THE last time the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting came to Africa it left a bad aftertaste in some mouths. There are those who now wish the Commonwealth Summit never came a knocking on their doorsteps. One traded places from a presidential mansion to a prison cell overnight.
The CHOGM experience that was hosted in Uganda is such bad news today that a teary former Vice President Prof Bukenya didn’t know what hit him when he was remanded in prison. He is facing charges in connection with the award of a contract to supply cars for the summit in the capital Kampala in 2007.
Other cabinet ministers have been charged along with Prof Bukenya. One cannot be sure if this is just a display of sorts to please Big Brother because he had threatened to cut aid or if these guys really deserved to bite the dust.
This year’s CHOGM was held in Perth, Australia and we don’t expect to hear any allegations and accusations of fraudulent dealings having taken place just when we are about to forget that the summit even took place. Some things only happen in Africa and the like.
Nothing unexpected came out of the gathering bar for the continuing struggle over reforming anti-gay laws. As a result, Britain has threatened countries that ban homosexuality with losing aid payments unless they reform. Big Brother at it again!
The British Prime Minister said he had raised the issue with leaders of some of the states involved when he attended the Commonwealth Summit in Australia. Britain was putting the pressure on, he said. What the heck is this guy thinking of?
Apparently, Mr Cameron doesn’t understand that some things don’t suit Africans; homosexuality is not African, period. We believe it is unnatural and extremely immoral.
Just like the British have the right to put pressure on poor countries, poor countries also have the right to preserve their values. Homosexuality in our parts of the world is more than just a taboo, forcing its official recognition as a right is rather insulting to our people.
Mr Cameron should also understand that we are still grappling with a myriad of problems that no longer trouble the Global North. As such, our preoccupations are rather different from theirs. At a time when we are facing a famine scare, who really wants to hear about gay rights? That’s would be the last thing on a starving man’s mind.
Perhaps they should send someone down here and ask how many people want anti-gay reforms. This is something that our people have never wanted though there might a few who have been influenced by foreign trends.
Unless the British premier was suggesting that citizens of aid recipient nations must be gay against their will as a condition to receive aid, his threat was derogatory and misplaced.
And if it has to come to that, must we lose our dignity just to receive aid? Do we really need that kind of aid? Mine are just innocent questions, the powers that be have decided. With all due respect, no one is going gay here, the rest can go figure.
Still on innocent questions, are there really seven billion of us? The United Nations estimated that on October 31 the world's population reached seven billion. And you thought the likes of David Cameron would have been preoccupied with the more challenging task ahead of feeding seven billion hungry mouths instead of forcing poor folks to embrace homosexuality.
Speaking of soaring world population, I couldn’t help but wonder how the UN could come up with such estimates. There are so many countries in the world, including Tanzania, that do not know for sure how many people they have.
But given that there is an error margin, I will give the estimates the benefit of doubt and proceed to rejoice in my little discovery. Through the BBC website, I came to realize that when I was born, I was the 4,140,875,813th person alive on earth and I am the 78,545,045,950th person to have lived since history began!
And as I was digesting the fact that so many men and women have walked this earth, a thought struck me. Would we have reached those numbers had our ancestors, for any reason, chosen to be gay? Just another innocent question, Mr Cameron!
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