Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, pm@pmo.gov.bd

Re: Bangladesh: Immediately release illegally arrested gay men by police

Dear Prime Minister,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

I have been informed regarding an alarming situation by Boys of Bangladesh, popularly known as BoB, is the oldest and the largest network of self-identified Bangladeshi gay men from home and abroad. Based in Dhaka, this non-registered, non-funded and non-formal group is run by a pool of volunteers.

I came to know that three gay men were illegally arrested by Bangladesh in Sylhet. While Bangladeshi young gay men Sumon, Jakir and British citizen Alen were enjoying their time in a hotel in Sylhet, the Kotwali police breach the privacy and illegally detained them in custody.

I have been informed by local sources that police have physically and mentally tortured Sumon and Jakir upon arrest.

The kotwali have filed a case against british citizen Alen and charged under Section 377A of BPC, for adult homosexual sex acts with Sumon and Jakir.

I want to remind you this 377A is an unconstitutional law and against the basic human rights and breach the inspiration of the constitution.

I am really concern with this inhuman law the three innocent men may be punished with fines and/or up to 10 years, sometimes life imprisonment.

I want to remind you that this law is inhuman and against the inspiration of our constitution:

• Part II Article 19 – Promises equal opportunity for all citizens.
• Part III Article 27- Promises equality before the law for all citizens.

I also want to remind you that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to enjoy their human rights.

I urge you to prosecute the kotwali police who are involved in human rights violations by arresting the three young men who identify them as gay and the police based on sexual orientation or gender identity arrested them because they are different from them, please bring the perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice.

I also urge you to take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to prohibit and eliminate prejudicial treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity at every stage of the administration of justice;

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

Global warming is real, there are clear evidences, but not everyone believes. Geoengineering, a scientific answer that offer temporary solutions, to prevent temperature rise of the earth to an irreversible level, is facing opposition because of its risks. Gay rights in our present world is touchy, many are revealing, expecting acceptance, for further legalization.

The trine have evolved in new ways that may not have been projected half a century ago. Scientists are shrieking the reality of global warming, people and communities are ravaged by climate change, geoengineering is increasingly seen as adoptable, and the sitting US President and his Vice, have voiced support for gays –- broadly Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

Gay and sexuality is an area that can spark outrage, or cause a buzz over a person or organization that pinches or supports it. Just this week, the President and COO of Chick-fil-A, a US Chicken restaurant chain, Dan T. Cathy, was in the spotlight, because of his belief in traditional marriage.

He is a Christian and believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. This and his organization’s stance against gay marriage, that saw them donate to groups working against legalization, made gay marriage activists call for^, boycott of Chick-fil-A restaurants on August 1.

They called for protests and kissing in front of the restaurants, nationally. The organization came under criticism, with communities and universities seeking its withdrawal from their jurisdiction. Many have declared the restaurant unwanted in their communities, signaling new challenges for the business.

Sexuality stance, and donation to aligned groups, for a business is not advised, if overt. It will drive some people away and attract some others. People want services and enjoy products but may not favor products from an organization aligned. Gay right is a hotspot presently, and high profile people prefer to skirt their stance or put that ‘they should not be discriminated against.

Gay people are like a powerful minority, fighting for acceptance. A number of US states have legalized gay marriage, and churches are advised to join gay partners. Gay rights supporters already have some attention, but will have to wait some years or far into the future to see a global reality for their dreams.

Gays understand issues people have with their sexuality, but want people to reason with their realities. Gay folks will likely be cool with “a freedom to certain personal choices, within the law and passed into law”. Gays are unlikely to discriminate against people of a religion that don’t attack their sexuality.

Gays are also likely to support certain subject that most people are expected to immediately rebuff. Gays will likely support geoengineering, a proposition that is harder to accept, than to believe in its firebrand, global warming. Gays, currently battling legalization and further acceptance, may not have the will, to tear geoengineering, in opposition.

Geoengineering is not in line for large scale-deployment soon, but work is ongoing with research on policy and technicalities. Geoengineering has too many possibilities for bad and for good, with people and the earth. It is considered as a usable stopgap, if mitigating global warming-causing emissions, fall short.

Geoengineering is coming for the necessity and the reality that global warming may maltreat the earth within a foreseeable future, with no alternative for ease but it. Most people believe in global warming, or simply, understand that recent weather anomalies may be tied to it, most gays too believe. Gays want the rest of us to see from their goggles, but whether we totally do or not, substantial opposition to global warming and geoengineering is not expected from gay folks.

AUTHOR: David Stephen
URL: http://www.trpns.com
E-MAIL: Stephen [at] trpns.com

Gandhi and Kallenbach (2nd and 3rd from left) in Tolstoy Farm, SA in 1910

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I feel like crying out to you ‘Do come and help me!’ Mrs. Gandhi is again down with her swellings. She has lost all power of resistance. She weeps like a child, is ever angry with me as if I was the party responsible for her swellings. I am over head and ears in work. This institution costs me much trouble. I wish I had the time to describe to you the troubles I am passing through. I am not dejected but I feel lonely. You know what I mean. Heaven knows what will happen. There are so many sick people on the Farm. I want hours of solitude and have not a minute of it. Do ‘buck up’ and prepare for the struggle of the spirit when you are able to come here.

I know nothing about some honour that has been conferred upon me. I have just received a letter of congratulations. More in my next.

With love,

OLD FRIEND

From the original: Gandhi-Kallenbach Correspondence. Courtesy: National Archives of India

India Government has bought the whole collection of mementos, documents and letters between Hermann Kallenbach and M.K.Gandhi from Sotheby’s in a private deal at $ 1.28 Million fueling  speculation of an attempt to keep the private relationship of nation’s father-head secret, which some say, was homosexual or homoerotic..

The long standing friendship between the ‘Mahatma’ and his architect/bodybuilder German-Jew friend from South Africa was first put under question by the 2011 Joseph Lelyveld book ‘Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle with India’, published by Alfred A Knopf by Random House in US. The frank discussion about the emotional/romantic relationship between the two men immediately led to a debate between Gandhi loyalists and skeptics and despite not being published in India; the book was banned in the state of Gujarat where Gandhi was born. Ironically, this state is ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), having connections with an ultra right wing Hindu nationalist outfit RSS (Rastriya Sayamsevak Sangha) whose member Nathuram Godse assassinated Gandhi.

M.K.Gandhi is one of those tragic heroes of history who are either worshipped or condemned with equal steadfastness. In 2012, his beloved country whose economy and society he dreamed to found on the self-governing rural India is on the way of development of a two digit GDP growth, through ultra urbanization and consumer market. The evils of untouchability for which he fought hard (a worsening marriage was partly its price) is not completely eradicated. The ideal of uniting Hindus and Muslims as one nation and people living with justness, dignity and moral courage envisioned by Gandhi not only failed during Indian Independence but communal unrest still rigs the country. Yet in India, Gandhi is placed on a pedestal of a near sainthood – and disposed of as an ideal that is impractical to follow. This is as far as the worshipping is concerned.

For condemnation, his life’s work is severely denied credibility as India was born through a bloodbath of communal struggle with a neighboring country that was born with a theological difference. Gandhi’s satyagraha (ascetic self rule) and civil disobedience was rejected by B.R.Ambedkar, a firm constitutionalist who sought to seek solutions of social problems from within the state.

The tragedy, from Gandhi’s point of view, was that his colleagues in the national movement either did not understand his concern with untouchability or even actively deplored it. Priests and motley shankaracharyas thought he was going too fast in his challenge to caste – and why did he not first take their permission? Communists wondered why he wanted everyone to clean their own latrines when he could be speaking of class struggle. And Congressmen in general thought Harijan work came in the way of an all-out effort for national freedom. Thus Stanley Reid, a former editor of the Times of India quotes an Indian patriot who complained in the late thirties that “Gandhi is wrapped up in the Harijan movement. He does not care a jot whether we live or die; whether we are bond or free.” [http://www.ambedkar.org/research/GandhiAmbedkar.htm – Gandhi’s Ambedkar].

The iconoclastic zeal of Gandhi-skeptics was enhanced by the mainstream worshiping attitude of the nation where a neutral and human analysis of Gandhi the man was overshadowed by the dead Mahatma. So when Joseph Lelyveld decides to bring an assessment of M.K.Gandhi and his work not stripped of his human follies, an outsized attention goes to a chapter that deals with his relationship with Hermann Kallenbach in a 425 page book. It may not be unusual therefore to see India Government’s purchase of the trove of documents paying a three to fourfold price, as remarked by Ramchandra Guha, an Indian historian who discovered these documents, from Isa Sarid, great grandniece of Hermann Kallenbach through Sotheby’s (accepting additional conditions of inviting the Israel-based Sarid family to India as state guest for three weeks) as an attempt to keep controversial information about Gandhi (feared to be harmful to his plaster saint image) from falling to private hands. But few also believe that this new archive can provide more factual information that can debunk the sexual polemic receiving media attention.

In a 2011 interview with the Press Trust of India, Lelyveld answered questions by email about the controversy. “I did not say Gandhi had a male lover. I said he lived with a man who was an architect as well as a bodybuilder for nearly four years. The letters are part of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (volume 96, to be precise) published by the Government of India. They are in the Indian National Archive. That particular volume was first published in 1994. In other words, the material I used contains no news,” Lelyveld said.

That hardly stops Andrew Roberts who reviewed the book in Wall Street Journal from interpreting the relationship that Lelyveld hinted at. “As Mr. Lelyveld makes abundantly clear, Gandhi’s organ probably only rarely became aroused with his naked young ladies, because the love of his life was a German-Jewish architect and bodybuilder, Hermann Kallenbach, for whom Gandhi left his wife in 1908,” wrote Roberts. A reading of the book does not make it as abundantly clear as Roberts asserts. Gandhi’s marriage, though troubled, was consummated and he sired three sons with wife Kasturba. That Gandhi left his wife for Kallenbach is unsubstantiated as well. If he had a sexual relationship with Kallenbach, it was certainly not out of his lack of manhood.

Lelyveld’s book quotes Gandhi using pet names (upper house for himself and lower house for Kallenbach, who was made to promise to Gandhi ‘not to look at any woman with lustful eyes’) much like lovers and referring Vaseline as ‘constant reminder’ of Kallenbach that, apart from the fact that Gandhi used for enema he gave himself, can be interpreted with amorous meaning. Indian Historian Ramchandra Guha who examined the Sarid archive of documents explains that the reference of Vaseline was in the context of corns developed by the two men who walked long distance together to their office in South Africa. Rather than being homosexual, Kallenbach was “flagrantly heterosexual”, Guha said, and had a series of affairs with women. Gandhi was often trying to reform him, he said.

A review of Great Soul in The Wall Street Journal “took Joe’s tentative, guarded speculation and made it into hardened fact”, Guha said. See report here in The Telegraph, Calcutta.

The review may not be entirely blamed because Gandhi’s letters to Kallenbach reveal language that is hard to believe as anything other than romantic. Most have quoted these words written by Gandhi to Kallenbach from Lelyveld’s book: “How completely you have taken possession of my body. This is slavery with a vengeance.” “Your portrait (the only one) stands on my mantelpiece in my bedroom,” he wrote to Kallenbach. “The mantelpiece is opposite to the bed.” The two also pledged “more love, and yet more love . . . such love as they hope the world has not yet seen.” Letters from Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi show that Gandhi was wary of his wife, whom she mentioned as Mrs. Gandhi to Kallenbach and confided to him that he was struggling not to be angry with her hysterics. However, the relationship of love and endearment of a man like Gandhi towards another man, be it Hermann Kallenbach or the Anglican Priest Charles Freer Andrews, may not be as straightforwardly interpreted as homosexual or homoerotic just by the quotes from his letters. One should also not forget the cultural difference of expressing adoration to a person of same gender in Indian context as compared to western understanding. For example, abstinence from sex by a married man for a spiritual improvement that Gandhi felt necessary sacrifice for devoting his life for his country may seem bizarre to western analysts whereas in India it helped Gandhi to earn a social/political position of command.

As human failings of the patron saint that Gandhi was made into become matters of defense and cover up by Gandhi loyalists and points of sharp criticism by skeptics – we sadly lose sight of the fact that Gandhi himself did everything to keep public his trepidations and failures of a very unusual life he chose to defend his belief and work for his country. “It was Gandhi who first put his personal life up for public scrutiny in his articles and letters, his autobiographies and his conversations with friends. It was Gandhi who drew a straight line from sexual abstinence to political non-violence, demanded that the very same Congress worker who wanted to participate in the national movement also be a sanyasi and a satyagrahi. Some four decades ago, Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph wrote a clear-eyed analysis of Gandhi’s theory of the relationship between “self-control and political potency”. He made no secret of the truth that each day he battled as much against his own formidable appetites as he did against the powerful British Empire. Gandhi never hid the desires, dilemmas or doubts that preoccupied him, and he does not need now to be hidden from the gaze of history,” writes Ananya Vajpeyi, Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Boston. Nearing 70, Gandhi had a wet dream. The “degrading, dirty, torturing experience” was shattering, he wrote. It “made me feel as if I was hurled by God from an imaginary paradise where I had no right to be in my uncleanliness.” He was a very out-spoken saint.

So what if Gandhi was gay or had a homosexual relationship that we are speculating about? It practically changes nothing that M.K.Gandhi will be remembered for. The younger generations should see this man as a remarkable human being, not as a saint school history books feel compelled to depict him as. Every piece of information about him should be made easily accessible to everyone world-wide and let public assess the metamorphosis of a fallible human being into a political and moral force that British diplomacy had no answer for. Whether he loved a man or a woman; he loved his country, people and his ideal more with exemplary sincerity.

The more we see Gandhi with human depth as Lelyveld tried in his book, the more remarkable he would seem.

AUTHOR: Pabitra Mukhopadhyay
URL: http://pabitraspeaks.com
E-MAIL: mukhopadhyay.pabitra [at] gmail.com

Introduction

The change came paradoxically during the 1980s, during the period of military rule, with it’s predominantly leftist and atheist stance, that gave rise to a lively and modern Gay scene. This Gay scene inspired by the international aesthetic of Androgynous artists such as Prince, Boy George and Annie Lennox, and influences from Europe (crossing over of cultures), enriched Surinamese urban culture and furthermore put the country on the map as one of the most tolerant societies in the Caribbean. A democratic audit comparing different societies in the CARICOM, with new EU member states, showed that Suriname was one of the few nations to be tolerant towards homosexuality (Adama 2009). Despite the seeming tolerance, consecutive governments refused to specifically codify the rights of people falling outside the box of female-male matrimony. For example, Suriname consistently refuses to codify and protect spouses and children born out of common-law-marriages (set’ libi’ /samenwonen). Also respective Surinamese governments have failed to stiffen the penalties on sexual abuse of minorities, and slacks in its attempts to protect females against human trafficking and exploitation.

Human Rights and Homosexuality
Indeed consecutive Surinamese governments paid limited (at best!) attention to human rights, a fact that is cloaked by what is perceived as a strong and well organized civility. But the Surinamese civility operates in the realm of politics, deriving both its legitimacy and its leverage from existing political parties. Also relevant is the fact that the Surinamese civility is strongly grounded in the Middle classes, a class that has for the greater part elected not become engaged in what they perceive as the political debate.

The emergence of conservative and Evangelical elements in the political landscape can in part be attributed to the absence of a civil force apt to address existing controversies that mar society.

Did Ronnie Asabina not voice the opinion of many people in Suriname? According to the reaction by MP Carl Breeveld (DOE) and the Minister Alice Amafo, the government official who stood at the heart of this commotion, homosexuality is not accepted by people who live according to the Scriptures. The ruling coalition came to power assisted by a religious organization called Gemeente Gods Bazuin, headed by Steve Meye. It is up to this point unclear how many followers this church actually has, corollary how many citizens share these rather controversial viewpoints on homosexuality. There are strong indications that through the churches’ effort, block voting occurred, giving the MC (NDP) a head start in the 2010 elections. The obscurity of said suggestion hinges on the fact that it is hard to find out what actually transpired prior to the elections, because the churches are in fact closed bastions, with specific codes of conducts and mores. The use of theology to promise a people liberation from poverty has been the trajectory of confessional parties in the West and the East (Turley, AK-Party), has probably enticed many churchgoers to vote for the NDP, for Desi Bouterse. But in Suriname, the premise of the NDP is a different one, religiosity came into play as part of strategy to morally exonerate Mr Bouterse from the alleging of murder, human rights violations and narco-trafficking.

What has been less apparent, up to this point, is the fact that the DOE, a traditional middle class, splinter party has become part of this new monster coalition of political theologians. Its leader Carl Breeveld, who calls himself a preacher and religious leader, did not endorse Ronnie Asabina, but did defend his actions by arguing that homosexuality and religiosity can never go hand in hand. A closer look at the website of the GGB, reveals close ties between Mr Breeveld’ s organization Man mit Man and Steve Meye’s organization. Mr Breeveld has up to this point also displayed remarkable loyalty and good-will toward the incumbent government, instead of behaving like an opposition party, geared to control the actions of government.

Can one argue the emergence of a new type of civility, a conservative civility, with an equally conservative agenda, geared toward imposing certain mores and codes of conduct based on Biblical principles? The ramifications of the Mr Asabinas statement have not only uncovered the deep-seated intolerance and bigotry, but also the existence of what I qualify the existence of ultra conservative forces that use the bible in an attempt to impose certain values on society. Said attempts do not stem from concern and worry over the possible demoralization of society, but from the idea that the urban- city- culture is abject, western and possible colonial. This new conservative wind blowing in society has also ushered in a dormant but highly volatile schism between the urban (western) lifestyle and the rural (Marron) lifestyle. As Mr Eersteling puts it:

Behalve de politieke constellatie waarin de heer Asabina beweegt, weet ik ook heel goed welke traditionele (Aucaanse) opvoeding en vorming hij heeft gehad. De respectabele wijlen kapitein ‘Aduani’ alsook zijn oma ‘Ma Toopije’, hebben zoals ik die gekend heb geen andere morele-ethische normen en waarden op dit jonge talent overgebracht.

He goes on defending the statements by Ronnie Asabina, arguing that his statements referred to adoption by homosexual couples, but then continues to feign amnesia, stepping over the quintessence of Mr Asabina speech ‘that homosexuality should to be eradicated from society’.

Conclusion
In a macho culture such as Suriname, the rights of minorities, women, children and Gays always came as the afterthought of policy making. But how is the strength of a given government determined, if not by its ability to protect the weak and the vulnerable? In recent months, all sorts of commissions set out to strengthen control over society, over channels of information, curbing the freedoms and the rights of the citizens instead. Indeed the attempts by the minister of Social Affairs Mrs Amafo must be seen in the same light, an attempt to curb the freedoms of homosexuals, by turning homosexuality into an act of western lewdness, instead of working on what she actually claimed to be doing ‘democratic strengthening and protection of human rights’.

As the initial outcries are dying down, and the city goes back to business as usual, the fact remains that Ronnie Asabina’s slip of the tongue has taken out the issue of Homosexuality in Suriname out of the proverbial ‘closet’; the question however remains how this so called slip of the tongue will serve the plight of the Surinamese Gays and Lesbians in the near future.

AUTHOR: Natascha Adama
URL: http://natascha23.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: nataliapestova23 [@] yahoo.com