Living and Letting Live

There is a Pastor cum Bishop cum Apostle whose followers fondly refer to him simply as Daddy. He has been trending on social media because somebody claimed that his “children” have bought him a private jet. A lot of “Christians” who are obviously not from his church are up in arms. They claim that he is living large at the expense of his poor adherents. They say that it is wrong of Daddy to be thinking of taking to the skies and yet his followers don’t even own bicycles. Well, you who is reading this and thinking that for once the Layman supports you. I hate to burst your bubble. If you ask me, they can go ahead and buy him a rocket and it won’t affect me. After all, it is their money and they are giving it out of their own free will.

My Dress My Choice

If there is one thing I love about our new constitution, it is the bill of rights. I like the fact that my fundamental rights are protected and nobody is legally empowered to take them away from me. Key among these rights is the freedom of expression and association. I can express myself in whichever way I want be it verbally or demonstratively. Much has been said about women dressing provocatively and how Un-African it is. I took the liberty of researching how Africans dressed before western influence. I was appalled at what I discovered. In the vast majority of communities, women walked around topless and, almost invariably all never wore underwear.

Sexual Orientation

I don’t know who assigns sexual orientation. What I do know is that it is hard to change. I have never heard of a homosexual who became heterosexual and vice versa. I have however heard of a homosexual trying to live a “straight” life so as to fit with societal expectations. I have also heard of heterosexual people trying out homosexual activities either out of curiosity or in a bid to make money through prostitution. I also hear that there are some people referred to as bisexual. This group claim to be attracted to both sexes but they claim they ascribe to only one orientation at a time.

Minding Your Own Business

This is one of the first expressions in English that was widely used in the village where I grew up. We were taught and constantly reminded to mind our own business. Gossip and eavesdropping were frowned upon. We were always told to pay attention to only that which concerned us. That is how we were conditioned until Hollywood happened and we had to know everything that the Kardashians were doing.

Tolerating the Intolerable

In Africa today, if somebody takes your rights away, he will have more defenders than you. This is the reason why you can be jailed for life for being homosexual while a fraudster who amasses millions of dollars of public money is celebrated as a hero. I was watching TV last evening and was shocked to learn that there are Kenyan refugees in Uganda who were displaced during the Post-election violence in 2008. I know some people will support their resettlement, and some won’t, based purely on which community they are from.

Defending the Undeserving

It has come to that time again. The time to reward those who have served us well for five years. The time to send home those who have failed to fulfil their promises. The time to put in their place those who hinder us from living our lives the way we desire and deserve. It is time to realise that inasmuch as we let others live, we have to fight for our right to live. It is the time to love others as we love ourselves by first learning how to love ourselves. The only person you should be defending is yourself; not some goon who views you as a mere election statistic. Do not defend somebody who wants to live at the cost of seeing you die or live a pitiful life. Do not defend the undeserving. Live and Let Live!