Protect the Buddha from those Selfie-takers!

It is always hypnotizing to be in a Buddhist temple. I will never get used to it. Each time I am in a temple I shut up and gaze at the statues and take in all details about the temple, but one thing I also cannot resist is try to capture that golden beauty on film.

And that is an issue not just for me, but for many tourists and temple minders.

Atop the Hanging Monastery in Datong, Shanxi

I have been to many holy sites in China, The Jaded Buddha Temple in Shanghai, The Grottoes in Datong, Temples atop Mount Tai in Shandong to list but a few.

You are not following. To take pictures inside temples or not to, that is the question.

In some temples, like the Jaded Buddha Temple, they allow you to take photos of replica statues not the real one, in Datong, they apparently prohibit only those statues inside the caves and the rationale I hear is that camera flashes might damage them.

As someone who is not Buddhist and someone who grew up in a Christian home, I still have issues with snapping away at the Buddha even when given the go-ahead.

I have never seen a Christian snap a photo from inside a mosque or a Buddhist walk past a church and fire his lens at the statue behind the pulpit.

The dilemma continues. Why are we walking around in temples with cameras? Who allows us to come into the temples? I have never seen a group of tourists walk in on a church sermon.

Well, who allows us, tourists, to get into these temples? They actually have gate fees for most of the prominent temples I have seen in China, huge moneys get collected to allow you to go and see the statues of Buddha and the artwork therein.

At the Jaded Buddha Temple in Shanghai they bar you from taking photos of the precious imported statues of the Buddha but you can buy water stacked next to the statue or you can ‘taste Buddha’s Tea’ in the next door.

This begs another question, are these commercialized temples any holy?  And is a statue of Buddha which is far from his grave or birthplace any holy?

Muta at WutaiShan, Shanxi, China

Should we back off from these sites and let the monks and believers practice their religion in peace? 

Maybe Buddhism is just a very tolerant religion. Or maybe they need money from tourists to maintain these sites. 

In the end, I end up clicking away and even posing in front of the statues, it is too precious not to have a backup on the camera.

It is also because the followers of this religion are not maniacs, no one will get blown up or reprimanded, after all Buddha would definitely allow selfies with admirers especially if it was after meditation hours.

Click away. 

The Thousand Jesus Mountain

Certify this hill holy!

I have been to many holy sites, the Hanging Temple in Datong China or China’s holiest mountain top Mount Tai in Shandong Taian, but I have never seen holy at the level of this small-time mound on the south end of Blantyre urban.

The New Jerusalem - a Temple up Soche Hill

I was not sure of going up the hill, I was not sure it was safe, I had to hide my camera in a black bag and kept looking over my shoulder as I started to hike. I was wrong.

The hill was filled with men women and children, mostly women. All of them were in the hill to placate or praise God via Jesus. I am sure there was no Muslim there.

Everywhere I looked, I saw a person or a group of people. They were singing, dancing, pacing to and fro while swinging their arms, shouting and invoking the Holy Spirit.

Bush fires have ravaged most parts of the hill and as I meandered through the ashy paths and heard one woman shout “Fire! Holy Ghost Fire!” I wondered if it was this holy fire that was scorching the flora on the hillsides.

I went there to hike

I saw a trio of guys holding hands and praying, then break into song, then kneel in incessant prayer… as a non-believer, I was outnumbered a thousand to one at Soche hill.

One guy was on the very top, walking to and fro, appearing briefly on the cliff from where I stood below, as much as I knew he was only praying, it looked as if he was some suicidal guy gathering momentum and courage before leaping to his demise.

I saw a tent, with some youths singing joyously near it. I saw a cave with women peeping from the dark hole and a pastor dishing out the word on the mouth.

I saw a cross enclosed in a stone hedge, like a site from a movie set in ancient Israel. I saw someone cooking and another washing dishes by a spring, again I wondered if it was these fires that were to blame for the fires that plaque the hill.

I saw verses and Biblical terms scrawled on rock faces, ‘Shalomo,’ shouted one line, obviously greeting me the way an Israeli would, without the “o.”

Jehova, Shalom, El Shadai and Jehova Shama, I believe

As I knelt by the spring to tap from the indisputably clean water, a woman offered me a cup from her stack of dishes, I refused her offer but could hear the holiness in her offer, everything in this hill was like a huge Christian camp full of what Adventists would call ‘Philadephia.’

Not all was Philadelphia, every grouping represented a particular grouping, on one mass Sermon on the Mount. There were like ten groups visible to me from where I stood observing.

I went hiking for fitness reasons, seeing as how rare it is to find a playground to play on around the residential areas, instead, I discovered one of the rarest phenomenon I never expected to find here in Malawi a country that was unware of Jesus at the start of the 1900s.

I visited this hill around 2pm on a Tuesday. Do these people have jobs? Or do they go to school, these youths? I kept thinking. Are they here following some serious tragedies in their lives or is this all SOP in their Christian lives?

I felt evil, I have never pursued faith this seriously, and maybe it is why I lost it. Now I believe in Bandwidths and theories of old white men. Sigh.

I did not disrupt anyone, I kept my distance, I used my full zoom to take my pictures but I came close to one group.

You add the Caption...they are in deep prayer

The pastor was shouting ‘this water is holy!’ while sprinkling it on some hypnotized women. I watched with keen interest, the pastor told the women that they were free. They broke into song and after a while one woman told the pastor about her brother who was not coming home.

I did not stick around to hear how he helped this woman, would prayer really bring back a guy who has gone rogue on a drinking spree?  Or maybe the best way is just to wait till they get broke like the prodigal son did in the Bible?

And it is not just Jesus that is the darling of the hill, Rastafarians from the city also occasionally congregate here. Which gives me another idea as to what causes bush fires, you catch my drift? 

I was at the foot of the hill and just before I exited the bush into the neighborhoods, the woman in front of me stopped and issued a final prayer, I stopped in their midst and joined them in prayer.

I was dirty from the sooty bushes and the dusty paths, I looked down on my feet and I did not look like someone who was n holy ground. Maybe, like Moses, I need to take off my shoes next time.

China’s Abortion Scene is Inspiring

As someone who is passionate about abortion, among other issues, I trekked to Jinan Maternity and Children Healthcare Hospital to check out the abortion scene in China…fly on the wall style.

On the third floor of the hospital a crowd of couples wait for their names to be called out on the PA. Girls, women, ladies and men stream in and out of the establishment clasping papers detailing appointments, medical tests results and other whatnots.

Half Price Offer  - Nothing to Fear

At the further end of the floor, a woman occasionally emerges from behind a door helped by a nurse… her partner steps up to help her onto the resting area before they slowly walk to the escalators, down into the parking lot and disappear into the Jinan crowds.

With each woman that exists another is called in and as the next one comes out with a squint, the emotions on the ladies on the waiting lines are easy to read…most are afraid…but their fear is unjustified.

A nurse comes to the seated crowd to counsel them on contraception…some seem as young as 20 and some as advanced as 45.

As per 2009, China was reportedly seeing more than 13 million abortions every year, abortion being legal in China, it is no shame… there are no pro-life protesters in the car park, no judging looks being exchanged, all is as normal as at a Malaria ward in Africa.

The hospital takes time to examine the ladies wanting to abort, all kinds of tests get done: from PH to HIV via HBcAg and many others you don’t know and don’t need to… even the zygote/embryo’s pulse is charted, there is no hurry…one woman had her abortion postponed because she had a flu and not ready for the surgery.

If China banned abortion, it would have the highest number of deaths of women due to unsafe abortions.

Let us take Malawi, in southern Africa, every year 70,000 women attempt abortion…but abortion there is illegal and can see you get thrown in jail for up to 14 years. Funnily, in Malawi, in 2012 there were only 5 condoms per person per year, condoms being the main source of contraception.

And it is not just Malawi, In Africa  and Latin America where abortion laws are heavily restrictive have the highest abortions per 1000 women aged 15-44 , 29 and 32 respectively (2008).

No matter what happens, women will always get abortions (Guttmacher Institute) and the abortion rate in the world has always hovered around 29.

If you restrict abortion services, women will turn to unsafe means. In Malawi women insert objects into the womb to pluck the zygote, some ingest washing powder and some go to traditional healers who do not even understand anatomy 101.

Here at the Jinan hospital, women are given medicine to dilate their cervices and an experienced doctor does the surgery while the woman is put to sleep, all tools are sterilized. All the women go home, in Malawi, an abortion could be the trip to the morgue, to barrenness or a long time in the hospital.

In Malawi for example, 17 percent of maternal deaths are attributable to unsafe abortions.

The men that made the law (and happen not to have vaginae) are mostly inspired by religion and culture. To them once a woman falls pregnant, she cannot go back. There’s no choice, even when condoms are scarce and their use largely to the man’s discretion.

In a single ejaculation there are millions of potential babies and a normal man like me ejaculates at least five times a week (haha)… if we are so concerned of seeds why do we not ban wanton ejaculations then?

Come and abort with us: Spotted in Tibet

Truth is, if we refuse women abortion, they get it anyway. If we force women to keep babies, they will only be more and more rejected, abandoned and homeless kids. If we keep being arrogant, more women will die, along with the accidental pregnancy.

There are many ways of preventing pregnancy, you can use a condom, or use the withdrawal method, or take pills but for some reasons, these ways fail or are unavailable (we all know sex sometimes comes like a thief), then you can abort…nothing to open ancient books about here.

I step out of the hospital and head back to my place, I see no street kid, no funeral procession, no church… just banners offering abortion services at half price…

How can I get Chinese citizenship, seriously? 

‘Don’t Marry Outside Your Race’

You are dating a Chinese girl and thinking of marrying her? Are you African and you fancy an Indian lass? Don’t do it, man, interracial marriages and unions are not sanctioned by God, and God forbids it. That’s the message of one Pastor Donny Reagan who runs the Happy Valley Church of Jesus Christ in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Inspired by one William Branham, remember him? Branham believed that that his own existence presaged the Second Coming of Christ and he also believed the doctrine of the Serpent's Seed: the notion that Eve's act of dooming mankind involved her actually having sex with the Satanic serpent of Genesis, and that her son Cain, and a generation of "giants", was the offspring of this union.

The Serpent's Seed doctrine has been used by religious white supremacist groups, like Christian Identity, to justify a belief in separate lineages for the races: white, pure, from Adam and Eve; black, evil, from Eve and the serpent.

Reagan prattles his anointed thoughts in a 2013 video that went viral in 2014.

Reagan’s message is simple, he first starts by saying that he has many colored friends and referred to black women as beautiful and therefore cannot be racist, and he says God made us the way we are and therefore trying to change our God-given colour is not right.

‘If a violet... God made it and it was white, let it remain white. If it's blue, black, brown, whatever the flower is, let it alone. If corn was raised a certain way, yellow corn, don't mix with white corn. If you do, you mix it up, then it can't breed itself back again,’ he said to a cheering audience.

He argued:

“What—what business would a beautiful, young, intelligent colored girl want to marry a white man for, and have mulatto children? What would a fine, intelligent colored girl want to do a thing like that for? I can't understand it. And what would a white woman want to marry a colored man, with mulatto children? Why don't you stay the way God made you?”

Reagan actually vowed that he will never bless or see to any mixed race wedding.

So, I sat there after watching the video and thought…does he have some sense or is he racist? And I concluded inside me, but will let you draw your own conclusions.

I heard on CCTV that in Shanghai, there are 5000 mixed race marriages every year, I think….I wonder how pissed God is. And Reagan is not alone; many races are very suspicious of mixed race marriages.

There was one point I agreed with the learned pastor on, he said some dark races marry other races to run away from their colour and try to improve it. He said these people are powerless and cannot fix their colour and would like to fix it in their children.

This is a big truth for some people who have eaten the bait of colonialism and think they are one or several steps down the ladder by being darker and want to lighten up things by either bleaching their skin or marrying a ‘fairer’ race…as I said, this is a topic for another day.

As for Reagan, he forgets that the current tomato was a bitter small berry and has come this far by hybreeding, he forgets that corn is now better and a real world hunger douser because it has been crossbred a zillion times.

Reagan says it is unnatural to mix races, and inherent in that statement is that fact that he assumes different races are different species…a lion and a zebra cannot produce offspring, that’s unnatural.

The rest of the debate lingers in your mind; I believe that many people are already of a certain racial stand and that nothing really happens later in life to change them.

Atheism fueling China’s Rise, Lessons for Africa

According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 47% of Chinese people were confirmed atheists ranking as the most atheist nation on earth.

Public Speaker, Media Trainer TJ Walker and video blogger an American, commenting on the poll said this is a good recipe to China becoming the superpower to rival America.

Walker says that the Chinese’ lack of religion will make them progress as they will not be weighed down by superstition, their schools will focus on science instead of teaching what is in line with ‘some old book.’

 Let’s not make this about US versus China; I want to discuss the developing world, especially Africa. Gallup actually has another poll that lists poor countries as being the most religious. 

For Example, the people of Malawi, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Niger, Sri Lanka (very poor and sorry nations) were asked by Gallup: Is religion an important part of your life? And behold 99% of the respondents said ‘yes.’

China was a nation of peasants not long ago, among other factors; I think the fact that religion is excluded from daily life has made it a very successful story.

On a Sunday in say, Jinan city, students still attend their classes at university, traffic still flows normally and banks are open like on normal week days, construction work goes on unchecked everywhere.

Compare that to Malawi, very poor, with 99% of its people saying religion rocks and is important in life: government offices are abandoned by Friday noon, no work for two days and people report for work on Monday still dazed from drunkenness, banks close by 3pm and do not open over the weekends.

In the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe, on a Sunday, you can have a car race in the highway as it is abandoned; shops close as people flock to churches.

It is ironic how people go to church to ask for success and work this little, I thought the best way to succeed was to work hard? Laborare est orare!

And the coming in of these noisy Nigerian and African-American inspired Pentecostal churches is making things worst. I know someone who told me she wakes up at 3am to pray so she can find a job. You meet an African in China and the first thing they ask you is about churchgoing.

Even in America, Gallup listed Mississippi as the most religious state, I looked up the state and it is the poorest of America’s states. Poor US states like Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Alabama are very religious and have more Africans.

The African, wherever he may be, thinks that there is something beyond the clouds that can lift them from woes. So in the 500 years of slavery he prayed and God was busy. Exit Slavery and enter colonialism and the African prayed but the gods and God never listened until the 60s.

Now, while the rest of the world has moved on and is racing to sharpen their sciences; nuclear weapons, medicine, industry and even graphics, the African is still praying and to a foreign religion.

No offense, but the God of Israel has one son and that son is Jewish (no African represented in heaven) and all his activities happened in Israel, but right now the Christian in Central Africa Republican is more passionate than the Pharisees of old.

Islam:  Muhammad and the holy sites are far from Africa and yet the African in Nigeria or Somalia thinks they can somehow pray hard and receive some mysterious blessings.

Religion is the biggest hurdle hampering development (universally) and the fact that the Communist Party in China bans it among its members makes a rational government and there are no stupid questions when issues such as stem cell research or abortion rise.

If the Vatican says condoms are not holy and the African would rather get HIV than use the condom; one day the people of Darfur will be rescued by faith.

Even as an African reading this, you are thinking,'he is going to burn in hell,' which is the very thing i am talking about, you are too bound by religion and cannot see that Africans live in hell and there is no other hell after they die.

And sadly, the more religious countries are, the more intolerant they are… for example, just imagine a Jew marrying an Ethiopian and how his uncles would react or a Hutu marrying a Tutsi and the violence in CAR sums up this one.

And its embarrassing how Africa claims to be so religious but the HIV statistics shows they are having too much unprotected sex with multiple partners and the tribal hatred, the homophobia and the corruption all reek of satanism than Islam or Christianity. 

Instead of working to realize that religion has not worked for Africa and the African this far, right now many Africans are crying and have their eyes shut (not studying) trying to placate a God with a Jewish son and an Allah with his base in Mecca.

So many in Africa and in the developing world accept poverty because religion teaches them that its actually difficult to go to heaven as a rich man; that it is not bad to die young or poor because there is good life in heaven - roads paved with gold and all.

Education, especially sciences are viewed in suspicion, religion teaches that all that is not sensible can be explained with faith and that questioning God will only run you mad. Such big African heads and yet afraid to ask questions.

Universities coming up in Malawi now overwhelmingly offer theology courses as if the graduates will pray the nation to prosperity.

Right now the Africans in Jamaica, in America or Nigeria probably think that their riches and blessings are around them and can be unlocked by praying hard. In China, however, all the Chinese does is work around the clock and blessings flow and most Chinese cannot even say who Deborah was (or even Saul.)

As Karl Marx argued Religion is the opiate of the masses; the rich love religion because it makes the poor accept their state and keep working at cheap rates; the poor love it because it offers them reason to live on.

Is it not funny that South Africans were robbed, killed and oppressed for decades and they ‘forgave’ their oppressors overnight and continue to live in oppression with little protest? The answer is…religion.

The European that brought religion is now in the pub enjoying some cold beers; the African is praying hard, waiting for blessings and riches…the Chinese are going to the top, as Confucius taught them never to mind heaven, hell or life after death.

Just a thought, in heaven, there will be many Africans in heaven, drinking wines, walking on paved roads, singing all day and they will finally laugh as the Chinese and Europeans burn in hell.

That’s after we die, now, now take our oil, land, don’t give us education or vaccines and we won’t use condoms - if death comes its God’s wish and remember its easier for a rich man to enter heaven than it is for a camel to pass through a pin hole. (Mark 10:25)

Sigh. Prayer is really just doing nothing and hoping that someone somewhere is doing something about a given problem. 

Mhango Vs Thindwa on Whether God does Exist or Not?

God: does he exist or not?

This is a debate and question that has plagued mankind all through recorded history: Is there God or not? I, BRIGHT MHANGO took on leader of the Association of Secular Humanists in Malawi, GEORGE THINDWA in grappling with the question. 

I let Thindwa do his assertions on the non-existence of God and I then countered him. He approved of this article later so all is for debate and nothing malicious.

Thindwa’s take: There is no God!

Thindwa - There is no God

 Atheists like me do not say that God does not exist. Atheists have no concept of God, are without belief in him and the term God is meaningless. It is the believer that states that God exists. So the onus is on him to prove his affirmative position.

To do that, the believer must define God and show that he exists. Given this task, the believers defines God as omnipotent (very powerful), omniscience, omnipresent (is everywhere), loving, all good and Creator of everything including man and earth. The other attributes of God include that God is the First Cause and an Intelligent Designer.

The attribute of God being omnipotent fails in the presence of evil in the world. For example, how can there be an omnipotent, omnipresent, when men in Dowa hack their wives; when people suffer and die through famines, floods or earthquakes?

Then there is the question: “Who made God?” No believer has ever answered this question to date. If God is an intelligent designer, then who designed the intelligent designer, God?  It is surprising that believers see design in this world. Many of us do not. 

This is a cruel world where nature rules; floods, strife etc. There are just also many imperfections and disorder in nature. For example,  in human body, our bones lose minerals after age 30, making them susceptible to fracture, the  rib cage does not fully protect the internal organs; the reproductive and excreta systems are so close making women prone to fistula.

It is also very sad that God only survives through philosophical arguments and by the assertions and manifestations of believers, pastors or priests. Where is God?  Why is he hiding?

The onus is on him to reveal himself to individuals or group of individuals by cell phone or internet or through his own word. Let him write up the sky that he exists. All of us will then see that and prove that indeed he exists.

It is clearly from the definition of God and from the other attributes that believers are actually worshipping in ignorance. Even his doings are suspect if he exists.

Therefore, we atheists conclude that the concept of God was devised by human beings in an attempt to explain to themselves,  what they do not understand and to accord to themselves a status in the cosmos

I will end with this quote : ‘Whatever believers  cannot easily understand, they call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues,”

Mhango - God lives

Bright Mhango’s take: Thindwa, you need Jesus!

So Thindwa wants Christians to prove that there is God? The day that happens, theology as a discipline will move from the philosophy department to the sciences sections in the universities. There is no proof using science in a matter of faith.

Thindwa and other atheists fall into a deep trap where they commit the argument from ignorance fallacy, in simple terms it is like saying: “Because I have never been to Rumphi nor have I met anyone from there therefore Rumphi does not exist.” But some things exist without us seeing them, just this month a new bird species has discovered, did that bird not exist last month?

Thindwa says for example that God does not exist because there is evil in the world. To me this is what I would call a straw man fallacy, where one deviates from an argument creates his own issue and defeats that issue he created and claim that he has won the initial argument.

It is like claiming that Bright Mhango is impotent because we have never seen his children. There are many reasons why I cannot have children, choice, time or it might be my wife. God is a sovereign being, he asks no one and needs no approval to do things, he can abandon or even engender violence at will, he has done it before, it is his world after all.

Thindwa's straw man fallacy also rears its head when he uses the fact that there is no known creator of the creator to deny the creators existence. We are not concerned of who made God, we are concerned of God who cannot be made because he made time itself as we see it, we think he has a life span because we do, but the only thing we take after God is his image not his being or might.

Nature speaks of God not against him. Thindwa actually falls into my trap when he mentions the ageing, the fistulas and the harsh side of nature to say that it could not have been created by an intelligent designer.

What made nature so intelligent, then? How did man come to be? Male and female different but made to be compatible: the penis for the vagina... DNA carries all instructions for our outlook what kick-started the first ever DNA and who implanted information on that one?

Who imparted enough oxygen on earth and who suspended earth in the galaxy just away enough from the sun to allow plants to make food? What could have caused so many species from snails to rhinos to algae?

The fistulas, the floods are all explainable using science…teen sex, water levels rising and they can all be avoided and it doesn’t need God to avert a flood.

Thomas Aquinas developed five proofs of God using simple logic and without quoting scripture. He says for example that nothing in the universe can move without being moved, and if all movement is caused, who initiated the first movement? The answer is God.

The burden of proof is on all of us believers and non-believers, if Thindwa says there is no God because he cannot see one, let him also go out deep into the galaxy to see if he really is not there at the end of the galaxy.

Conclusion

The argument will never settle, until God comes to settle this argument and until atheists explain why some things appear to have been started by a genius. Meanwhile as Bob Marley sang: Only time will tell.

RSA bishop warns media on bad publicity as Bushiri insists chaos await BT

Bishop Magola has warned Malawian media to desist from dissing men of God to avoid “forced early retirement, death and curses” and other unspecified action, Nyasa Times has the details.

Magola, a South African who is dubbed terminator by his followers, fired the warning shots at Chichiri Stadium on Sunday where he was a guest preacher at Shepherd Bushiri’s “Three Days of Prophecy Conference.”

“Don’t play with major prophets, they can kill or curse you without involving God or the devil, “ said Magola, “if you don’t understand us just shut your mouth because  we can send you on early retirement, we can close your company and we send you to heaven or hell early.”

He went on to defend Bushiri saying that despite the bad publicity he was enjoying, he [Magola] had had a vision in which Bushiri was first swimming in Lake Malawi, then the Mediterranean Sea then the Atlantic, adding that by next year, Bushiri will not be as he is.

“I am not defending Prophet [Bushiri], you don’t need to defend a lion, I am just saying that what you have here is not a small thing,” said Magola.

Several other international pastors also took turns to warn Malawians not to play with Bushiri because they [the visitors] would whisk him away instead, drawing cheers of no! No! from the animated crowd.

Bushiri himself compared some Malawians to crows, which he said liked to scavenge bad things only despite having white necks.  He wondered why Malawians only like bad news.

Bushiri then made similar remarks to those Mutharika made on the same venue on 6 March, saying that when the press lands on men of God’s necks, it was also on the church’s and that it was the responsibility of the church to protect the leaders.

 During the sermon, Bushiri repeated his prophecy that Blantyre would degenerate into chaos from what would start as a simple demonstration, he thus called on faithfulls to pray so that the dark cloud would spare Blantyre.

“Pray that it may not happen, if you don’t it will and don’t say I never told you, and then you may need me but I might be away on honeymoon,” said Bushiri to a dead silent crowd, “I know most people call names what they cannot understand, it’s good that they just call us names than to understand us and destroy us.”

Ha challenged that if his prophecy does not come alive, he should be called a false prophet and said that a prophet never visits a place without a message, going ahead to quote Amos 3 verse 7 which says that God never does anything without speaking through his prophets first.

The crowds braved the weather to witness Bushiri who arrived in a motorcade of about 15 vehicles alighting from a Nissan Teana with the personalised license plates “Tyna 74,” flanked by body guards with the crowds in frenzy singing the tune: “Give me power every hour.”

The Conference ran for three days and focused on giving hope to the masses, strengthening their spiritual stand in the eschatological times and prophesying on the future. It was spiced by music from Geoffrey Zigoma, Martha Kasambala, Habakkuk and Bushiri’s own Praise Team.

Malawians should not play God on gays- Legalize homosexuality

Two days ago i ran an article by Hasting Ndebvu, this is my reply to that...

 

‘Malawi is a God fearing nation; gays will corrupt our children; gays are crazy; being gay is illegal.’ These are some of the arguments Malawians give in justifying homophobia. Convincing as the reasons seem, I find them wanting and in this apology I set out to put across a case for gays (transsexuals, gays and lesbians and Bisexuals).

First, I should put out this disclaimer that: we never say a cat is a caterpillar just because it is sitting on a pillar. These arguments are simply opinion staged for argument’s sake - to join the national debate, if you relate to them, well, put the cap on, it fits you.

Gays are not unnatural

The likes of Robert Mugabe have charged that gays are unnatural, that homosexuality is fit for dogs. I will not cite Mutharika’s similar rants because they were just a vain attempt to be ranked alongside Mugabe. With that said, I ask: are the Mugabe’s and the lesser known homophobes like Mutharika scientifically endowed to declare that gays are unnatural?

Yes research has shown that they are unnatural but it has also shown that gays are but normal. The seemingly complex algorithm is simple; everybody does research with motives. Recently Satoshi Kanazawa concluded that black women are the least attractive, Hitler used fake science to justify superiority of his race. Research is just funded and organised opinion.

As I know, homosexuality has been detected in over 150 animal species and that scientists now agree that there is no mental or psychic issue about being gay.

The reason hating gays is called homophobia is because we cannot justify the hatred, in fact it means we fear them. We claim that gays commit more suicide; that gays do allot of crime; that gays live shorter dangerous lives. To me it’s all a vain attempt to keep on hating gays.

In America, more crime is committed by Blacks, in Malawi more crime is committed by the poor ghetto people. It’s simple, if people are deprived and picked on, they are likely to commit suicide, to rob or act violent. It’s not being gay that makes one’s life short; it’s the conditions society puts them in. Blacks die faster than whites as do Africans vis a vis Japanese, its economics not genetics or sex.

 The religious card

Then there are people, some of them visibly satanic, who would like to play the religious card and justify homophobia by quoting scriptures.

I will not quote the Quran because to me that book is just a poetic version of the Bible and with the call for violence on Sura 4: verses 21-2: “... and if two of you commit it, then hurt them both...,” it’s better to leave it there because seriously, God cannot call for harm on his own creatures.

It is fact that homosexuality is listed as sin in the Bible, but what sin is not listed? People behave as if Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed solely for homosexuality and yet Bible says the cities were destroyed for their pride and arrogance (Ezekiel 16:48-49).

Then there is Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 that clearly says men should not sleep with other men. These verses are the talk of the homophobes, most of whom have not studied hermeneutics.  Yes, the Bible says gay practices are sins but it doesn’t stop there.

Stealing, gossiping, killing, lying, adultery are all condemned, as a matter of fact, the Bible prohibits tattooing, round haircuts, mixing fabrics, touching dead carcasses of animals like dogs and rats. Onan was killed for using the withdrawal technique in family planning terms, which by analogy also alienates masturbation (Genesis 38:9-10) 

I should take time to condemn the Lilongwe pastor who called for death of gays. He surely needs Theology 101 basics. The strict rules were what we term, Holiness Codes, they were for the priests, those from the tribe of Levi who lived almost like monks. If we take what Numbers, Deuteronomy and Leviticus said then we would not even be alive because we somehow commit deathly offences daily.

Before I turn this into a Bible commentary, which I would happily do, I should just say that the Bible was not written by God. It was written by people, people with cultures, people with attitudes and values, in Epistemology such knowledge is under revealed knowledge and cannot be disputed or paraded as gospel truth, so the Bible should not bind us, but rather guide us, that’s after agreeing on its canonicity.

Then there is this lame and, to borrow Bingu’s words, ‘stupid’ argument that since gays cannot procreate then they are against the Biblical order to ‘populate the world like sand.’ I will not ask you to point for me the guy who spoke to God for fear being labelled a heretic, but I will ask if we are not lucky to have gays coming along in this time of population related problems?

Gays will not add to our population, they will adopt the kids we father like pigs and fail to accept them (am not speaking of Kamuzu here), if we want to multiply like sand, some people are already doing a god job about it, why bother a small group of gays?

 It should also be made clear that being gay is not about having sex, it’s like marriage, and its purpose is long term companionship where sex is a member of the bigger universal set called marriage. Having or not having children in gay marriages is the same as in straight couples, it’s a choice. Who took Kamuzu to task for not having any known sons?

The only sin that gays seem to do is by inserting their members into each other’s rectums or in the case of women licking each other’s pudenda. But if we were to employ Cheaters’ Joey Greco to spy on the homes of some of us, many would be outlawed. People are performing blow jobs, cunnilungus, three-somes, double penetrations and some enjoy an occasional anal sex dosage with their partners. Who comes and points fingers at you?

Some say ‘design determines purpose,’ yes the penis is a rod that seeks a cavity, some take that cavity as the rectum and if the grinding of clitorises during lesbian tribadising suits them who are we to protest?

It’s very funny how straight people spend time chasing gays instead of chasing guys and girls, some of the straight people are too old or ugly or out-of-the-equation to be ‘the type’ for gays and yet they are on their case like a flamingo to a Rhino.  Why can’t we live and let live? 

Why do we behave as if the legalisation of gay sex will see a penis in our rectums? I thought once married it’s up to the partners to do things to each other as they please? We should not be hypocrites and play holy saints. 

Gays are people too, with rights

Gays, just like Lhomwes, babies, girls, men and miners are people with full rights. Yes, our constitution didn’t recognise them but can’t we understand that the constitution was coined a long time ago? Even in Greece where Democracy sprung, women were taken as property; it took time to recognise them. Blacks in America were slaves; it took time [and realisation] to recognise niggers as people. 

Discriminating gays means that is also alright for white people to still have reservations about our claim that we are not apes.

Just like God did to humans, we have been given free choice as echoed by Ecclesiastes who says we should enjoy our youth as we wish. Let everybody live their life as they choose. Let us not be little gods and start judging, a thing even God has reserved for end times. We are, in fact, being blasphemous by labelling gays as sinners- that’s God’s duty.

Gays, like University students have full rights; right to choice, right to association, right to opinion right to be protected, right to life and right to hold a belief.

Homophobia is costly

We all remember Shabba Ranking, the Jamaican DJ who took the world by storm with his sweet slack chants, his career crashed because of homophobia, along came Buju Banton whose ‘Boom Bye Bye’ tune still haunts him today, he is in a Florida prison and is likely to get 20 years IHL due to his homophobia, though its unrelated to his drug offences.

Now Shabba was tough and as tough as Shabba was, he publicly apologised. Also recall how Sizzla is boycotted in Britain and US. What the Jamaican artistes did is exactly what Malawi is doing, we know our market and support is in the West and yet we try to fight with it.

Respected Rastafarians like Apple Gabriel have accepted gays; in his 2010 album, ‘Teach Them Right,’ He sings of showing love to the gays, what an example for the untraveled Malawians.

In addition to my many Justification of legalisation of homosexuality is the issue of HIV/Aids prevention. gays are at the heart of the fight, imagine what problems we are creating if we dont iclude them in our HIV plans?

Malawi has no Culture

If you are still old fashioned and decide to watch MBC TV, you would likely catch Philip Business, Bessie Chirambo, Vuwa Kaunda or Hetherwick Ntaba tearing apart gays and their argument is that homosexuality is against Malawian culture. I foam at such generalisations and still wonder what we mean when we say Malawian culture?

Is Malawian culture the thieving Nyau culture, the vulgar Lower Shire mouths the pudenda peddling women at Malipenga dances in Nkhatabay or the game poaching Kasungu and Rumphi? Is Malawi culture tribalism, where a child born in Rumphi is Tumbuka first and Malawian next or the Mhlako who refuse to hide their favouritism in dealing with national cakes?

This myth called Malawi culture does not exist, and the jingoism that we are a God fearing nation is just another word for blasphemy. There is nothing Malawian about our culture apart from the stupid practices, the tribalism and the stinking politics. The religion is a rubberstamp; the real people are drunkards and staunch capitalists. Porn is easy to watch on government computers in Malawi than in the US.

In the world over, just like Malawi, priests dabble in paedophilia and some sex scandals go all the way up to the Pope’s nose. In the church they are pedagogically saint-like but we meet them in the weekend papers and in vibrating cars at airports.

With that angrily said, I think we are done with the Malawi culture crap, just like we dropped traditional religion for Christianity, lets accept the culture that is on us and not live in denial. Western culture is enslaving, yes but what are we to do? Our elders loved salt and cloth and sold our bright young men as slaves. Let’s integrate into Western culture and those who still feel tribal can practice their tribalism in their homes as the Israelites did under Babylonian rule.

Despite the likes of Tiwonge Chimbalanga being essentially unschooled, we still claim that homosexuality is a Western phenomenon. Malawians cannot just let other people do what they want, it stems from Kamuzu, who enjoyed women: watching them dance and impregnating some and yet thought the rest of the population should be restricted hence the banning of miniskirts and beauty pageants. Why do we think we are masters of other’s destiny when we cannot even steer our own country?