‘Democracy is not Coca-Cola’

27 Nov, 2022 - 00:11 0 Views
‘Democracy is not Coca-Cola’

The Sunday Mail

What a sumptuous football feast we are being served by the small desert country of Qatar.

Although it has a population of nearly three million, only slightly above 300 000 are actually Qatari, with the remainder being expatriates.

This oil-rich Persian Gulf country, whose economic output is estimated at over US$180 billion, is clearly stupendously rich, and has splurged an eye-watering US$300 billion to create a surreal theatre for an extravagant football bonanza.

And, boy oh boy, what a show it is turning out to be!

The magic that is being conjured on the football fields of the Arabian Peninsula is there for all to see.

If the Anglo-Saxon media so much had an ounce of decency, it ought to be ashamed of itself for the ill-willed, shameful, xenophobic and outright racist campaign to sully the reputation of the Qatari as corrupt brutes who had little or no regard for human rights and freedom.

For the Anglo-Saxon media, the West is best and blessed, while the East — or any other part of the world for that matter — is worst and cursed.

It is an age-old binary and racist world view born out of an incorrigible and misbegotten superiority complex that regards the West’s ideals, language, norms, values, culture and beliefs as supposedly civilised and universal.

One person who was not buying this bullcrap was an incensed FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who felt slighted, attacked and sullied by the incessant attacks on the world’s football mother body’s stance to stand by the decision to hold this showcase in a country that unstintingly insisted on the observance of its culture, ideals and values, which are considered uncomfortable by the West.

With the World Cup being held in the Middle East for the first time, the idea of bowing and bending to the strictures of Muslim culture proved to be an unpalatable and repugnant proposition for the hedonistic West.

However, at a press conference on the eve of the tournament, a fed-up Infantino was having none of that, and he naturally blew his gasket.

“We are told many, many lessons from some Europeans, from the Western world. I am European, not that I feel European. I think for what we Europeans have been doing for the last 3 000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3 000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people,” he said.

And he was right.

People who have enslaved other races, even their own, for centuries have no moral right to lecture the world about human rights.

People who have pillaged our nations and looted resources — both human and natural — have no moral right to lecture the world about integrity.

People who commercialise pornography and openly sell it have no moral right to lecture the world about decency.

People who have killed millions around the world and continue to sponsor war and unrest in other countries and continents have no moral right to lecture the world about peace.

They have done this, and more, but are yet to apologise for these egregious acts of commission.

Despite the relentless attacks, the Qatari have been unbowed, unflinching, steadfast, firm and assertive.

Earlier this year, Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari, who is chairperson of Qatar’s National Counterterrorism Committee at the Ministry of Interior, and the director of the Department of International Cooperation, indicated that the country “cannot change the religion for 28 days of the World Cup”.

And during the opening ceremony of the tournament, Doha also had a fitting response that was relayed through a dialogue between American actor Morgan Freeman and Qatari youth Ghanim Al Muftah, which was cast to symbolically represent a dialogue between the West and the East.

“With tolerance and respect, we can live together under one roof,” said Ghanim Al Muftah in his conversation with Freeman.

Sadly, some media houses in the West such as the BBC chose to black out the opening ceremony.

And yet they talk about media freedom and freedom of speech.

These are the same folks who summarily and arbitrarily yanked Russia news channel Russia Today (RT) off air because they did not want their people to be exposed to alternative views and narratives.

Hypocrites!

However, despite the strictures of Qatari society, football fans are seemingly having a whale of a time and the tournament has clearly been a roaring success thus far.

Universal values

But it was the hoity-toity and patronising attitude of the West, which hypocritically tried to foist “its” values on the world as universal, that could not escape Bishop Lazi’s attention.

While we are constantly lectured that embracing lesbians, bisexuals, the transgender and queer is the hallmark of observing human rights, the same values are still contested in their own societies.

The National Crime Victimisation Survey (NCVS), an annual survey collected by the US Census Bureau, indicates that the LGBTQ community is still being victimised in the US, often violently, because of their sexual orientation.

In October this year, the Republicans introduced a Bill that would prohibit federal money being used to teach children under 10 about LGBTQ issues.

Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson, who introduced the Bill, notably indicated: “The Democrat party and their cultural allies are on a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology . . . This common-sense Bill is straightforward. No federal tax dollars should go to any federal, state, or local government agencies, or private organisations that intentionally expose children under 10 years of age to sexually explicit material.”

So, if the Americans themselves consider this “radical gender ideology”, then why the hell are they on a crusade to preach these values to the world?

Russia has since drawn the line.

Its parliament, the Duma, passed a law that effectively prohibits “LGBT propaganda”.

It is meant to protect its values, society and children.

Not many people know that while we have a proliferation of Western-sponsored NGOs and civic organisations patronisingly teaching people about the evils of child marriages and sexual abuse, these societies need these organisations more than us.

Did you know that child marriage — provided that both parties to the marriage are below 18 — is currently still legal in 43 of the 50 states in the US?

In fact, there is actually a child marital exception for statutory rape.

It is the same with abortion and the death penalty.

American society is presently split in the middle when it comes to debate on the legalisation of abortion, while more than 16 people have been executed through the death penalty in the US so far this year.

So, the West has so much to learn about decency, integrity, human rights and peace from us, not the other way round.

We must be wary of hypocrites.

Luke 12:1 says: “Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He (Jesus) began saying to His disciples first of all, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.’”

Matthew 23:23 adds: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

It is only that our societies are surrounded by and immersed in the Anglo-Saxon media’s contrived rosy perception of their societies and world, which is far from the truth.

Own path

It is the same with politics, where the West intends to foist its political ideologies and values as universal.

The world’s cultures, norms values are varied, diverse and peculiar to societies.

Last year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had to remind the US to desist from trying to model the rest of the world in its own  image.

Speaking to the US Council on Foreign Relations on April 23, 2021, Wang said: “Democracy is not Coca-Cola, which, with the syrup produced by the United States, tastes the same across the world. The world will be lifeless and dull if there is only one single model and one single civilisation.” Kikikiki.

Bishop Lazarus once told you about the interesting treatise by Ghanaian philosopher Professor Kwasi Wiredu who, in his work “Cultural Universals and Particulars”, argues that “consensual democracy” was a better means of decision-making process than “majoritarian democracy” in traditional African life and governance, as it takes care of minority interests and also permits substantive representations.

So, naturally, Zimbabwe will chart its own path guided by the peculiarities of its society, history, norms, values, traditions and circumstances.

It will also similarly make laws to safeguard its own sovereignty and national interest.

The Patriot Act, which will be ensconced and encapsulated in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, is instructive.

There should be hell to pay for those who wish Zimbabwe ill.

And, like Qatar, Zimbabwe will remain unbowed, unflinching, steadfast, firm and assertive.

Bishop out!

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