Cross-Currents – Marching into Different Centuries

By Anil Madan

Thailand took one step forward and one backward. Thailand moved forward into the 21st Century when it became the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex marriage. At about the same time, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra was indicted for defaming the country’s monarchy. He returned to Thailand last year from a self-imposed exile, or perhaps to evade a jail term, on corruption charges. He served his sentence in a hospital and was released on parole in February.

Thailand moved forward into the 21st Century when it became the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex marriage. At about the same time, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra was indicted for defaming the country’s monarchy

Thaksin Shinawatra remains a force in Thai politics as the unofficial power behind the leading party in the government. This upsets the conservative establishment that ousted him from power in 2006. Thailand continues to enforce the doctrine of lèse majesté as it marches back to the 14th Century. Or is it the 12th?

Getting back to Thailand’s march forward, its Senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of the same-sex marriage bill. For those who care to check the tally, out of 152, it was 130 in favour, 4 opposed, and 18 abstaining.

Thailand follows Taiwan and Nepal in legalizing same-sex marriage.

India’s Supreme Court, undecided about which Century it wishes to inhabit, has issued contradictory rulings. In 2018, it signalled a move into the 21st Century when it decriminalized consensual same-sex conduct.

Meanwhile the Indian government refused to recognize same-sex marriages under the Special Marriage Act.

India’s Supreme Court has long been accused of pandering to the government. Before the case challenging the government’s obduracy was to be heard, the Solicitor General represented that a parliamentary committee would be formed to study providing limited rights to same-sex partners. This was a signal as to the desired outcome.

In October last year, the Supreme Court obliged by posturing as a Colossus straddling two centuries and declared that while discrimination against same-sex couples must end, it is for the Parliament of India to legalize same-sex marriage.

India remains mired somewhere between the 12th and 14th Centuries.

Meanwhile, in the US there is Project 2025, a movement of right-wing yahoos seeking a retro march for this nation. They envision creating a new America based on their so-called “Christian” values tinged with hatred and intolerance. Under their preferred regimen, the government would no longer treat abortion as health care and healthcare plans would no longer provide contraception services. Among the so-called Christian principles they espouse, pornography would be criminalized, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity would no longer be illegal. It is not clear how they intend to avoid the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage, but they have plans. After all, respect for the law is a new-fangled concept in their universe.

The Center for Reproductive Rights reports that over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries and territories have liberalized their abortion laws. From Ireland to Nepal, abortion rights are becoming recognized as fundamental human rights for millions of people worldwide. And in Latin America, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina have joined the march to the 21st Century.

Meanwhile, back in the US, the Supreme Court took the nation on an archaeologic dig back to the 12th Century by declaring that the US Constitution does not guarantee a woman the right to decide if she will carry a pregnancy to term.

America’s right-wing fundamentalists, fascists, misogynists, and low life Neanderthals, exult in what they see as the restoration of their power to control the lives of women. There are movements afoot in many southern states in America to limit or deny access to abortion and to impose criminal penalties not only on women who seek abortions, but on health care professionals and others who assist them in getting abortion services and care, even when they are victims of abuse, rape, or in danger of dying from unstable pregnancies and associated medical complications.

Doctors, nurses, and midwives now fear that they will be prosecuted by zealous right-wing prosecutors if they try to help women who are desperately in need of abortion health care. Farah Diaz-Tello, a senior counsel and legal director for the abortion rights group If/When/How, reported that a social worker warned her that clients seeking an abortion had to be reported to law enforcement because abortion was illegal, and they (the clients) were a threat to the unborn child. This is, of course, wrong “on so many levels, it’s staggering,” she said.

What we are seeing is, as television host Bill Maher put it, the emergence of a new kind of apartheid against women. It is not just the hijab or burqa, or niqab, that shuts women in and deprives them of their personalities and the right to interact with fellow humans, but the unmistakable message that they are lesser beings.

A Texas woman who became pregnant with twins and learned that one of them would not survive could not even get medics to utter the word “abortion” for fear that they would be prosecuted. One specialist tore of his gloves in frustration and told her she would need to leave the state.

“He was right,” she recalled. Days later, she was back in the hospital vomiting so severely that she feared the placenta would detach and she would bleed out. “I was at risk of organ damage to my kidneys and brain — but I wasn’t dead enough for an abortion in Texas.”

The Ayatollahs of Iran seek to enforce their hijab requirements in draconian fashion. Is Mahsa Amini dead enough for them?

It’s not just the march back to antediluvian times when it comes to abortion and same-sex marriage. There are those hellbent on marching backwards and killing their fellow man.

From Putin’s attempt to destroy the Ukrainian people to Iran’s call for the destruction of Israel, to Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s echo of that message, to Bibi Netanyahu’s unrelenting assault on the civilian population of Gaza, there is no end to the destruction that we humans visit on each other. China threatens to invade Taiwan. To what end?

When you ponder all this, it really is a surprise that some fool has not set off a nuclear war since Hiroshima and Nagasaki taught us—maybe—that the march to a previous Century is merely a step backward where we will find the worst of ourselves.

It almost makes one afraid to contemplate what we will see of ourselves in the next Century. If we make it.

Cheerz…

Bwana

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 21 June 2024