By Roger Diamond
When resources get tight, people go on the warpath to extirpate those who they are told do not deserve to share a slice of the pie. All countries have, to some degree, targeted people with an otherness and eradicated them so that those in favour can supposedly enjoy a greater share of the natural bounties of the earth. From a psychological point of view it is questionable whether enjoyment can be had after such behaviour, but the discussion of propaganda and mass psychology we will leave for another time.
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 saw extremely irrational behaviour where people who had been fellow citizens, neighbours and colleagues for years, suddenly become mortal enemies to the extent that many many people were killed. The small country of Rwanda had reached breaking strain with overpopulation and the genocide temporarily eased the demand on natural resource consumption.
Uganda is a much larger country than Rwanda, but is similarly highly populated and perhaps the recent homophobic developments are a similar symptom of a dwindling resource base and increasing population and consumption levels. Poorer countries are less able to temporarily boost natural yields (eg. through inorganic fertiliser use) or substitute natural yields through fossil fuel derived ones (eg. LPG substituting firewood as a natural fuel), as their currency does not easily buy barrels of oil or processed goods such as fertilizers.
Targeting a real minority group, such as LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people, if it does lead to killings, is not likely to result in a huge population cull if limited to this group, however, it may be a pivot point whereupon those against will find offence not only with the target group, but also any supporter of that group. Or perhaps, and more likely, the targeting of such a minority group reflects that the population pressures on natural resources are not yet as extreme as in the Rwandan case and hence hatred is not needed on such a scale.
As oil supplies dwindle and natural resources as placed under greater strain with increasing populations and consumption levels, competition for resources is going to increase. The US’s targeting of oil-rich countries populated by people with an otherness to the suburbia of America, is a good example of how this is already playing out on the world stage. How different is the US’s ar against terrorism versus Uganda’s war against LGBTI people? Sure, there are differences and I do not imply that LGBTI people have anything in common with the Taliban, but what I would like us to see is the ease with which hatred and fear is instilled.
So as much as I encourage people to reject the Ugandan government’s attitudes, do realise that ultimately, unless we cut our energy consumptive lifestyles and our burgeoning population, we may be seeing a lot more of the “bad” side of human nature. Those who argue with cases like Singapore or Switzerland to show examples of highly populated and peaceful countries do not realise that those countries buy in their resources from elsewhere and are therefore making abundant use of fossil fuels (via transport) to substitute for their own lack of natural resources.
Mass hatred and genocide are simply a symptom of overshooting sustainable behaviour.
Have you read “Climate Wars” by Gwynne Dyer? I will certainly get a copy when it hits the shelves in SA, as Dyer cuts through oil industry propaganda and tells it how it is.
8)
You can sure stretch the imgination Peak Oil, he, he, ha, ha.., a more likely reason for Ugandan homophobia is ” …last March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived here in Uganda’s capital to give a series of talks.
The theme of the event, according to Stephen Langa, its Ugandan organizer, was “the gay agenda -that whole hidden and dark agenda” – and the threat homosexuals posed to Bible-based values and the traditional African family.”
Full article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/04
Just because you are paranoid does not mean there is not someone out there trying to get you and in this case its Global Warming , not conspiracy theories about homophobes and genocide.
“Mass hatred and genocide are simply a symptom of overshooting sustainable behaviour.”
That’s a very, very simplistic view that fails to explain perhaps the highest-profile incident of genocide the 20th century has seen so far, i.e. the Nazi genocide.
In the case of Ugandan homophobia, I think the causes have more to do with an unholy confluence of US right-wing evangelical Christianity and archaic definitions of masculinity and gender roles.
Homophobia? Does a private members bill (one person) make the whole country homophobic? I wonder why you people in the WEST are obsessed with homosexuality in Africa….What did you do when there was genocide in Rwanda apart from evacuating your nationals? You’d better mind your own business since you have no idea about what you’re writing about…
This is another useless article from a Western racist with a colonial mentality who thinks he has a right to tell Africans how they should manage their country…
If you care about real genocide, tell your governments to stop bombing villages in Iraq and Afghanistan., and now threatening Iran.
So just shoot me, I’m a lemming.
The answer to your question, surely, is “no”.
The question which your question should arise, surely, is “Why does Ugandan homophobia get treated as a sign of impending genocide, while homophobia outside Africa is treated as a sign of political foolishness or sectarian bigotry?”
What a load of tripe!
um dude, I’d suggest you Google, Uganda and have a squize at the history of the region. I’d say its more like continuing genocide. The entire region has been at war with themselves and eachother, for so long know one knows what’s going on or who’s fighting who. I’d say it may just be another excuse to go off on a killing spree. I must say as usual, having been there most of our Uganda brothers are fairly peaceful people, but there is a strange thing that happens in a mob. And there is a centuries old problem that’s going on there. Like much of central africa, its one of the richeds place in natural resources, and crop growth it is not hugely over populated. and there really is no reason why it should not be able to be self reliant. but it just isn’t due to a million little reasons so complex it would make your head spin.
Despite what the other blubbering bafoons have to say, I think this was an awesome read!
@Michael Liermann,
I think you may find that the Nazi genocide functioned along exactly the same lines as this author sets out: resources were scarce and there was a great deal of social strife in pre-WW2 Germany. This created a space for Hitler to single out one group of people and to direct hatred and blame onto this group of people. This is exactly what is taking place in Uganda – and what happened in South Africa with the xenophobic attacks.
I think that your article is really interesting and links up with scapegoating theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Girard
Rene Girard argues that in times of scarce resources or a crisis of sometime, the population looks to find a suitable person to ‘blame’ it all on. The unsuspecting person/group is then expunged/killed or at least abused and in the process the remaining group is united in their hatred/abuse of them.
The thing is that everyone needs to be able to believe that this group could be responsible for the problem, but in reality they are innocent. In Uganda, homosexuals fit the bill because they are lambasted as being responsible for family breakdown, being against the church etc. That way everyone can believe that their suffering could be linked in some way.
Very scary but most of us exercise the same logic every day.
If Nigeria’s 500 dead are an indication of how things will be dealt with in times of scarce resources, i don’t think you are too far off the mark.
@Okolo Epak
I live in Uganda, so I know what I am talking about when I say this bill is not supported by “one person”. I am amazed (and appalled) by the widespread support it is receiving, and the evidence of this support is in the media every day. Most of it seems to be driven by ignorance and fear, e.g. the idea that money can be used to “recruit” heterosexuals to become gay and thus every son and daughter is in danger. And then, of course, the fear that the human race will die out when everyone is gay …
Weird, and sad.
Michael Baillie – “I think you may find that the Nazi genocide functioned along exactly the same lines as this author sets out: resources were scarce and there was a great deal of social strife in pre-WW2 Germany.”
The invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland were land grabs, and hence motivated by a desire for resources, as was the attack on the USSR. And I’ll grant you that Hitler was planning the war in the east from the very beginning, and even that in his diseased mind, all opposition to German rule over all of eastern Europe had to be the work of “Jewish commisars”. But I think there was more pathological thinking than logical thinking in there; witness the elaborate attempts to construct a state cult of nationalism to replace Christianity, which was regarded as “tainted” because of its Judaic roots.
I’ll agree that Hitler and his vile followers scapegoated the Jews, blaming them for everything from the Treaty of Versailles to unemployment. But I don’t think that was an element of the planned resource war in the East so much as an indication of how virulently antisemitic not just Germany, but most of Europe was at the time.
There certainly is a link between material deprivation and hate crimes, but it is complicated by leadership issues. Although the bulk of the mob is usually genuinely deprived, the leaders or instigators are usually less so, and use the scapegoating process to advance their own power, and often to enrich themselves.
It should be noted that the possibility of such mob action is itself a symptom of a social situation where formal justice is weak or absent.