Another crude attempt to smear our name
This letter to the editor in today's Gleaner 18.02.09 seeks to attempt to smear our name, below find the letter,original post (Feb 5, 2009) and response to the previous letter alluded to and judge for yourself. The writer says too many cowards but conveniently left out the email contact this time around. Coward eh?
the Letter
"Too many cowards in Jamaica"
The Editor, Sir:
The one thing Jamaica has one too many of these days, is cowards. I applaud MP Ernest Smith for not being one and for commenting on something that I have wondered about myself for some time now. Buggery is against the law and yet we have people who have publicly, by their own admission, via their association (JFLAG), announced that they practice it. Imagine, publicly announcing that you have committed and will continue to commit crimes and you are not behind bars? Where is the law?
Crude and nasty email
Subsequent to my letter asking a radio station to keep lewd music off the airwaves, JFLAG forwarded a rather crude and nasty email to me, ostensibly from one of their bloggers. In fact, others of similar ilk who wrote to me (primarily foreigners who were apparently homosexual themselves), had nothing to offer but expletives and who sought to 'chide' me (I'm understating a bit) for things that I did not say.
For instance, they all did suggest that I espoused music that promoted violence against them - which I do not. I was encouraged, though, that there were many well-thinking and sane Jamaicans who responded, who were not lowering their standards at all.
I am, etc.,
M. Foote
Spanish Town
The response
See the Original post:Katy Perry Song complaint from a letter to the Gleaner
(the reposnse was also published)
from Schifrah
True! better that your daughter listen to "traditional" Jamaican lyrics that promote violence and misogyny:
example 1...Girl ah wanna push on you wit dis ting protruding, youre acting kinda shy, still i will be intruding... (Sizzla)
Example 2....Cock up yuh bumpa a likkle moreCock it up mek mi slam it like a door(Put yuh hands on di floor!!!)Yuh hear mi love it when mi talk to herSplit and spread out like manure ...(Elephant Man)
Example 3. "Oh! Rub up di fat piece a somethin on my willy Long time she tell mi seh she waan mi fi filly " (Capleton)
Um... can someone explain to me why the Kate Perry lyrics are somehow more offensive than these? Nuff said!
Let me respond to this letter point by point.
ReplyDelete1. What could be more cowardly than Mr. Smith using his "parliamentary privilege" to protect himself from libel (as pointed out by LLoyd B. Smith ) JCF of being over-run by homosexuals. Needless to say he has no evidence to back his claim but a spurious sensationalized "news" story . Mr Smith is no better than the white southern racist who had the weight of the Jim Crow laws behind him in the Southern US so he could stand in the street and shout " Nigger" at every passing person of colour. Those Jim Crow laws were not justifiable and neither are the sodomy laws.
2. Buggery is against the law ...I believe that the correct term is sodomy. This does not in essence address homosexuality which is NOT against the law.In fact the dear writer might be interested to know that for many heterosexual couples, anal sex is a normal part of sex play, as is oral sex. Are we going to lock up (lets conservatively say) even 20% of our straight and gay population for consensual sodomy...or are we going to honestly address issues of sex and sexuality in the hope of saving another generation from the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Given that in this region that heterosexual transmission accounts for over 80% of the new HIV cases I think that the dialogue is urgently needed.
3. I am a Jamaican contrary to the implication otherwise, and I live here. The "crude and nasty e-mail" forwarded to you was only "crude and nasty" in that it quoted the lyrics of Jamaican dancehall songs, in the hope that you would take the piece of lumber out your own eye before picking on a speck. Furthermore the lyrics quoted in the specific piece were misogynistic hardly homophobic.
4. What I do in my bedroom is none of your business. I don't ask what you do in yours? Frankly I'm not interested. Our sexual orientation (yours or mine) should not be anyones business. I do know that my partner is adult and we are involved in a loving relationship. We do not harm children and we are responsible tax paying citizens who are entitled to the same rights and privileges as any other human being.
5. How is espousing tolerance, acceptance and human rights lowering ones standards? The thin veneer of moral superiority that Ms. Foote and Mr E. Smith have adopted, is simply that of individuals who need to find scapegoats to blame for the ills in the society over which they have no control. We see this being done in Rwanda, where the Hutu Government blamed the Tutsi minority for the evils in the society. This led to the massacre of over 800,000 Tutsis. The Nazis did the same in Germany...over 6 million Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals were murdered.
Instead of finding scapegoats we should be addressing the real problems in Jamaica: crime; the lack of self esteem among our young men who afraid of being called "gay" don't do well at school, and continue to underachieve all because they must fit in to rigid gender roles; the present economic crises, the continued abuse of our children...those are the real problems.
What consenting adults John and Jim or Jane and Jill do in their bedroom at night(or day) is not a socio political or moral issue.