Doubt they'll publish this but here goes....

Wrote a letter to the Observer Editorial team in response to this article.

I don't expect it to be published.

The blurring of sense and nonsense

Dear Sir,

I write with reference to the article published Wednesday February 23, 2011 entitled "The androgynous blurring of the sexes" in which the author, Anthony Gomes, struggles with the concepts of sex and gender within the context of the modern social revolution and his own longing for "traditional values" to hold firm.

This article is the best example to my recollection of how easily bigotry is masked by piety. It demonstrates how the smiling cleric can despise your very essence, but still feel compelled to proselytize in order to capitalize on some holy coupon scheme, the pie in the sky if you will.

As much as part of me sympathizes with Gomes' longing for simpler times, I find his opinions repugnant in that he posits non-traditional expressions of sex and gender as inimical to the continuation of the human race. Therefore, halting them becomes not just an expression of personal displeasure but a moral obligation and act of survival. This is the great deception of fundamentalists the world over.

They like to depict some sort of Sexual Armageddon in a topsy-turvy future that will come to fruition if "traditional values" are not protected. This is achieved of course by keeping marriage a binary concept for the fertile and Christian, eliminating the fluidity of gender and sexuality responsible for the fall of the Roman empire, and inculcating from an early age that non-conformity is a threat to civilization.

I suppose God didn't create inter-sexed persons or trans-gendered individuals. That Lucifer fellow sure is crafty!

Intellectual dishonesty is remarkably effective in places such as Jamaica because critical thinking is a dying concept and persons like Gomes take advantage of this fact.

I wish him well that he might realize his dream of a world more in keeping with his own values, and I hope to God that I don't have to live in it.

Sincerely,

Brian-Paul N. Welsh

brianpaul.welsh@gmail.com

Update:

They did publish it...though slightly edited to be a bit less stinging.

Different world, Mr Gomes

Monday, February 28, 2011

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/Different-world--Mr-Gomes_8438010

Dear Editor,

I write with reference to the article on February 23, 2011 , "The androgynous blurring of the sexes" in which the author, Anthony Gomes, struggles with the concepts of sex and gender within the context of the modern social revolution and his own longing for traditional values to hold firm.

This article is the best example to my recollection of how easily bigotry is masked by piety. It demonstrates how the smiling cleric can despise your very essence, but still feel compelled to proselytise in order to capitalise on some holy coupon scheme - the pie in the sky, if you will.

As much as part of me sympathises with Gomes' longing for simpler times, I find he posits non-traditional expressions of sex and gender as inimical to the continuation of the human race. Therefore, halting them becomes not just an expression of personal displeasure but a moral obligation and act of survival. This is the great deception of fundamentalists the world over.

They like to depict some sort of Sexual Armageddon in a topsy-turvy future that will come to fruition if "traditional values" are not protected. This is achieved of course by keeping marriage a binary concept for the fertile and Christian, eliminating the fluidity of gender and sexuality responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire, and inculcating from an early age that non-conformity is a threat to civilisation.

I suppose God didn't create inter-sexed persons or trans-gendered individuals. That Lucifer fellow sure is crafty!

I wish Gomes well that he might realise his dream of a world more in keeping with his own values, and I hope to God that I don't have to live in it.

Brian-Paul N Welsh

brianpaul.welsh@gmail.com

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I ≠ Interested

The amount of fuck I simply do not give about the fact that Buju Banton has been found guilty of drug related charges cannot be sufficiently articulated in the English language.

If I was an African bushman at the dawn of humanity and I spoke in clicks, my clicks upon receipt of this news would be filled with the type of vitriolic scorn that would necessitate the world's first simultaneous eye roll, neck roll, and side eye upon their expulsion from my face > ‎ (¬_¬)

I care not.

What I do care about are the sentiments as expressed by his horde of buffoons that blame the Glitterati for Buju's affinity for nose candy and the lengthy prison stay he'll receive as a consequence.

For them Buju is the nappy-headed Messiah: bastion of virtue, testosterone, and marijuana; conversely gays are imperialistic demons from the rainbow dimension that ride on My Little Ponies and infiltrate every aspect of modern existence so as to eliminate the righteous Christian breeders.

Given these "facts" it is only logical that the gays are behind Buju's capture and conviction on these drug charges. I mean, Rastafarians hate the white lady!

Right Gregory?

Point 1: Buju is daft.

Point 2: Buju talks too much.

Point 3: Empty Barrels usually make the most noise.

Ergo, those idiots trumpeting this tired rhetoric about the gays conspiring to entrap their Shepherd ought to learn the lesson Buju failed to, and shut the fuck up.

I can't....

(more to come after he's sentenced)

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Update

This just in: I have a life that does not solely involve depositing late-night creations on my laptop! (words, not viscous fluids of course)

As hard as it may be to comprehend, this revelation accounts for my noticeable absence from the zenith of intellectual stimulation that is this blog. My apologies. Polestar status resumed.

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Published in today's Gleaner...

Dignity Due To All Jamaicans

Published: Wednesday | February 2, 2011

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Re the column titled 'Tolerance doesn't mean agreement' published February 1, 2011.

I have come to expect a more populist approach to the taboo topic of homosexuality when it is mentioned, and I was pleasantly surprised by the light-hearted yet critical analysis of this article. Perhaps this is the kind of candour that will encourage people to question the points of view they have been force-fed, and to determine for themselves truly what their opinions are.

needless murder

The murder of David Kato is a tragedy that resonates throughout the global community, not because it is sensational, but because on a deeper spiritual level we all can sense the injustice of a life needlessly taken.

This is the lesson that martyrdom imparts.

I pray that no longer will God's beautiful creations be denigrated and condemned to lives of isolation. I pray that no longer will the shame of societal taboo blight the future of the gifted.

And I pray that Jamaicans will fulfil the promise of our National Pledge and stand up for justice and do our part to advance the welfare of the whole human race.

I am, etc.,

BRIAN-PAUL N. WELSH

brianpaul.welsh@gmail.com

Kingston 8

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