affected present day efforts. The Gay Freedom Movement archives comes to mind and if it weren’t for my intervention or interference they would not have been returned to their owner and preserved (at least what is left of them after poor storage caused several items to be destroyed)
Moving to justice the word equality has been banded about a lot in recent times but is it really a valid concept? In a previous post in 2013 I wondered aloud about the ideology surrounding this Americanized LGBT construct then I posed some questions to that effect:
Is it coincidental or sheer consequence that the agencies are made to become homeless themselves following the failure of nerves to directly address homelessness in key representative populations? (after JFLAG's eviction notice)
Is the eviction fiasco an attempt to start afresh so as to avoid addressing some key issues, a different location and geographical change connotes isolation and insulation from the problematic homeless populations?
Do you believe equality must also be an ideal to strive for within the LGBT community?
Was Jamaicans for Justice clandestinely sending a message to groups like JFLAG that their agitation is a mere peripheral attempt to seek LGBT rights in Jamaica or the decriminalization of buggery?
Is mere equality just a hairy fairy schism ideal just to play catch up with the heterosexual privilege?
Is it that due to the inability for one to live ones truth one is forced to be pretentious hence this practice to live in stealth has becoming ingrained in the population’s psyche?
Why not go for the greater goal that of justice and true fairness?
What about the context of a marginalized group being wholesome within itself before it attempts to reach out to more privileged populations?
Do we have a hypocritical advocacy then in terms of asking for virtues that are not espoused generally by them or leading the populations to such espousing?
Why are we afraid to really be truthful in our scope and ideologies towards truth inclusiveness, equality and justice for ALL?
Should persons at leadership of the agencies by held accountable for the recent evictions and failure to properly address the welfare issues?
And if after all the proper agitation devoid of the schisms and buggery is repealed, what is next?
Where is genuine openness and truth in the scheme of things?
Are you expecting any resignations given the recent developments?
When campaign decisions are planned are the general community issues taken into account and a plan B in case of a fallout?
My mind has been changing on this call for equality in Jamaica by the LGBT lobby not even a name change to an old campaign has convinced me thus before seeing this photo and now it has sped up my resolve, the ideal is indeed JUSTICE not just to be mere observers by the fence struggling to see over it on tippy toes as captioned in the little boy or the centre figure. The left partition of the photo suggest mere playing to the needs or hue and cries of aggrieved groups more so than the right partition showing ALL on an equal footing but also espousing the correctness of it where the crates are not mere rights handed out to silence a noisy penny section but rights privileges and freedoms on a truly equal footing to all concerned.
If on the onset the least amongst us are not viewed as equal then it should not be surprising that the corresponding programs, systems, strategies, public relations campaigns and so on will reflect those ideologies which explains why the only time in essence there is serious attention placed on any individual is when their lives are at risk via near death homophobic fallout and even that is troubling as after a while when they recover there is hardly any follow up. Overall then we can deduce that the one of the self made reasons why we seem stuck with very little gains made over the three decades plus is the oversight, dithering and ignoring of some key frontline issues that affect the representative populations chief among them homeless MSM, same gender loving women and transgender persons as the buggery law gets first priority. The fact that the present advocacies are male dominated is an issue as far as SGL women issues are concerned and the leaders in the groups are often way removed from the realities while getting close to them after the fact when the aggrieved makes a report.
See the rest of that post here: Equality Does Not Mean Justice
Want more on equality or inequality for that matter? Then check out how we ourselves and by extension the nation treats with homelessness generally, especially our own who these days seem to be more material to be paraded for HIV prevention funding more so than real assistance while making some persons and agencies look like superstars, integrity anyone? Even the latter has been tossed out the window at all levels it seems yet we want to espouse on matter of principles when the very voices do not have the virtue to back it up. For the LGBT “community” to have waited until the homeless issues have festered to become the stinking sore it now is is bad enough as the matter has not been raised to the level of importance as it ought to as the more combative buggery law and prostitution for HIV money reigns supreme while the government is being sleekly handed the role to address OUR LGBT developmental work!? Was this what the founding fathers of the LGBT groups envisioned when they laid the groundwork?
How can we be asking for tolerance when said tolerance is not demonstrably clear in our own backyard? To think the very word had almost become an expletive in recent times as more Jamaicans interpret the call to mean acceptance.
The divide and rule construct has worked well and is still being used by some to deflect real thinking on real unity as our motto claims “Out of Many, One People”
More on Justice
Nationally speaking the creaking nature of our courts is another matter which was why I had started this series of posts in the first place and the classist nature of how matters are handled, one form of justice for the rich and one for the poor, it has taken nine years for the Steve Harvey matter for example to finally come to some conclusion with sentencing next month while two of the four accused were set free due to improper arrests, how do we expect to grow as a nation when we always seem to forget justice delayed is Justice denied; the Chief Justice, the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP and others have repeatedly called for more court rooms, better support facilities so as to make their jobs more effective yet there seems to be a slow crawl with intermittent stops deliberately so to simply do the right thing by respective administrations than just lip service. Other cases that have some hint of homosexuality in them have been made to become material for comedic reporting or laughing sessions, how many times have we seen the poor court reporting by media where we are told the matter had members of the public in laughter as the trial played out? Do we expect real justice with distractions such as jokes in a place where seriousness is required?
Then there is the issue of blocked justice from the anti gay voices, if I may burrow a term or two from another article on religion being divisive in Africa, exceptionalism and homosexuality Father Anthony Musaala wrote:
"....persistence in ‘taboo’ mentalities with regard to sexual matters (often, it seems, to the point of absurdity);
incredibly misguided and frequently pharisaic religious argumentation, plus an almost obsessive ‘moral indignation ‘against any non-religious positions;
nostalgia for an Africa that never was or cannot be remembered, plus idealistic notions of African culture;
the blissful almost invincible ignorance of both the educated and the uneducated in matters of sexuality from a scientific point of view, with resultant deep insecurity and ambivalence about sexuality and sexual identity;
the mischievous opportunist politicians and other ‘leaders’ who exploit ignorance and disaffection to divert from unaddressed social and political challenges.
All these and others conspire to short-circuit reason or reasonableness with regard to the homosexual debate”
Just change Africa to Jamaica and we have a similar set of problems, it feels psychologically we have lost some ten or so years of the struggle with religious fanatical groups reactivating themselves in just nearly two months while the vacuum of missing integrity and very little or poor credibility on the part of LGBT advocacy as hinted above is filled with their phobia instead. We claim we are an independent nation yet Christian related groups and voices want to use an old colonial style of law making to imprison us as LGBT people and restrict rights and recognition or block supposed future ones (gay marriage) by declaring their intentions to block any cover for LGBT persons under the Charter of Rights from discrimination due to sexual orientation. Politicians in the meantime in fear of loss of power either remain quiet at the executive level while on the ground local representatives pander in a sense to the homophobic sentiments to remain popular.
A lack of proactivity with all the natural gifts we have those of talent, natural resources (though ever depleting) and human capital is the order of the day; take the present water/drought issues and year in year out we have shortages yet no proper preparation is done to meet the expected challenges, we do not seem to learn from previous mistakes and put in place measures so as not to repeat them with late in the day “solutions” to look as if something is being done and critics made to look as naysayers even when their points are well founded, a strategy also well employed by LGBT advocacy as part of the divide and rule strategy too so as to deflect responsibility and to acknowledge mistakes. Instead governments and leaders try all in their power to present themselves as performing with the new “working, working, working,” tagline now being used by the Prime Minister or promoting constituency activities as achievements.
Deception, image preservation and public relations seems more important as part of leadership than true open and honest activities to achieve intended goals. How can we grow as people or a nation when the opposite of the above three are so missing? The repeated cases of suspected under cover happenings and shady deals by those in or close to authority seems not to affect or cause any indignation anymore as we seem to have become numb to them, the Cuban light bulb case with Kern Spencer just seems to have been a formality to have it thrown out of court eventually, the Azan shop matter, his resignation then reinstallation as Minister is another that shows the benchmark of integrity is so low that anyone can go against greater principles and still hold public office. While religious groups oppose homosexuality as it were usually on the homo-peadophile construct yet when one of their own infringe on the person of children via sexual assault there is utter silence to think since the last three months there have been six reports of pastors accused of assault with some 9 children involved as victims apparently with parents allowing too much trust to wolves in sheep clothing.
The news for example of HIV treatment possibilities from our national flower the Lignum Vitae in recent days is good to hear let us see how we use this to our national and international advantage, need I remind you how we are late in in the day in terms of marijuana and the well needed changes to the legislation for personal use; yet with all the changes made thus far it is not impactful enough and we may never reap the full rewards of using this plant for medicinal purposes especially.
I hope we can learn from all this and improve greatly on where we are but as this is the fifth installment of this entry type and I see the same issues recurring I have to wonder have we really learned yet as a nation, we have the potential for greater things than just dominating sports and such we can also develop along the lines of social equality and economic prowess towards real independence.
Walk good and enjoy the food none the less as I have been doing
Blue Drawers or Dukunu
Sweet potato pudding
also see: International Day of Action Against Jamaica's Buggery Law where some overseas based persons staged a protest.
Peace and tolerance
H
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