Why I'll keep writing about Uganda

(reblogged from Lezgetreal.com)

Recently I've been writing a lot about Uganda's proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. I've been accused of racism, of trying to subvert Uganda's sovereignty, cultural imperialism, and of ignoring the will of the Ugandan people to push a LGBT agenda in a country that is not my own. I've been accused of trying to sink deals that could potentially inject a lot of money into the Ugandan economy. (because I have that kind of power, right? C'mon Tullow Oil, Bank of America, Merryl Lynch, Harold Ford, listen to me!)

I would like to be a bit self indulgent and respond to some of these accusations.

My criticisms of the proposed law have nothing to do with the race of the people pushing the anti-gay agenda, nor of the people who it is intended to harm. If Sweden offered a similar law I would protest as fiercely.

Nor have my criticisms anything to do with some personal suspicion that Ugandans are incapable of governing their own country. The fact is, most Ugandans who present themselves on the internet in these discussions have demonstrated a frightening hostility to homosexuals in their own country, and even those who appear sympathetic often demonstrate an understandable discomfort with the distinction between homosexual, transgendered, bisexual and other sexual and gender identities.
The issue in both those cases is a lack of education about sexual and gender identities. As a Ugandan doctor writes:

In Africa, what most of us know about homosexuality is that it's a political taboo. That had carried over into my medical education. I did all my training in Africa. I was used to wards filled with patients, male and female, dying of AIDS. I knew HIV was spread by sex. To me, it was a heterosexual disease. I'd never been taught or told much about prevention or treatment for men who had sex with men.
from The Huffington Post

In 2004, the Ugandan broadcasting council fined Radio Simba for broadcasting a program that hosted homosexuals who defended their "way of life". Under the proposed legislation, speaking about homosexuality would become a far more serious offence, meaning that doctors will remain ignorant of the needs of their homosexual patients, and the Ugandan people will remain in the dark about their family, friends and fellow countrywomen and men who live in silence and fear for simply being themselves.

“Myself I am at risk,” Onziema [a lesbian Ugandan] told Reuters Africa Journal “I can’t move on the streets as I used to, I can’t go to a shop … I have been picked off the streets, detained for sometime, ridiculed, intimidated, some money taken away from my wallet…”
from Ethiopian Review

I keep saying this, but I feel it keeps being ignored. Far from ignoring the desires of Ugandans, I am doing my level best to voice the needs of the Ugandans who have no voice. The anti-gay agenda in Uganda isn't necessarily culturally pure. As reported extensively on the Rachel Maddow show, on Box Turtle Bulletin and several other news sources, American anti-gay fundamentalist groups and prominent US politicians (and some crazies like ex-gay Richard Cohen) pumped money and, most importantly, misinformation into Uganda in the run up to the introduction of this bill.

Even from a homophobic perspective, this bill is hardly necessary as homosexuality is already a criminal offence under existing law. The new proposed bill introduces the death sentence for homosexuals, and custodial sentences for those advocating for homosexuals and those who fail to report suspected homosexual behaviour. It simply ensures to a greater degree that LGBTQ Ugandans will continue to have no voice.

And when I say no voice, I am a little wrong and perhaps a lot rhetorical. I do not want or mean to belittle the incredibly brave work of gay Ugandans and their Ugandan advocates. There are gay Ugandans fighting for their rights, and straight Ugandans who fight for the rights of their gay sisters and brothers. People risk their freedom to fight for the right to live an honest life, and if this bill passes, even the act of speaking out could lead to incarceration. If the arrest lead to the discovery of actual homosexual activity, it could lead to death.

So to close, I will continue to blog about the Ugandan Anti-homosexuality Bill because I have a voice that costs me nothing. I will name those who support it, either intentionally, by proxy or by turning a blind eye. I will keep asking those in positions of international and corporate power to voice their support for freedom to those who have the power to make a difference. I will lend my support those in Uganda who have the incredible courage to speak up for themselves and others, because every person deserves to live a true and honest life without loss of freedom or indeed her or his life.

If you have a problem with that, you have every right to say it, but I have every right to press on.
And I will.
(In case you only read me here, some of this happened over at Irish lesbian website Gaelick.com, where I blog regularly as well.)

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Tullow Oil and Uganda's Kill the Gays Bill

You've hopefully all seen Rachel Maddow's coverage of Uganda's Kill the Gays bill.

Well yesterday, it came out that an Irish company (reg'd in the UK) is about to invest 1.35 billion dollars in Ugandan Oil interests.

We're going to hammer this. They can't ignore the statement their investment makes. They can't ignore the issues this proposed legislation will create in employment and in using their own employees from Europe/North America,etc in countries where homosexuality is illegal.

I really can't write another post on it right now, but you can find what I've already written:

On Gaelick

On LezGetReal

Where have I been?

I realise it's been almost a month since my last post. Probably predictable enough given that it was over Xmas and how my Xmas went (see earlier post!).

However, it's because I've been writing elsewhere. I feel like I'm cheating.

So if anyone out there is wondering what I've been thinking, you can find me at:

Gaelick

and

LezGetReal

And I'll be around :) there's some stuff those guys don't want me to publish on their sites.

Frozen pipes, water shortages and bullshit all around

On Christmas morning, I woke to find my house very cold. When I checked the heating, which runs on pressure from our mains water supply, I found our water was off. While our plan had been to spend Christmas day in Kildare, with family, we spent the vast majority of the day trying to locate the frozen pipes and aiming hairdriers at the most likely pipes.

It had only been -6c the night before.

We ultimately gave up, and went away, hoping that when we arrived back it would be flowing freely again. Sadly, it would be three of the coldest weeks in a generation before we had running water or central heating in our home.

Houseplants died, our cats & I caught colds and we spent three weeks in thermal underwear (not the cats), hats and coats in our own home. We showered with various neighbours, all of whom lost their water ultimately as well. We only flushed the toilets when we had adequate supplies of water to do so. We consumed about 25l of water a day during this time, compared to the Irish daily average of 150l.

What happened? Why did our pipes freeze at a frankly mild -6c? Why did they remain largely frozen for three weeks? Who is at fault?

The first council failure was their emergency number, which rang out for a full four days following Christmas. The council had no way of knowing so many of its residents were without water (and central heating as many of the houses have heating systems that require mains pressure).

It turns out our pipes lay only 14 inches in the ground, where building regulations state they should be 750mm or approximately 29 inches, minimum. This is obviously the fault of the developer. However, there is also supposed to be council oversight in this, and they should not have connected incorrectly laid pipes to the mains. Not only for the householders who would purchase and live in the houses, but because inadequately buried pipes will freeze early, and increase the chance of freezing in the water mains, which can cause breakages and leaks to occur. And Irish pipes are leaking a lot already.

An informal survey of our neighbours and locals from other new-ish estates confirms that everyone who lost water had pipes laid at the wrong depth. The most shallow-laid pipes I found were a mere foot in the ground. Most seem to be fourteen to eighteen inches, still a good 10 inches too shallow.

There were other problems. When the freezing temperatures hit, homeowners who didn't have already frozen pipes, started leaving a tap dripping to avoid losing water. The council then panicked and switched off the water at night, precisely the wrong time to switch it off. Not only was it switched off when people were home from work (yes, people do work during Christmas week) but it was also sitting still in the pipes during the coldest hours of the night. They couldn't have created better conditions for freezing.

So when on December 30th, we got a trickle of water through our taps, the water was switched off that night and it all froze again, and would stay frozen for another two weeks.

Nobody would have to leave their taps dripping if the pipes had been laid correctly in the first place. And while the council denies responsibility, they had to connect those pipes to the water mains. They knew, and their responsibility began with that knowledge.

Now the council have sought to blame the public in press releases and in conversations with the press. They have said that leaving the water dripping is the source of the water shortage.

We learn now that our pipes are old and leaking anything up to about 60% of the treated water that runs through them. In what way is that the fault of the general public? Are we not paying enough in taxes? Have we not made basic infrastructure a political issue in a while?

I'll take the blame for not asking my politicians about our water supplies in a while. And I will start fixing that right now.

I encourage you all to ask your politicians when exactly the developers will be made fix the pipes that they laid too shallow. Ask what the government is doing about aging water infrastructure, rather than spending millions on water metres (in order to charge us for a service that fell at the first hurdle), could they not simply repair the pipes, saving us half the water consumption with simply maintaining our basic and vital infrastructure.

Notes: 

1. Turning the water off at "night" has also forced people to use electrical appliances that require water (washing machine, dishwasher, electric shower) during peak hours, which puts strain on the electric grid and costs the homeowner a lot more. Residents were also forced to use electric heaters to keep their homes livable. We will be seeing some record ESB bills shortly.
2. For those of you saying, "Stop complaining, think about Haiti". Haitians have been living in squalor for hundreds of years. I understand because of the earthquake and horrific mortality predictions it's suddenly in vogue to tell people off for complaining about anything other than being dead. Listen, I gave. I care. I'm not going to give up fighting crappy standards at home just because suddenly everyone cares about Haiti. If you're still freaking out about Haiti next month, I'll be impressed.
3. I am not going to stop annoying the hell out of any official I can get my hands on until I have a concrete committment to fix my pipes so this does not happen if the temperatures happen to drop below 0c again next year. If you want to help, let me know.