Ramblings - Dominica Island Blog: Sharing Every Dominican Moment with the World

Archive for the ‘Ramblings’

18 Aug 2008

Is Our World Too Comfortable With Bizarre Sexual Behaviour?

Written by Danielle in Ramblings 33 Comments →

Photo via USMagazine.com - Isis, a transgender contestant on the new season of America’s Next Top Model.

In today’s world, the destructive sexually transmitted HIV/ AIDS pandemic haunts the very future of humanity and threatens the economic survival of numerous societies. As the world grapples with this phenomenally calamitous disease, many have taken up the mantle of preaching ‘safe sex’, ‘abstinence’ and ‘staying faithful to one partner’ in a so-called ‘morally loose’ world.

Countless International health organizations and donors are frantic with worry over the number of orphans, broken homes and broken lives that continue to result from the AIDS epidemic, particularly on the continent of Africa. And here in the Caribbean, statistics on the number of HIV victims living in our region are strikingly high. But despite all these dreadful facts, our world seems to be embracing bizarre sexual behaviour more and more…

I’m no ultra-conservative, but it often appears that our overly liberal mainstream media is promoting homosexuality and bisexuality as perfectly normal alternatives to heterosexuality. In the days of the Roman Empire, homosexuality was fashionable- and today history again seems to be repeating itself. The Californian gay community now has the widely celebrated legal right to ‘gay marriage’. What I want to know is why this is being viewed as an accomplishment.

I was very disturbed after reading a recent Newsweek article on the life of the late Larry King, a

15-year-old boy who was the victim of a gay-bias crime. Up till the day he died, Larry had allegedly never kissed a girl or boy, but he had declared himself gay. He was famous among peers for wearing stilettos and hitting on other boys. He was also exempted from the school’s dress code: he was allowed to wear makeup because of his right to self-expression, while girls were generally not allowed to do so.

If you look at documentaries on transgendered women and men, you may be led to believe that it’s a natural occurrence for a child to be born without The Creator having made a decision on his or her sex. In fact, the new season of America’s Next Top Model will feature Isis, a transgender wannabe model born male turned female. According to Isis, ‘my cards were dealt differently’.

I personally think the world has forgotten where to draw the line between respecting the differences of others and supporting and promoting bizarre sexual behaviour. Why is a rejection of absurd sexual orientation and behaviour viewed as a blow to human rights? Why should we support gay people who want to get married…can’t they just live together? Isn’t marriage supposed to be a sacred union between a man and woman?

I also wonder if animals can be gays or lesbians too- I’ve never seen any that are. Are human beings the only creatures with strange sexual behaviour- and if so, why? It would then seem as if homosexuality is not so normal, after all.

Yes, stigma is wrong. But I find it very alarming to know that we live in an era in which many children know what it means to be gay even before they know what sex is. To me, that just cannot be right.

Related Article:Young, Gay and Murdered

Tagged with: America, Gay community, Homosexuality, Human sexual behavior, Same-sex marriage, Sexual orientation

33 Comments →

16 Aug 2008

What’s Wrong With Dominica? Not a Damn Thing

Written by Chris in Ramblings 4 Comments →

It struck me recently that a lot of people think they know what’s wrong with Dominica, and it also struck me that most of the time they’re all wrong.

Seriously take some time to observe — almost every political and religious group, every opinionated person, every publication with an opinion, has said at one time or another they think is wrong with Dominica.

On one hand, UWP thinks that we’ve become a state fill with corruption headed by the ruling party, while the labour thinks that it was poor leadership by former political parties like the UWP - why Dominica is in this present poor economic situation. Others think that abortion is the problem, others think it’s declining morals, and others say it’s infidelity.

Other things that are wrong with Dominica, depending on the group: the media, young people, environmentalists, white people, foreigners overrunning our country, the Establishment, poor people, Pirate sector businesses, lazy people, evil people, BBC Caribbean, the Internet … the list could go on and on.

So what’s really wrong with Dominica, in my opinion?

Not a thing.

You heard me! What’s Wrong with That?

Nothing’s wrong with that, actually. That’s how most people are, and I don’t think I can change that, nor would I want to. I thought it would be an interesting discussion, though, because I think the difference between what people think the island should be and what it has become can cause unhappiness. If you’re one of those people who want the country to go back to how it was during your childhood, or during your parents’ generation, and it isn’t likely to do so, you’re not going to be happy.

The same goes for any of our ideals — do you have an ideal spouse? An ideal child? An ideal friend, mother, co-worker or roommate? It’s very possible that you do, and also very possible that in reality not all meets these ideals. That might cause you to be unhappy with them.

So I guess it’s clear to say that whenever reality doesn’t meet ideals — and it rarely does — we become unhappy.

So What’s the Then?

I’m not suggesting that you, or anyone else, change your view-of-Dominica. If you, or anyone else, is happy with that view-of Dominica, don’t change it.

But there is an alternative, and I’m not saying it’s better. It’s the view-of Dominica I try to have: instead of having an ideal, stop looking for perfection. Accept our island as it is, and love it for what it is. Accept people as they are, and love them. Does this mean that we should give up on trying to make positive changes in Dominica?

What would be the result of this alternative view-of Dominica? Well, I think people would be happier, if only we didn’t see Dominica as a fundamentally flawed or corrupted place, and began to see the good on the island. This, however, is open to individual interpretation, and your own experience is likely to be different than mine. Go ahead…have you say.

Tagged with: Caribbean, Dominica, Evil, Ideal, Political corruption, Political party

4 Comments →

15 Aug 2008

If Only Tourism Didn’t Ask Us To Sing For Our Supper

Written by Danielle in Ramblings 6 Comments →

35south

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be in the charming company of celebrated Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, at our first ever Literary Festival held on the beautifully manicured grounds of the University of the West Indies.

Quite an opinionated and beguiling fellow, I must say. Among his words of wisdom was an interesting comparison of slavery and tourism. From Mr. Walcott’s point of view, ‘at least, during slavery you didn’t have to smile’. Walcott certainly has a basis for such an innovative comparison. And I am aware that his sentiments are shared by many.

Thousands of persons in the tourism industry, all over the Caribbean are inclined to work in this sector mainly by the attraction of high value foreign currency, and the fact that relatively little training is required, but not necessarily because it offers occupations in which they are passionately interested. Apart from this scenario, our regional governments seem ever so intent on convincing us that success in tourism is our only significant prospect for economic prosperity.

So the people go about their jobs with plastic smiles, often making ridiculously large efforts to grin, laugh and be friendly to the tourist. Children, from a very tender age are taught to wave and smile at the larger-than-life tourists while they drive by on the bus like celebrities taking pictures of the simple island people.

The funny thing is many of us forget that the average tourist is able to realize when someone is overly eager to please him, with sugary words of greeting. Let’s face it- if the Caribbean’s service sector was overloaded with so many brilliant actors and actresses in disguise, we would have our own colony in Hollywood by now.

I am not against tourism, but I certainly agree with those who feel that in too many islands it has not yielded returns which are comparable to the large investments and sacrifices made to accommodate visitors. Just think about it. Too frequently, you can’t get a bus to home, school or work when there’s a cruise ship in port- the bus drivers all morph into taxi men. The road network is often totally jammed as a result of the cruise ship as well and both students and workers must leave their houses more that 15-30 minutes earlier than on a regular dat. Sometimes the water system to certain communities is disrupted to supply the needs of the ship in port.

As long as tourism remains the main focus for economic development by our Caribbean leaders, these are situations to which we all must adjust, whether we like them or not. But one of the downfalls of tourism is that it really does make some of us feel like we just can’t do much better for ourselves as a people, for economic survival. The average vendor- toothless or not- must smile all through his day- or else the tourist will feel uncomfortable and he won’t get paid.

I never thought about it, but here are probably a lot of vendors out there who don’t want to have a smile stuck on their face all day long. But they have too. It’s this sort of compulsive ‘singing for our supper’ role that Walcott was referring to. Once again, he is opening our eyes…