Since my blog hasn't had enough controversy lately, let me speak out in defense of Katherine Roubos, whose story is all over the net, here on Forbes.com, here on the Gaurdian, here on MSNBC, and about million other places if you google it.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Hundreds of people held an anti-gay protest in Uganda's capital Tuesday, denouncing what they called an ``immoral'' lifestyle and demanding the deportation of an American journalist writing about gay rights in the deeply conservative country.I wonder what will come of all this. A lot of hot air? Perhaps nothing? Perhaps serious consequences? We'll see. (I keep telling her that if she actually gets deported than she'll get a book deal out of it, easy.)
...
The protesters gathered at a Kampala sports ground holding banners with anti-gay messages and posters demanding the deportation of 22-year-old Katherine Roubos.
Roubos, from Minnetonka, Minn., was assigned to cover gay issues in Uganda as part of a three-month internship with the Daily Monitor newspaper, which is owned by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims. The Ismailis are a part of the Shiite community.
But the bigger question here is whether she was catalyzing something already in the air or casing something to start that wasn't there. My guess is that she wasn't starting from nothing, so it had to be there already. LGBTI people want to talk about what they're experiencing, want to speak out, and they were just waiting for someone to speak to.
Posts
24 comments:
Them links are just another way for the Americans (and Brits, but I will say `Americans') to sound cocky and show their superiority complex. Would there be a parade if the same was done for polygamy in the US?
These aren't `anti-gay' protests. They are pro-law protests. Simple logic, but the Americans will see what they want to see.
I wish we could export some foreign culture over to the West ... something like suicide bombings and polygamy and women honour-killings. The Americans would protest against it, and we would stop giving them money when they do.
I mean ... why are the Americans forcing us to become cheap copies of them? If homosexuality will be legalised here, let it evolve from within the soceity. That journalist is an imperial agent, a spy and a dangerous elemnt we should execute by firing squad in public. :o)
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.
Sometimes, lately, I think I should moderate comments. You and Iwaya make me want to do that. This is absolutely ridiculous. A firing squad? This is a person we're talking about here, come on!
Later in the article, IF YOU ACTUALLY BOTHERED READING IT... "The Monitor defended Roubos’ “reliable and enterprising” reporting. Her editor, Moses Sserwanga, said the issue of gay rights was tied in with larger debates over traditional culture, individual freedoms and human rights in Uganda.
“On the one hand the constitution forbids homosexual behavior and yet on the other it promotes individual freedoms,” he said. “Our society is very conservative so we knew this reaction would come out. I wanted the story to address the contradictions in our constitution.”"
So pro-law? Maybe, but maybe it has to do with the contradictions in the constitution, says one Ugandan.
Export suicide bombings and women honor killings? Why? Why why why why? Why not try and stop those things everywhere they are instead of spread them? You irk me to no end sometimes.
"We would stop giving them money when they do."
Okay, you do that. You stop giving the Americans money. I'm sure they'll be crying.
As for evolving from within society, IT IS. IT'S THERE. WAITING TO COME OUT. KATHERINE DIDN'T INVENT HOMOSEXUALS IN UGANDA. SHE FOUND THEM. THEY ORGANIZED THE PRESS CONFERENCE, NOT HERE. SHE JUST COVERED IT.
And a firing squad? You really are as bad as some of the evil veins of communism you claim to admire.
Maybe I'm just bitter from all the evil things being said on my blog, but firing squad, really. Even your sarcasm is out of touch with what is decent.
` A firing squad? This is a person we're talking about here, come on!'
Yeah, it's people - dangerous elements - that we put on firing squad.
Yeah, this situation highlights contradictions that shouldn't even exist in the first place. We shouldn't be finding out how homosexuality, which our society currently outlaws, should live alongside individual freedoms. One of the two should not exist in the first place. Individual freedoms are a sick joke, an illusion. They shouldn't exist.
Or, for example, if keeping people in a concentration camp is a bad thing, then fighting your enemies like that should be bad, right? Good. Check out Guantanamo Bay in the Land of the `Free'.
`Why why why why?' On women honour killings.
Well, because we are free to do what we want in America, right? Or is it a contradiction that we want to keep the freedom to practice our time-honoured Middle-Eastern culture of women honour killings (assuming I am Middle-Eastern) and polygamy, but we are not free to do that in The Land of the Free? Contradiction? You decide.
It is not homosexuality I am talking about evolving. Even bats are homosexual at times. I mean the acceptance thereof.*
On the firing squad again: it is not bad. It is good. Better than those Bushist, `Democratic', `Free', Americans, anyway. I mean, it is not Guantanamo Bay. It is an execution, not an interminable incarceration in a concentration camp.
On stopping to give Americans money ... I meant that to signify how the Americans use their imperialist money clout to get us to do what they want. If we refuse and keep a parallel culture, they want to starve us. All their agents are evil and deserve summary public executions by firing squad, acid dissolution, burning on the pyre, or hanging, depending on what the judge sees fit.
Your friend is just trying to be Yet Another American in Africa. That's the truth.
* If it will help clarify, read this to the end.
I don't know how you got to suicide bombings and firing squads, but I think both Scarlett and 27th need to calm down. First of all, I highly doubt "Ugandans" want to deport your friend, Scarlett, the same way I doubt that 27th is capable of making a respectful, coherent and logical argument.
At issue here is freedom of the press, pure and simple. But, as 27th has so ably demonstrated, this has been conflated with the issues of race and nationality, and the fact that Katherine Roubos was singled out for vilification (and not her darker, sub-Saharan colleagues who covered the same press conference)shows that the demonstrators/rent-a-crowd were trying to make that tedious and tired connection between homosexuality and whiteness/foreignness.
So in a way, it's nothing personal against Katherine, but that just makes it worse, doesn't it?
Until we sort out what press freedom means - and what human rights for all means - I really don't think we're going to get anywhere.
@Kenyanchick: Well, I am afraid I agree with you. :o(
It's not `Ugandans' who want to deport her friend. Only some. There's a difference.
Also, I am not making any particular efforts at being coherent, really. I mean ... that first was generally in jest, wrapping what I figured would be thicker pionts in a subtle propagandist choice of words. Generally, simple rhetoric. She cameout in force, so I threw the smileys off.
Anyway, I can tellyou why she was picked out of a million. The average rent-a-crowd attendee thinks homosexuality is a foreign thing. Of course they are wrong, but hey, what do you expect, with all these hate preachers everywhere?
So ... yeah, Kenyanchick has brought coherence to the whole thing. And ... respectful, coherent, logical this is. Inspirational, even? I guess so.
And ... Scarlett, it helps to direct stuff towards serenity, I guess. Most things are waiting for a level-headed reaction, most of the time, be it me or Iwaya. :o)
am in wonder that everyone thinks its only the news confrences that catherine covered
amazed! this young woman has written far more about these minorites than just press confrence coverage
her patnership to write two pieces with val kalende on who we already know as a lesbian is something to raise questions about.
uganda has a well nutured moral fibre that is not close to bowing down to media influences claiming exclusive coverage of illegal minority groups.
this is no hate-campagn its a love camnpagn,a campagn to remind the masses of the victims of this well-coated vice.
its help tjhat ugandans want to offer to val and carthy not outbursts
meanwhile we are amused she is getting personal in her newsreporting by singling out leaders of the coalition like Dr martin ssempa
our prayers remain exclusively hers
Semakeddie: murder is a serious criminal offence in Uganda. Are you going to arrest all the journalists who interview murderers?
I'm not equating homosexuality to murder, mind you, but your argument has some holes in it. If interviewing "known lesbians" is Ms. Roubos' crime, then... well, fill in the blanks.
This is the problem with populist politicians like Butoro: he's managed to convince people that what he's doing is upholding Ugandan morality, while what he's really doing in Ms. Roubos' case is muzzling the media. There are TWO separate issues here: the legality of homosexuality, and the right of the Ugandan media to report on the debate. They are not the same thing, and I wish people would stop pretending that they are.
Scarlett, sorry to hijack your comments section, but this issue really, really pisses me off.
Okay, it's time I got involved in this here conversation. First of all, thanks Kenyachick for your great comment. And yes, I was a little emotional, and it's not okay to just say it's because 27's post was ridiculous (though it was). Your post was cognizant and clear. Thanks. Feel free to hijack any time.
By the way, Kenyanchick, you haven't blogged since end of May, what's up with that, you lovely and coherent writer? Or do you have a blog not on blogger I don't know about??
Please let Katherine know her old writing teacher Ms. Lingo is incredibly proud of her (and also a bit concerned for her well-being), and she should look me up when she gets back into town.
Allegra Lingo
http://thetravelingmonkey.wordpress.com
@Semakeddie:
It's funny. How many things that you people (Martin Ssempa included) did that the Pharisees wouldn't have done? (Think `stone the adulteress'). How many that Jesus would have done?
But, again, I can't expect you people to see that what you're doing is wrong - that would be too much to ask of a bunch of self-righteous people, really.
`this is no hate-campagn its a love camnpagn,a campagn to remind the masses of the victims of this well-coated vice.
its help tjhat ugandans want to offer to val and carthy not outbursts'
Can you expand that?
I really want to get a bunch of guys to protest against corruption, adultery, cheating, and lying, and we'll see if Martin Ssempa and Nsaba-Buturo don't get shot ... :o)
I mean, I am supposed to be a homophobe, but these guys make it ashaming to be one. :o(
It took the Roman Catholic church almost FOUR HUNDRED YEARS to officially apologise for its notion that THE EARTH WAS NOT AS FLAT AS A PANCAKE !!!
How much longer does it take this Church to agree that females are NOT SUBORDINATE TO MEN and TRUE GAYS are NOT SUFFERING FROM A CURABLE DISEASE ???
We write the year 2007 now; TENS OF THOUSANDS are suffering from the church's retarded guidance and misconception, even DYING unnecessarily on a daily basis !
The HIV-phenomenon has added momentum to the urgency of the Churches' need to revise its "superstitious" notions.
Does it take the Church another FOUR HUNDRED years to remedy the situation ?
The whole of Africa's population, large parts of South America, India and China will be OBLITERATED BY AIDS BY THEN !
Sent by: Dr. Samuel Ubungwu (M.B.O.)
Kampala, 25.08.07.
27TH COMRADE: we are doing the things jesus would have done.. fighting social injustices.just to remind ive personaly protested against pornography...calls for action against lesbian porn plays like V-monologues ive been part of,
Problem comes when you associate christianity with "softness" forgetting what Jesus did to those he found misusing the temple...read that?
Righteousness which we earned undeservingly 2006 years ago has got to get off the pews and knees to action and thats what you witnessed that tuesday.
Blessings
@Semakeddie:
I'm not against your expressions of `righteousness' or whatever you call it. My question is: will you please go and protest against liars and thieves? I mean, your good book tells you they are like homosexuals. Equal, in fact. And you've told a lie before, no? You said `no'? Okay, so you just told a lie. Now hold placards and protest. Call for blood.
I Thank God am a Ugandan, the way you guys think is shocking,did you know that 95% of ugandans are against homosexuality? so people like Roubos should respect our culture or go back home and promote her propaganda from there.she is a lesbian and trying to promote her (Lesbian/homosexual)agenda here in Uganda.it's unfortunate that you people think she's innocent...well,we dont!!! if i know a murderer promoting murder in society i have to speak out....i will not be quiet about it.so leave Uganda alone! we will not bow Down to evil and wickedness.
am so thankful for people like pastor martin ssempa who love Uganda so much to speak out against this evil.
By the way why are you supporting Roubos are you.............??????
JESUS SAVES!! even Homos
i dont hate homos but i hate homosexuality and i rejoice when one homo sees the light.
27th COMRADE: am drawn to extreme sympathy listening to your thin line of argument....good to know though that you also understand that the central problem of man is 'SIN'.. the holy words have put it clear tho....no other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does...1Cor 6:18....and that is what the march was about... for the victims affected by this vice...among many traumatised poeple..eg the boy who died in luzira trying to put toilet paper in his rectum after homo rape..
so comrade this is where you will have to get personal.. you are a sinner who is bound to face a holy God when you lose that breath not later than 100years from now..none of us has kept and will ever keep the 10 comandments..none is rigteous...
however 2006 years ago a jewish man from a little vilage 'nazareth' JESUS CHRIST was nailed to take the punishmnet that you and i could find a new life in him ...
he promises to take away those homosexual desires once you admit you are a sinner who cant please him with ur self righteousness...
you will nolonger struggle to live pleasing him
you'll become a new creature...even your replies on this blog will come out healthier
remember its your breath separating you from him.am very willing to help you start this new journey
all it takes is a whisper to him...even on that keyboard..simply admitting you ahave offended him
and thats the life we live ...you can live it too.dont let pride stop you from that critical decision.feel free to call +256 7923020
am praying for you comrade
Blessings
in christ alone
Katherine should be deported BACK to her country.She is like a bad vice in our society!!I believe she is been sent to recruit homos and the sort in Uganda..Just a reminder Uganda's moto is "For God and my country" And in this country Homosexuality is wickedness,an abomination!!
Its sheer COMMON SENSE that male goes with female, for this matter Katherine should be deported with immediate effect, 4 polluting our society.Please return to where you belong KATHERINE, our laws are very clear..homosexuality is forbidden in Uganda.We dont need any sensitation or media coverage on that!! Thank you.
Some of you are just ridiculous - Katherine was sent here? She came on an internship. She didn't discover homosexuality or create it - it had to be here before hand for her to report on it. She just saw what she saw and wrote it down in her notebook.
As for accusations that I'm gay for defending her, if you want to think that, be my guest! I'm most definitely a friend and supporter of LGBT and proud to be one. Just like I'm a friend and supporter of all groups persecuted and without rights. Just because I'm a supporter of refugees does not make me a refugee, I'd like to remind you. But make what you will of it.
This whole episode has made me think Ugandans are much more close minded than I previously thought. It's made me think less of good friends who I've now argued with, and less of people who comment on my blog with unkind words. This is not a forum for hate, but my personal blog, and I'd like to remind all of you of that.
I will indeed switch to moderated comments if the tone of such messages continues, despite my ardent belief in free speech - this is not a forum for hate speech.
These messages are too abhorrent for me to imagine that they are coming from human beings! Katherine Roubos did what any journalist is mandated to do. Attacking her with hate messages is only typical of a certain lot of ugandans still leaving in the stone age. Unless you have a fault with your self-esteem as an African, there is nothing western about homosexuality. Internet was invented by an American. So do not even use it coz its unAfrican! Kissing was unAfrican until the start of the 20th century!
I read in my African history that it was once illegal for a black man to sit at the same coffee shop with a white man. Definately people who fought for black freedom were percieved as crazy!
So for us gay rights activists, we are making a big sacrifice for generations to come. We have lost ourselves to the struggle and there is no turning back.
What is moral for you does not have to be moral for me.
If you hate homosexuals, dont even waste your time discussing them.
Scarlettlion
..Just so amazed that you allowed to step into stormy waters of this
discussion and all you do is seek emotional appeal by denying yourself
to be educated with an excuse of calling this a 'hate campagn'
just to make this clear ....we dont hate homsexuals ...we hate
homosexuality...'the sin not the sinner'
its from that position that you will figure out that your pride in
being an LGBT sympathiser should be instead used to help out your
colleagues on how they can overcome this addiction.
Human rights internationally are subject to the laws and cultural
values of particular country and society of every country so that is
no excuse for you to say you "fight for persecuted groups without
rights".
Our laws of uganda are clear it breaks three laws the law of God
...the law of man (governement)and the law of nature where design
determines purpose.(iryn did explain that)
Also remember as you use the word "gay" that there is nothing "gay"
about being homosexual because "gay" means happy,jolly,merry,lively
bright.
There nothing to be happy about anybodys rectum meant for excretion of
waste being used for what you have devoted this blog
to....Brainswashing the minds of ugandans not offering to help these
LGBT freinds.
Alluta continua
We are praying for you
We are not against you
we are against the sin behind you
Blessings
"HATRED" seems the word African -and other- churches preach concerning Gay/Lesbo matters, whereas "LOVE" should be the appropriate biblical word ! World-wide statistics show that 20% of the world's population gives preference to adult same-gender liaisons now. By FREE CHOICE and NOT FORCEDLY !From where does the church get its authority to condemn these liaisons ? The holy Koran and likewise Bible were written millenia ago, during times their adepts believed that the earth was shaped like a pancake, statistics non-existing and medical science in its infancy ! Do African -and other- religions keep their eyes firmly closed when faced by modern science and other positive achievements ? IT SEEMS SO !
Sent by: Dr. Samuel Ubungwu (M.B.O.)
Kampala, August 30.2007.
American faggotess lost in the African wild
I have been forced to comment on Glenna Gordon’s attitude in some of the posts on this topic. "Ugandans want to deport my friend Katherine". So what? And who is Katherine, anyway? Who gives a damn?
How many Ugandans were there at the rugby grounds? How many were there at the Rock Garden? Then, why the generalisation?
Of the 30 million Ugandans, who cares whether Roubos is a lezzie or not...At least, what I can generalise about Ugandans is that they have bread and butter issues to worry about. Even for Martin Ssempa who organised the demo...otherwise he would have done the same some time ago when The Daily Monitor carried the story of a fellow pastor's sodomy sessions with a young boy. It is just this time round, his stunting [or posturing] puts him in good position to tap dollars from do-gooders in US or UK [wherever he is eyeing].
Now back to this American scribe. Roubos was on duty that day. But if she is a lezzie...we can’t discount the possibility that she has sympathy for their cause. Gordon may also be dyke [probably explains why she is in support]. But this is not the issue here....my issue is the attitude of these Americans [as shown by the slant of the media coverage, the prominence given to it and the storms that have been brewed in tea cups about the reaction of Ugandans to homosexuality].
I had a tiff with Gordon sometime in June about a story she did about graduates of Makerere University. And I have been reading some of her writings especially about our society and in them she carries along these preconceived subtly racist attitudes. See this excerpt from her below:
"This whole episode has made me think Ugandans are much more close minded than I previously thought. It's made me think less of good friends who I've now argued with, and less of people who comment on my blog with unkind words."
I would urge her as a journalist to be objective and thorough [this includes deepening her understanding of the society or subject].
1)On the Makerere graduates story, she wrote disjointedly basing probably on about three or four paragraphs she read in a report.
2)On the story about why there are hardly any Ugandan male writers, she wrongly concluded that it is because most of the guys are drinking their heads off.
3)To prove my point, when I responded to her Makerere story, I tricked her when I pointed out that her alma mater was not even among top universities in the US on webometrics ranking she had referred to. If she had checked, she would have found out that University of California Berkeley was actually at No. 4.
By the way, why is that interns come all the way from US to work at The Daily Monitor yet these opportunities would be given first to journalism/mass communication students from our universities to try out their potential/talent; a number have been turned away. I don't think The New York or Los Angeles Times or The Chicago Post would welcome a Ugandan student with such open arms [many of whom read better than Gordon or Roubos]. I don’t blame these newspapers for that, it is just that they are providing their own with that first chance.
Did I hear free speech somewhere, an ardent believer…ha, I don’t think so. Check another excerpt below:
"I will indeed switch to moderated comments if the tone of such messages continues, despite my ardent belief in free speech - this is not a forum for hate speech."
Let me remind you that the Internet is a free space and totally democratic. That is why the blog has a section for comments/opinions from the readers. Then, why should you moderate it just because the views expressed are not in tandem with yours.
Enough said.
Hey! Don’t try to beef with me, I will ether you.
[Definition: Perhaps one of the best diss tracks in rap history, Ether was a track released on hip hop artist Nasir Jones's 2001 album Stillmatic].
It's sheer madness that a (normal)person would get so worried over fellow human beings opposing any behaviour/discipline that is against nature.I looked at this formal education and i got disappointed.iam suprised an educated europian noes nothing about
human nature.LADY YO CALLED SO YO counterpart in bed must be a gentleman to soothen you during lovemaking.it's all natural and i strongly oppose those improvised ways of living(devised to fight the boredom you europeans suffered as a result of your selfish intentions in life.we will never that fullish.
Post a Comment