It's time

What a difference a day makes…

President-elect Barack Hussein Obama... That has a nice ring to it don’t you think? He’s also got a damn good looking family that we’ll be forced to look at for the next 4 years. The fact that his speeches get millions of people fired up, energized and in tears (as we saw Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey do in Chicago) and he helped prove that the generational apathy for politics is no longer true! We've got real change coming. Florida even voted blue.

The feeling overseas has been amazing folks. I stayed up all night with some other American friends in Mozambique. We bought some food, made tacos and drinks and celebrated all night. Even before we new the result. It was a little weird that Mozambique is in the middle of their first ever local elections so we had a bit of a local election ferver ourselves. However, the most beautiful moment came when the campaign was called. There were 7 of us at the party and we all had our cell phones out. All of these started ringing and sending through text messages. I got 20 messages in the first 15 minutes only 8 of which were from overseas. The most wonderful was from a good friend of mine in Homoine. Here is his text verbatim in English (he's an English Teacher)

"Congratulations my friend. That's a sea of change for USA and 4 u guys. I am watching it and we are all American today. I am feeling as an American and wish you my friend to Enjoy CELEBRATE IT!"

Wow, okay there is a little work to be done but he speaks English. When I got in to work today (They gave me yesterday off to celebrate) everyone gave me a massive hug and one woman had tears in her eyes. I'm getting choked up about it again. There were shouts of VIVA OBAMA! when I walked into the office today. My inbox was full of congrats emails from the UK to Guatemala, to Australia all extolling the situation we have created in America. I've heard on numerous occasions throughtout my 3 years in Mozambique that a black man could never be president of America. It is a wonderful feeling to realize that ONE CAN!!!! But we need to stop realizing that the color of the skin has any importance. Obama has cool policies. I'll talk about that another time. I am overjoyed but also a bit saddened about what went on in America. California, Arizona, Arkansas and Florida should be ashamed of themselves.

I've found this quote from Thomas Jefferson. A founder of our country. Someone who's views of democracy I still admire greatly.

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression." - Thomas Jefferson

WOULD BE OPPRESSION. That is what these laws are. If States want to outlaw gay marriage then they must outlaw interracial marriage, they must outlaw inter religious marriage they must treat eveyone fairly. Imagine a law saying that it was illegal for little Felix to be born? Let me put in another quote from Madiba (Nelson Mandela)

In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.
In the absence of these safeguards the phrase 'equality before the law', in so far as it is intended to apply to us, is meaningless and misleading. All the rights and privileges to which I have referred are monopolised by whites, and we enjoy none of them. The white man makes all the laws, he drags us before his courts and accuses us, and he sits in judgement over us. - Nelson Mandela 1962

This is equality before the LAW. Marriage has nothing to do with wanting to see one's partner in the hospital after a car accident. Marriage has nothing to do with what most of us want. Is it wrong to want the simple legal rights of almost every one of your friends? Imagine the feeling if your husband or wife were dying in the hospital and you couldn't say good bye. Who has the right to deny this personal moment between two men or two women. Religion is something between God and the person. It is the MOST PERSONAL of experiences someone can have. My religion taught me that I should love my neighbor, emulate Christ and help others. How can a ban on marriage be an emulation of Christ? After all, didn't God make every single one of us?

I personally have finally come to terms with myself as a gay man. It took a long time and took me moving to the other side of the world to see a soceity where it is even less accepted than in my own country. I firmly believe that God still loves me because I've done nothing wrong. I believe in some way he made me and if I were to deny my sexuality I would be defying his word. To all of you who read this I apologize for the public forum but I'm tired of making excusses because this is who I am. I haven't changed, my concious self has just clicked into gear. Now, what I want to ask, most of you that read this have known me my entire life, know that my parents didn't "raise me gay", know that I've been a faithful church-goer for the majority of my life and have told me that you love me like a son/brother etc., would you deny me the right to have a family, have a partner and be able to live my life the way I want to. You know I would never harm another, you know I would only wish the best for another. So please, search your heart and see if little Eenie Man really merits denial of basic human rights...

3 years working for the betterment of my country and this is some of the repayment. We CANNOT let this go Federal!

Thank you very much for reading this and please if you disagree in anyway, I will readily listen to anything you have to say.

FOR ALL

This is the text of a letter from Nelson Mandela (the best politician EVER ANYWHERE!) to Barack Obama (keeping my fingers crossed.)

Dear Senator Obama,

We join people in your country and around the world in congratulating you on becoming the President-Elect of the United States. Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.

We note and applaud your commitment to supporting the cause of peace and security around the world. We trust that you will also make it the mission of your Presidency to combat the scourge of poverty and disease everywhere.

We wish you strength and fortitude in the challenging days and years that lie ahead. We are sure you will ultimately achieve your dream making the United States of America a full partner in a community of nations committed to peace and prosperity for all.

Sincerely,

N R Mandela


Reading this, I thought back to when the Apartheid regime let Mandela out of jail in 1990. Now they started working on the constitution of the Rainbow Nation of South Africa. Mandela said equality must be there for ALL. Blacks, whites, coloureds, indians, gays, straights, Zulu, Swazi... you get the idea ALL.

We in America have something that our children say everday for the first 12 years of their educational lives. It goes something like this.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all."

Most people fight for the under God or the indivisible to be struck away. I'm just never going to say it again until I can say it and not feel like a liar. If there is one thing my church has taught me it is to not lie and to love thy neighbor.

All those people out there who appose gay rights, do you appose my rights?

Little Side Note

Lot's of stuff has been happening but I just want to say EVEN MY DOG got caught up in Obamania and gave birth to a litter of 7 on election night. I think one should be called Obama no?

Public Service Announcement

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes California,
Hawaii, Oregon,Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the
Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the
slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get
Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom...or what's left of it.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and
entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the
red states finally pay their fair share.

Since the Blue State aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent
lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy
families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that we will be pro-choice and anti- war,
and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals.
They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths
for no real purpose, and they don't care if you don't show
pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success
in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to
spend our resources on Bush's Quagmire any longer.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of
80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90
percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh
fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve beer
at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the
high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living
redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven
Sister schools, plus Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Tech, Chicago,
Madison, Michigan, and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to
cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected
health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100
percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of
all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all
televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the
University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. Additionally, 38
percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually
swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're
discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that
evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11
and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people with
higher morals then we lefties.

Peace out,

Blue States

LIFE IS A JOURNEY.
ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW AND ENJOY THE BREEZE

This is something I got emailed! I LOVE the emails turning to "we lefties" 's favor now. But the thing I loved the best was the cheesy quote at the end. It couldn't be more true. Enjoy the breeze and no one has any right to take the breeze away from ANYBODY ELSE!

Election Update

Some people will be blogging minute by minute. unfortunately I can't do that. So check back here tomorrow for happiness or sadness. I will be staying up all night tonight and hoping for the best.

GOBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please???

VIVA AMERICA.... I hope

It’s not just Election Day in America, there are some political happenings here too, things that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the streets of East Berlin in the 1980’s. Mozambique has been under the control of FRELIMO since the day of independence, first because all other options were outlawed and then finally now because they own so much of the country, no one would be stupid enough to vote them out of power. But I’m not going to preach my views on them. I’ll do that when I’m NOT in the country anymore. I just want to give “ya’ll” a taste of what it is looking like around here.

I went for a quick errand run right before I’m sending this – just a walk to the central market to by some credit for my phone. I took a wide arc around the main square of town, trying to avoid the fist pumping VIVA FRELIMO! cries and went to get my weekly $4 of credit. The town is COVERED in red pamphlets, flyers, posters, bunting, you name it of FRELIMO and I saw 2 opposition posters, one of which was partially torn off the lamp post. You see, Mozambique has never really had anything but a presidential election before and they’ve only had 3 of those. 33 years of independence, one election about every 11 years! We’re on the right track! This year, people are voting for the mayors of towns, the provincial governors, the provincial assemblies right on down to comptroller. I’m joking about that last part, I don’t even really now what a comptroller does. But everyone is very excited about it – or very excited to get the free ruby red FRELIMO PARTIDO DO PAZ tees, I really can’t tell. The eerie thing is that people are in the back of pickups, going around town yelling different slogans and waving banners and flags around… something I want to avoid.

However, talk to me tomorrow, because if O wins tonight, I may just shout AMERICA OYE!!!!

Found this

My sister sent me this link about the link between John McCain and RENAMO. I just can’t believe the pure gall of this man who wants to accuse Obama of supporting terrorists? I’m sparing you all the decription of the massacre and pictures I’ve seen. People in the town said the 436 is the number of bodies found those that were there say it was closer to 1000. It all happened in the course of 10 hours. So 100 people died an hour…

How can we break this into the main stream news and show people that voting for McCain is just a BAD idea?

I have this colleague

His name is Joe, well not really but you get the picture. Anyway, his official job title is “PROGRAM COORDINATOR.” That should include the implementation, managing and oversight of all the HIV and personal health programs this NGO runs. But in all honesty, it constitutes CONSTANTLY sending text messages, playing marathon spider solitaire and looking up pornography on the internet. So the big boss started cracking down and is sending him to a provincial wide health workers meeting in the capital city of Inhambane. He has to write a report now for the meeting. Yesterday he sat down on my desk and said, Ian, can you do this for me? I said I could help him and wouldn’t do it alone. Now today he is not talking to me. Oh well…. Am I wrong?

Sorry about yesterday.

I’m sorry I ranted and raved yesterday. I’m going to be pretty glad when this election is over. It seems to just get me so fired up that all I do is complain about something or someone. I feel sorry for all of my family and friends who are in the States right now. I can’t imagine what it must be like to see this campaign smearing everywhere you go.

This whole thing with McCain and RENAMO really got me angry though. July 18^th 1987 was the worst massacre that happened in the Mozambican civil war. I’ve been to 2 memorial service for it and people are still talking about it as if it were yesterday. RENAMO was able to kill “officially” kill 436 people. Truthfully the number is closer to 1,000. Here are some pictures from the 20^th anniversary of the attacks.

The 350 people buried there are the bodies that were deemed "whole enough" to merrit burial under traditional beliefs and could be identified. They mention the hospital in the articles where RENAMO started killing bed ridden patients and pregnant mothers. I’ve gotten treated for malaria at the hospital. There is a little shrine in the hospital with NEVER AGAIN written over it. Hopefully it will never happen again. McCain stood up in congress and said that RENAMO was a wonderful organization that was fighting “godless communists” FRELIMO. I’m not condoning FRELIMO by any means. But they were most definitely the lesser of two evils. I mean Regan, the biggest ANTI-communist of them all even had Samora Machel at the White House. Let’s not even talk about the Bush connections to the Saudis.

Please, let’s show the world that America can change and we won’t be the school yard bully. This is the first time I have seen first hand and felt personally the effects of some blunder of the idiots in congress who think patriotism is about killing anyone who gets in the way of the American way. My best friend in Homoine lost his father in that massacre and even though I was 5 at the time (so was he) I feel ashamed that a possible future president of my country had supported the people that killed his father…

PS

I've been reading and rereading the article about RENAMO's connection to John McCain and realized that my town features in the article.

They "killed bedridden hospital patients and chanted political slogans while killing children" in July of 1987 in what was later found to be a typical attack on a village; an American aid worker witnessed these attacks and they were thus widely reported.

I went to the 20th anniversary of this massacre. I met the American aid worker and had some beers with her. It occured in Homoine and my friends who live there are still feeling the after effects. This man is demented, should retire and let us rebuild America before he destroys it more.

I've been to this hospital and have seen people with the scars from this attack from a group he wanted to talk too. I'm getting so aggravated right now so all I c an say is John McCain

SHUT UP!

Selective Senses

There's this woman in my life that tends to teach me more than she ever thinks imaginable. One thing I always remember though that used to drive me crazy was her selective senses. She used to say that she had selective hearing if I asked for something that I couldn't have as a child. I've noticed that John McCain may be suffering from selective memory and I idolize the HuffingtonPost for pointing that out to us all. That website is so gloriously left wing I love it. Anyway, it's pretty general knowledge that America went around the world and funded the anti-communist movements in various countries. I've personally met some of the former "communists" and former "rebels" here in Mozambique and during University when I traveled to Nicaragua. Personally I couldn't be happier that Daniel Ortega is currently the president of Nicaragua. But I'm diverting what I wanted to write here. Read this article in the Huffpost about RENAMO and our dear friend John McCain. He really should think about his selective memory if he wants to accuse Obama of being a terrorist when he was 8. After all, he was in his 50's when most likely financially supported a group that raped, pillaged, and killed for 16 LONG years - the effects of which are still felt here today in Maxixe. So I beg all the Americans reading this... let's practice OUR selective memory and forget that the Republican Party even exists right now. They've screwed us over so hard let's send them into the shadows next week!

You best be believing that I will be up watching the debates. I've done it before and I'm going to buy the bottle of champagne that's offered here in Moz to make sure I can either celebrate a historic change or drown my fears in cheap alcohol. I truely hope it's the former.

Sorry

Hello all,

Sorry for the absence. Life has been rather busy and yet again my work didn't pay their internet bill. I'm currently in Maputo just having taken the GRE for school. I spent my birthday out at the beach and was able to send in my application to Monterey Institute in California. Please keep your fingers crossed that I one get in and two get a high enough score on the GRE for the school to let me in even though the GRE is not "required" there it is only "reccomended." I just wanted to say I'm alive and will blog more in 10 tens after OBAMAMANIA climaxes.

keep your fingers crossed for that too.

Professional Jealousy

Mag always told me about it, but I've only begun to understand it now. I've got a pretty dull job here at the office. I basically press buttons all day because all of the office equipment is in English and people are too scared to learn English. 400 years of colonialists saying "YOU'RE STUPID, YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING!" can have that effect on you though. :( Anyway, I took it upon myself and taught people the internet and computer. They now queue up to check their email, which they've given to no one, feign upset when nothing is in the box, take pictures with an ancient digital camera in front of the same wall and send them to each other - which takes an hour with this internet connection.

Come on people, I've got important things to do on the internet... like write this blog for example!!!!

:O)

Some Thoughts

My brother and I have been talking in spits and spats about the economic crisis in America. This was one of his responses, and I thought it was amazingly to the point.

It is true that fear paralyzes. And having fear means you don't get anything done. Make the population scared and you keep them in check and they give you blank checks. It is a shame that the bailout passed. Privatize profit, socialize loss. Bad recipe. They are already saying that the 700billion is like a "pebble in the ocean"

and it hasn't even been aw eek! the guy they put in charge of the bailout plan is 35 years old and a former investment banker. Lots of confidence there! What is it going to be like when we have a depression and still have circuit city, walmart, target and all that? The master slave relationship of hyper-capitalism will be even more apparent.

To those who pay attention of course.

Any thoughts?

Money Money Money

Quoting ABBA when thinking about the future third world banana republicness of my country is not normal, but then again nothing is normal right now it seems.

Must be funny in a rich man's world. It must be funny because they see 9/10's of the world slaving away for almost nothing. I thought this economic bailout plan would be good, but wait hold on a second. They are losing too much money to really trust themselves to make loans to each other. However, these wall street people have earned 700 billion extra dollars since Bush came into power. Spend that to bail yourselves out!!

I know Michael Moore whine alot, but he makes good points. I wouldn't want too see this country run by the rich at the expense of the poor. I don't care if I sound communist. The country is run by the government any way.



Oh yeah, here's the link

Here it goes!!!!!!

Africa so graciously reminded me today that I'm not in the clear. I've got one more southern summer to suffer through. (or at least half way through before I travel up north and freeze in Europe.) On my way to work today, I broke a sweat. Now I'm not saying a nice little cooling persperation, I looked like I got a bucket of water dumped on me. Not a nice way to show up to work!!! When I went out to get my lunch, round two of the super soaker look came about. I was waiting for my egg sandwich to be cooked (10 meticais little piece of greasy heaven) and watching the new channel we just got in Maxixe called Miramar. There was a Brazilian Oprah Winferey show on - could tell me the accent. I just wanted to know how old it was because the models in the show were modeling scarves and 'winter wear!' I love weird randomness in life, but this was just too much to deal with. I think everyone in the deli thought I was insane.

I am!


P.S. Not looking forward to the walk home. Round three....

What makes it all worth it…?

Many times over the past 3 years I’ve wondered what I’m exactly doing here – especially when I’m pulling my hair out over the problem of the day. It’s gotten so “bad” my hair just falls out on its own now…I think that’s the lariam though. Anyway, I re-found this piece of paper that a competitor from my theatre project wrote for me. He wrote this saying this is what theatre means to him. I’ll write it first in Portuguese and then translate it.

O Teatro e um lugar de exaltação, misterio e liberdade. Um lugar onde a gente pode sentir o que não compreendemos: amor, sofrer, rir e chorar. É para fingir avontade, mascarar-se, declamar, correr atras dos outros e perder invariavelmente no confusão das lonas e armações.

Theatre is a place of exaltation, mistery and freedom. A place where people can feel what we don’t understand: love, suffering, laughing and crying. We can pretend to our heart’s desire, mask our real selves, suspend our disbelief and entertain. It is a place to lose ourselves in the canvases and warehouses of creativity.

It makes a lot more sense in Portuguese, but I just thought…. Yeah! I Influenced somebody…

Nationalization?

8 years. To an eight year old that is a long time. To the rest of us who have lived from 2000 to 2008 it's been a hell of a long time too. Hopefully we are learning. I just wanted to say something very quickly about the bailouts going on at home now. Viewed at from over here, it sure looks like nationalization. The United States has a GDP on roughly 13 trillion dollars. We're number #1! Our government has recently bought out 850 billion dollars of that. All of this can be found out on Google. I'm not making up the numbers. So one of the bigger stockholders in our economy is Uncle Sam. So maybe the 25th of September should become a holiday in America. The Day of Nationalizations. It's a holiday here. June 24th. It's a damn good holiday too.

Please don't think I'm saying America is doing things wrong. Trust me, after living here in Mozambique for 3 years I've come to love America. She does a lot of things right! I'm just hoping and praying and begging that we get our collective heads out of our asses and off our high horses thinking that the US way is the best way and only way. We get alot of things right, but we get ALOT of things wrong too. I'm just laughing, because it's seems to my eyes that America is having to save herself by dying her wool with the slightest hint of the newest red socialist. Lady Liberty is putting on the Little Red Riding Hood cape as she goes off to the free market. What's really wrong with that? This ain't Regeanism of the 1980's. Time's change and the only thing we're number one at anymore is (military) spending.

Don't we need something we can be proud of?

51st State

Okay, there are many jokes about Canada, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel etc... being the 51st state of America. But I just found an article that says otherwise. I've been doing some research and the voting population of America is roughly 215 million people. However, that the amount of Americans who are over 18. 75 % are actually registered to vote. That's 161 million people. But people who actually vote (because in our wonderfully enigmatic governing practices, voting is on a TUESDAY!) is about 57% of that number. So the grand total of 92 million people actually decide who "the leader of free world" Scary thought huh? But maybe an extra 4 million can make a difference.

200!!!!!!!!

SO in the spirit of my 200th post I thought I'd go WAY deep.

Enjoy!

So I was watching this movie I really love last night called SAVED! It is such a light and fluffy but hilarious movie. I was surprised how much I liked some of the writing. I pulled out some of the quotes. Having just finished this book called INFIDEL by a former Dutch MP, I’ve started thinking about religion a lot recently. What does religion mean to me? Can I really call myself Catholic since I’m by my very nature against much of what the Vatican decrees? Is religion about submission to a higher power or a conversation with it? I’m going to list the quotes now and give a slight explanation of them all. Enjoy, I know I am.

This (the bible) is not a weapon… YOU IDIOT!!!!

This is after the main character gets a bible thrown at her in an effort to “save her soul.” The Bible/Quran/Torah as a weapon… discuss….

You’re not born a gay, you’re born again.

I beg to differ…

Burn in hell you narrow minded tacky ass bitch!!!!

The only “Jewish” at an evangelical Christian school (who is actually the most “Christian” of them all) is yelling at this Bible thumping cheer leader who repeatedly tried to force JC upon her. Why is it that some of the most outwardly religious people are some of the narrowest minded?

You have everything…. What are you afraid of?!?!

A brother talking to his sister in the movie. I thought this could pertain to Americans right now too. After living will all this fear, I think it’s time to realize that as a country, we do have everything… so what is it that we are actually afraid of?

I know in my heart that Jesus still loves me!

The gay ex boyfriend of the main character who happened to get her pregnant in a effort to “cure his gayness.” This just says it all to me. Religion is about the feelings you have in your heart and not what you are told from outside influences. It’s all fine and good to do things in a group (we all love company) but without it coming from the heart, it’s empty.

No one fits in 100% of the time!

‘nuf said, could it be more obvious?

Why did God make us so different if he wanted us to be the same?

Really good question no? I mean how boring would it be if we were all black, white, yellow, or green. If we were all the same religion how would we get to experience wonderful feasts like EID or Seders? So I’m thinking we should get off each others backs and just let other people ‘do their thing.’ We can still think they are weird and strange though because what else would we have to talk about?

I think the Peace Corps needs to caution on some of their literature. We think we sign up for this to change the world and help others. I’m beginning to realize that it’s the world (Mozambique) that has changed and helped me.