The gays have it. The right to same-sex marriage in South Africa.

I don't usually like to publish stories in their entirety, especially as I don't want to infringe on the rights of newspapers, etc. but the New York Times likes to make it hard to access its stories after about a day unless you sign up with them. I think it is free but I don't want to make you all go through the hassle of this so here is a story from yesterday. I have pasted the link for this story and basically the same one that they put up today. You might recall an entry I posted early last month called "being gay in South Africa" to which this entry is a follow up. Thanks to my father for sending me this article. I guess South Africa is continuing full steam ahead with being one of the most progressive countries in the world.

From NYTimes

November 14, 2006

South African Parliament Approves Gay Marriages

By SHARON LaFRANIERE

JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 14 — South Africa's Parliament overwhelmingly voted today to legalize same-sex marriages, making the nation the first in Africa and the fifth in the world to remove legal barriers to gay and lesbian unions, according to activists.

The legislature voted after the nation's highest court ruled that South Africa's marriages statutes violated the constitution's guarantee of equal rights. The court gave the government a year to amend the legal definition of marriage. That deadline expires in two weeks.

Melanie Judge, program manager for OUT, a gay rights advocacy group, noted that the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada were the only other countries to allow same-sex marriages nationwide. In most African nations, she said, homosexuality is still treated as a crime. Some penalties are stiffer than those for rape or murder..

Ms. Judge credited South Africa's liberal constitution with forcing change.

"This has been a litmus test of our constitutional values," she said in a telephone interview. "What does equality really mean? What does it look like? Equality does not exist on a sliding scale."

Religious groups and traditional leaders strenuously opposed the measure, arguing that if necessary the constitution should be amended to outlaw same-sex unions. But the ruling African National Congress virtually demanded that lawmakers support the bill.

Despite deep divisions within the party, the measure passed 230 to 41. It must now be approved by the Council of Provinces, a quasi-federal chamber, and be signed the president to become law.

Vytjie Mentor, the party's caucus chairman, told the South African newspaper The Sunday Independent earlier this month that he expected legislators belonging to the African National Congress to vote for the measure, regardless of their personal views.

There is "no such thing as a free vote or a vote of conscience," he said. "How do you give someone permission to discriminate in the name of the A.N.C.? How do you allow for someone to vote against the constitution and the policies of the A.N.C., which is antidiscrimination?"

The new law allows both heterosexual and same-sex couples to register their unions either as marriages or civil partnerships. But in a concession to critics, it also allows civil officers to refuse to marry same-sex couples on the basis on conscience. Ms. Judge, the gay rights advocate, predicted that provision will be challenged in court.

"We can't be in the situation where civil officers can decide who they want to marry and who they don't want to marry," she said. "They aren't able to refuse to marry a black person and a white person. This is unconstitutional."

To read this story visit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/world/africa/14cnd-safrica.html?em&ex=1163739600&en=b314cd82710d5160&ei=5087%0A

or for a similar story published today go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/world/africa/15safrica.html?em&ex=1163739600&en=5b3a8ffdf1a6904c&ei=5087%0A

On strike in South Africa with lightening strikes in and around Joburg.

I am quickly writing this entry between thunderstorms as I don’t want anyone to believe I have disappeared. I mentioned how last weekend there was a lot of rain, thunder and lightening and this weekend looks to have more of the same. Lightening can bring about strikes and so can taxi drivers all over South Africa.

What South Africans call a taxi is what Mozambicans would call a chapa, others would call a mini-van or mini-bus and South Africans would also refer to as a combi. Today taxis all over South African joined together in a semi-coordinated effort to strike to show solidarity against a government program to get decrepit, dilapidated and dangerous taxis off the road and replace them with a newer fleet. How this will be done is beyond me as the money for this is not available unless you want to cut government funding to schools, hospitals, roads, etc. plus the support is not there from many of the taxi drivers themselves who claim they can’t afford new or newer taxis. There is a long history in this country of strikes and violence between taxi drivers, motorists, bus drivers and others on the road. Gangs even form between competitors who make money off of transporting people and products. Today, this resulted in gridlock between Johannesburg and Pretoria, attacks on buses near Cape Town and attacks on bus commuters in Durban. This article from IOL.co.za tells more on the events of today. A more detailed article with specifics on the government program to "scrap" old taxis and reimburse the owners can be found at AllAfrica.com, which one again proves to be one of the best sites for news and information about African and stories related to Africa.

On a personal note I almost always used public transport in Mozambique which include many taxis just like those found here in South Africa, in fact many were either stolen or bought here and taken to Mozambique. I know what they mean when they say some of these buses are not roadworthy but on the other hand if the government expects and overnight switch they are not thinking straight plus I am not sure that the state of the taxis is the biggest problem in SA right now. I haven’t had the “pleasure” to ride in taxis in SA and don’t know if/when I will but I know that without them this country would come to a standstill as most people can’t afford their own vehicles especially with the fuel prices here. One of those things where you "can't live with them and also can't live without them."

What do you mean separation of church and state, we are all Christians aren’t we?

Prayers and church songs to begin and close meetings at the NGO, government and business levels seem common place here in South Africa. No one even seems to stop and wonder if there are any Jews, Hindus, Muslims, pagans, animists, agnostics or non religious people in the audience who might not feel comfortable participating in these ceremonious activities. You have to wonder if people who automatically do this are even conscious that there might be people in their midst who don’t feel comfortable taking part in a prayer or church song or whether they are conscious that the possibility exists but figure “we” are in the majority and thus what we want goes. You are probably thinking to yourself that Blake has spoken about being a Christian Scientist on several occasions so why does he really care about this and you are right to remember this I guess I am just more conscious of how things that I or others say or do might be received or perceived by others. Also, I come from a country where church and state are “separated”, at least that is what our founding fathers seem to have intended so to be in South Africa where the line between the two seems more blurred and I honestly don’t even know if there is a rule in place to keep the two apart it is taking some getting used to. I thought of this today while at the Gauteng AIDS Summit 2006 which I mentioned yesterday in my blog and which I will attend again tomorrow and write more about in my blog over the weekend. I gotta run now as I am basically just procrastinating from working on my mid-term report for SIT and should get it done to have free time this weekend as Marcilio should be coming tomorrow to stay till Sunday!

'New News' from Africa - Looking Beyond Death, Disease, Disaster and Despair---an interview with AllAfrica.com well worth reading.

“Charlayne Hunter-Gault, one of the best-known and most award-winning journalists in the United States, has focused her recent career on covering Africa. After nearly two decades as a correspondent for the Newshour on public television, she moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, working successively as Africa correspondent for National Public Radio and CNN bureau chief, before leaving CNN last year to pursue independent projects.”
From 'New News' from Africa - Looking Beyond Death, Disease, Disaster and Despair

The following are some excerpts from an interview that Hunter-Gault did recently with AllAfrica.com on the 6th of October. I would really suggest reading the article as I think it has great insight, perspective, criticism and hope. As she says in the interview I too believe that AllAfrica.com is one of the best sources of news and information on all 54 countries that make up the continent of Africa…that is right Mr. Bush it is not a country. I hope you enjoy the selections below and take the time to read the whole article and I imagine Hunter-Gault’s latest book “New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance.” is well worth reading. Click here to read the interview in its entirety.

“Why do you think that coverage of Africa in major U.S. media is so limited?

I am constantly confounded as to why American media don't find Africa an exciting place to report from and about. I think there's a perception that audience interest is limited. That's certainly not been true in my experience. I lecture on college campuses, before businesses and corporations and other venues around the country. And I always find receptivity to the 'new news' that I bring from Africa. Interest - and ignorance to be sure - because people aren't getting the information they need to understand Africa.

Reporting is dominated by the four 'd's I talk about in the book - death, disease, disaster and despair.

What do you recommend to people in newsrooms who want to bring more "new news" about Africa into the coverage?

They just have to go there. They have to be willing to go there. This is not always glamorous. Everyone wants to come to South Africa, because they can stay in nice hotels and run out to the townships and get a little bit dirty and then come back and take a nice shower in the five-star hotel.”

And near the end of the article Hunter-Gault says:

“The public is very sophisticated. I think that it's unfortunate, in America, that there is this perception that you have to dumb down information in order for people to understand it. That's a wrong perception.”

African Women: Pioneers of change?

It is a good feeling to be able to be so proud of a place where you spent many formative years and with which you really enjoy being associated. For me one such place is my undergrad Principia College, a college for Christian Scientists located on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in Elsah, Illinois. Prin is located on a gorgeous campus with hundreds of acres that the US Air Force once wanted to commandeer to build the Air Force Academy but fortunately it was left to be preserved and conserved for more peaceful and educational purposes. I studied Mass Communications and World Perspectives at Prin and it was during my time there in the spring quarter of my senior year in 2000 that I got to take an abroad to South Africa with 20+ other students, David Winder one of my Mass Comm profs and Bente Morse, Prin’s International Student Coordinator and all around amazing lady. To see more about the abroad you can go to SA Abroad Program website. I think it is awesome that abroads dating back to 99 are still online. The 2002 trip to China, Vietnam and Tibet is worth a look as my sister Ashley was on it along with two friends who were in SA with me in 2000.

Okay so on to the reason for writing this blog I wanted to share about the Pan African Conference that will be held at Prin again this coming weekend. The topic is the subject of this blog “African Women: Pioneers of change?” and I think it should be a great day full of interesting and relevant information gathering and sharing. I think that women really hold the key to Africa’s success and it is up to the men to realize this and give women the credit and power they deserve. It has been my experience in Mozambique and South Africa that women do a lot more good for their family and friends then men. If you happen to be in the area and would like to attend just email me and I will get you in touch with the people who can hook you up with a chance to participate.

I took a weekend off from SIT last fall to go to the conference and was not disappointed. I even got the amazing opportunity of spending most of a day with Paul Rusesabagina the “hero” of Hotel Rwanda. Got to get him from the airport with a Principia employee, have lunch together and talk in the car on the way up to the college. It was an awesome opportunity and I am sure this year’s conference with some amazing speakers including Wangari Maathai who will be the keynote speaker on Saturday night will be great too. Maathai who was one of the originators of “The Green Belt Movement” in Kenya and is the first African women to win the Nobel Prize is an amazing and inspirational leader. She is on the board at SIT and I hope to meet her one day and maybe that day will be when I go to Kenya in January for the World Social Forum. Well, for a college of 550 Christian Scientists located in the rural Illinois countryside I think it is pretty awesome to have an annual event like this one that brings such high caliber of speakers and attendees together to talk about various topics related to Africa.

Being gay in southern Africa.

No, I am not a fan of “yellow journalism” and I don’t approve of sensationalism. Yes, I am in South Africa right now which logically enough is located in southern Africa but I am not homosexual, which probably makes you wonder why I am writing this blog. Well, in the last few months I have had some interesting conversations with coworkers and friends, mostly all male, about the way homosexuality is viewed in South Africa and Mozambique.

It seems that a lot of the discomfort or dislike around the topic of homosexuality comes from lack of knowledge about homoe or direct contact with people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc. Homosexuality is not a topic that I openly discussed with many Mozambicans, if any, while living in Mozambique for 2 ½ years. This goes back to our training with Peace Corps when I clearly remember in one of our sessions being told “we have no problems with your sexuality and you are free to be who you want to be but we highly recommend that if you are gay, lesbian, etc. you keep it to yourself as being this way can be dangerous in Mozambique.” That is right sexuality is not only a taboo topic in Mozambique and to a lesser degree here in South Africa but also one that can be dangerous. Sadly enough this comes as no surprise as I have heard of hate killings around the world that involved homosexuals who were killed due purely to their sexuality.

As I said above homosexuality is a less discussed or known topic in Mozambique than South Africa and I am sure that many Mozambicans who are homosexual or homosexuals that visit Mozambique as tourists or for work would say that outside of the capitol, Maputo, homosexuality is a very taboo topic. It is sad to me that people are not more accepting and loving but we all are entitled to our own beliefs as long as these beliefs don’t hurt others or infringe on others rights. I imagine that in Mozambique especially before “democracy” came while Mozambique had strong links to Communist countries, being gay was particularly unsafe. I heard stories from one friend about a gay Mozambican man who was beaten up by some younger Mozambicans who were tired of his advances and flirting with them. I also heard that two girls in their early 20’s who come from Chókwè, where I lived in Mozambique, have been “dressing and acting like boys” for many years now and while most people who know them seem to have gotten used to it they are still not fully accepted by society.

As for South Africa which boasts one of the most progressive and all inclusive constitutions in the world, and is leaps ahead of the US Constitution, homosexuals are protected. It looks like an amendment will soon be made that legalizes “same-sex marriages”. On December 1^st last year South Africa’s highest court (the Constitutional Court) legalized same-sex marriages but said that Parliament had one year to put everything in place before it became law. Needless to say this is a hot topic here and many people are not happy that South Africa might soon be joining the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada as only the fifth nation in the world to legalize same-sex unions.

I am sure that I will have more information to share on this story over the coming months as I discuss homosexuality with more people. If you want to know more about the situation in South Africa as far as same-sex unions go please read articles from the following sources:

SABC News

Reuters

International Herald Tribune

Famous....in a relative way at least in the blogosphere!

Hello to all of you who are reading this. Today I was honored with a top spot at Billy Mac's blog "Critique My Blog" and at least for the near future will remain there. Billy was really generous to give me the "Critique My Blog is Sponsored by..." space at the top of his blog to promote my blog Ripplefxs. This top spot is normally reserved for paying sponsors so thanks to you Billy for giving me some free advertising for a good cause.

Here is what Billy wrote:

“I had a website I edited up here for a while but in the meantime...until we get some sponsors...I want to post Blake's Blog about his work in South Africa working as an Aids Consultant/Trainer. He left America to help make a difference and has dedicated hi like to a cause and helping others. I think that's fantastic and I'd recommend checking out this blog because I think blogs can spread news and information like wildfire and that's the kind of help blogs can offer. On a personal note...I visited the website for TOPSY and went to donate but the donation was a fixed donation at R1000 ? I was wondering if you could translate that in American Money :) Good luck with your work and hopefully this will send some more traffic your way. Well done and keep us up to date!”

I also want to thank my brother-in-law Nate for alerting me to Critique My Blog. For those of you who don’t know him Nate is a standup comedian and improv specialist in addition to his day job and has a very funny blog called Nate Is a Blog which you must visit.

Finally, for others of you who might be interested in making donations to Topsy like Billy you can visit The Universal Currency Converter to figure out how much your donation in $, €, ₤,¥, or £ will be in R or Rands.

South African Heritage Day and Mozambican Armed Forces Day.

Yesterday, September 25^th, was a holiday in South Africa and Mozambique. In South Africa Heritage Day was the 24^th but it was observed yesterday and yesterday, the 25^th, in Mozambique was a holiday for Armed Forces Day. I spent yesterday at the Funda Community Center in Diepkloof, Soweto as a guest invited to watch song, dance, drama, photography and other presentations by a youth group called "The Learning Together Project" who has spent the past few months learning about, debating and celebrating the South African Constitution which turns 10 years old on December 5^th. This group mostly made up of teenage students along with adult leaders first started meeting at Constitution Hill and after a number of meetings there moved to Funda Community Center, where I took part in the celebrations yesterday. I hope to join this group in October after the school holiday this week and work with them as the discuss topics such as racism, education, violence and gender relations and use art forms such as dance, photography, acting and music to ponder these issues and communicate messages. I took few photographs but my friend Iqbal who invited me to the event was the official photographer and thus I hope to get some images from him that I can share with you. I hope to write more about this group in future blog entries.

As for Mozambican Armed Forces day and other national holidaysI think anyone who has spent a significantamount of time in Mozambique, traveled the country a bit and knows some of the names of schools, towns or streets would be able to easily tell you the dates of some of the holidays in Mozambique. From Maputo, the capitol, to Chókwè, where I lived, there is a town called 3 de Fevreiro and I know of schools named 25 de Junio and streets like 7 de Setembro.

To learn more about holidays in South Africa you can visit http://africanhistory.about.com/library/bl/blsaholidays.htm. For more information on the historical significance throughout Africa of days of the year you can visit AfricanHistory.about.com. Also to see what other holidays are observed in Mozambique you can visit the Mozambican Embassy website.

Don’t forget or underestimate the little guys….

In trying to think stay politically correct and sensitive on this 11^th of September, 2006, I have decided to avoid (for the most part) the topic on the minds of many today. Instead, I will focus on a place that has captivated me for many years and which I hope to visit sometime in the next year, assuming I can afford it and the situation between Cuba and the US does not deteriorate any further. The pressure I feel is to visit before Fidel Castro dies or is killed to see Cuba in as “authentic” a state as is possible. Before McDonald's and other corporate goons are able to move in I want to go and see Cuba for myself. I am tired of the biased news we get in the US on the situation and the Cuban immigrant community especially in Miami greatly influences US foreign policy towards Cuba much like the Jewish lobby does towards the Mid-East.

In striving to be a beacon for news and information that you might not get from the usual sources you rely upon I want to share about an important event taking place this week in Cuba which you may not have heard about. The Fourteenth Non-Aligned Movement Summit is taking place in Havana this week. The summit brings together 116 countries from around the world including 53 from Africa, 38 from Asia, 24 from Latin America and 1 from Europe plus representatives from other countries that are not yet members of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM). Some of what is being discussed in Cuba has ties to what we will be discussing at the World Social Forum when I go to Nairobi in late January. The “little people” as many seem to view the world poor mainly living in underdeveloped countries have a very big stake to play in how our world is run and their voices should not be forgotten.

Visit the Non-Aligned Movement site or read related articles at Prensa Latina which is a Latin American information agency based in Cuba. I find that this site has some good alternative news to that which you find at other sources and like Aljazeera.net provides "another side to the story” which is a good thing to have. I will write more later on Cuba as I have come across many other interesting articles that I wish to share.

Training in Tembisa and the CD4 Game.

This is a picture taken last Saturday by Marcilio when he and I were watching/participating in a training that Ben was leading for a church group in a schools assembly hall in Tembisa. To the right is Ben wearing a tie again and overseeing the CD4 Game. We hand out t-shirts with words on them such as Human Body, CD4 (the normal CD4 count for a person is between 800 and 1200 and for people with HIV and AIDS it drops over time and when it goes below 200 that individual has AIDS. It is at this point that one is advised if the have the access to and can afford to take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs)) TB (tuberculosis), STI (sexually transmitted infection), diarrhea, flu and other opportunistic diseases and infections. These diseases and infections can have minor or major effects to people without HIV and AIDS but can be deadly to those with HIV and AIDS. The idea is that the four people with CD4 t-shirts are asked to protect the human body and then when time passes and the CD4 cells begin to die off they leave the human body unprotected one by one. Eventually there are not enough CD4s to adequately protect the body and this is when people will die from a variety of diseases.

This is a game that we play during our peer educator trainings and did with this group as well. It is a good way to get people up and moving around and show them a visual representation of a concept that they are learning about. The group had 17 participants most in their late teens and early twenties and a few elders of the church too. It was a basic information and awareness session but the group hopes to invite us back to do a more complete training so that they can spread the "word" on HIV and AIDS throughout their congregation and community. It was also great for Marcilio to be able to attend and learn more about HIV and AIDS. He was very interested in the training and would like to learn more so he can do peer educator work in South Africa and Mozambique.

More pics of my place....

Here is the office from the outside which I showed a few weeks back when showing pictures from around the property where the Smiths live and ETC is housed. This is the office where I work and live and try not to go stir crazy. My room (which you will see pictures of below is in a loft above the office.

In front of you is Ben’s desk to the left, the stairs that head up to my room/the loft and to the right past the stairs is my desk. Past the stairs and to the right is the kitchen and to my front and then left (in front of Ben’s desk) is Linzi’s office and the bathroom.

Here is Ben sitting at his desk and working hard for sure. Ben is always dressed up whether in the office or out training or doing sales.

Here are Ben's and my desks looking from the door that goes into Linzi's office. On the wall you above my laptop you can just barely make out a women chopping wood with a baby on her back. This is the infamous photo taken by Lazaro Chauke my photography student in Mozambique. He took it while participating in The World Through My Eyes and it was featured in the August section of the 2006 calendar put out by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group in Madison, Wisconsin. Marcilio also has a picture on this page but it is a smaller one. It was so great to have it up in August and the June page had two great pics from Tanzania my father and my sister!

Now lets go up the steep and small steps to my room.....be careful not to hit your head.

Here is my bedroom in the loft above the office. You may be saying to yourself nice room and I agree but.....

not necessarily a lot of headroom in my bedroom. That is right I would need about another foot at least to be able to stand up in my room. Yes, I am tall but the ceiling is low and at its highest is just over five feet high.

From my room/loft you get a view of Douglas at his desk working hard or playing cards....he loves Solitaire.

Heading back down the stairs and going under them we get to the kitchen where I fix my 5 Star meals. I do my own cooking and can’t believe how many more options I have here to when I was in Mozambique but yet I still love some of the special dishes from there and most of the fruits and veggies from there were better in my assessment.

Leaving the kitchen and walking across the office we come into Linzi’s office off of which we can get to the bathroom. Linzi has two big dry erase boards on the wall...

of the office which serve as an oversized calendar to help us keep track of coming trainings, sales calls, etc. She only had one when I first arrived and has added another since. I guess my presence has brought in so much business that we are always busy writing on the wall. j/k

I would have put a picture of Linzi here but she is rarely in the office as she is usually out training, doing sales calls, giving a talk or running errands. She is a busy women but in her absence I have elected to put another picture of Douglas so you can our resident Rhodesian...um I mean Zimbabwean up close. Doug was born in Zim but has been in South Africa for over 20 years now.

Finally turning to my left and taking a picture looking out of the windows by Doug’s desk you see his fountain, car and Jared’s car. I will post other pictures taken in and around the area tomorrow.