Human progress is relative, just as culture – as sociologists insist that no culture should be deemed as superior to another. You can say that is another way of saying one man’s food is another man’s poison. Actually , ethnocentricity sums up what I have in mind .Today , however, I want to delve into what politicians and ideologists call progress and I think by that I am about to examine what I will label political or cultural progress in any political culture. All the same I want to remind you that the name of this column is ‘New Cultures and Politics ‘and that is the background of this analysis.
In Europe there is a blackmail afloat to either ditch the monarchy as a political institution or bend it to accommodate the LGBTQ culture and that is being portrayed as a sign of political progress or the new modernity and culture. Or, how do you appreciate the statement by the Dutch PM that parliament will not object if the successor to the Dutch throne is involved in same sex marriage. The successor to that throne is a lady, about to be 18, who has not shown any indication that she is disposed in any way to same sex tendencies. Or the answer given by a potential successor to the English throne that he would support any of his children who is gay . You can imagine the question that led to that answer. In both the Dutch and English examples, royalty is being blackmailed and forced to a corner of existence and LGBTQ culture id being rammed down its throat in a manner similar to force feeding a baby in some cultures. That is a sign of progress in the EU nowadays. However, the danger and blackmail inherent in that attitude and its potential to be marketed to former colonies now independent but still tied symbolically to the apron strings of their former colonial masters like Nigeria or Ghana, is my business today. Especially with the historical fact that both Holland and Great Britain were the greatest colonial nations of their time and they have their tentacles spread all over the world and that includes Asia, Africa and especially Nigeria.
Let me first of all decipher the blackmail I find inherent in both the Dutch and English examples I gave before In the Dutch hypothetical case the PM and his Parliament were trying to prepare the public mind for the emergence of a gay successor to the throne even though the young lady had shown her independence of mind and character by not accepting the high stipend attached to her royal status, because , according to her , she has done nothing to earn it . She is nevertheless being assured or prepared by the PM and Dutch legislature for the fact that she would have no problem is she turned gay in succeeding to the throne. In the case of the English Prince he would have been cancelled in terms of succession if he gave a different answer. This is a Britain in which the monarchy, in this case the Queen, is the Head of the Anglican Church. Both Holland and Britain are regarded as progressive nations in the EU – until Brexit- and they are both regarded as champions of European values which are willy nilly supportive of LGBTQ orientation and way of life.
In the same EU however nations like Poland and Hungary frown at LGBTQ values and sexual orientation and have been labelled as illiberal, unprogressive and authoritarian. They have been branded as corrupt by the EU and their Pandemic financial entitlement delayed because of this. Indeed Poland went further to do the unthinkable when its Supreme Court ruled that when the laws of the EU and Poland clash , that of sovereign Poland should prevail. In a way therefore, there is a clash of cultures or civilization going on in the EU with either side claiming that it is championing human progress. It is the potential or possibility of that struggle being transported abroad in a way similar to globalization and its now failed concepts of marketization, democratization , and laissez faire capitalism, that we address here today .
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Let us look at China, a communist nation, Russia, a quasi democracy not now totally communist, and Nigeria which has a law in place against LGBTQ tendencies and orientation . We shall look at political values and cultures in these political systems and see how they can be described as progressive or not .
China has a mixed economy but is totally ideologically communist. It has a life president and is atheist but even the Americans now accept that in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Learning China is ahead of the US which is supposed to be the leading technology nation of the world hitherto . China is a one party state and the Communist Party of China dictates the pace of economic progress through five year plans approved at a Congress of the party’s delegates. Even though it does not have a religion, China is anti LGBTQ culture and anti Islam as it has stopped the Urgurs from practicing their religion . Instead, China is giving them civic orientation that they should worship the Chinese state and its ideological communist values. But China is the most progressive economic nation in the world today and its state companies are building bridges , high ways , airports and ports all over the world and life has never been better for the Chinese both at home and abroad .China has shown its diplomatic , technological , and economic might in the way it resisted successfully being branded as the source of the pandemic and forced even the WHO to accept its version of the source of the pandemic from a lab in Wuhan, China. To me China is a progressive nation taking care of its people both at home and in diaspora ; and in the way it is flexing muscle bravely with the US which prides itself as progressive because it champions gay values which the Chinese nation and leadership abhors .
Russia is not a democratic monarchy like Holland Brexit Britain but its president has positioned himself like one and will somehow rule for life in or out of office. Vladmir Putin rules like a Czar of Russia even though the Communist Party of Russia executed the last Czar when it took power in 1917. Russians have no regard or respect for LGBTQ values and will beat those with such tendencies to death in their midst or society. Since the US withdrew from the international scene first with Donald Trump’s America first doctrine, Russia has filled the void in the Middle East decisively and powerfully too, and Russians are proud of that and see their nation as at par with the US in a bipolar world. That alone makes Russians see their nation as progressive and violation of human rights really does not matter for them as EU nations would have us believe.
Let us now look at Nigeria which is also legally anti LGBTQ and has the support of its people in that regard as nobody questioned the legislature when it passed its anti gay law with a penalty of imprisonment for 14 years .Indeed the only thing that unites Nigerians outside football and the premiership are the anti gay posture of the Nigerian nation and culture. Nigeria also has a rich tradition and culture and people value traditional titles and honor. No tradition in Nigeria condones the gay culture and certainly it will be a taboo to name a gay person to a traditional throne or a chieftainship title . This is a field on which one can find even Boko Haram on the same side with the rest of Nigeria .On that score Nigeria can be deemed progressive on religion and traditional values. That may be difficult for the EU nations calling themselves progressive to accept. But as I said before, one man’s food is another man’s poison and it will be most ethnocentric of Europeans in the EU to think our way of life in being ant gay is unprogressive. African culture frowns at gay habits and Nigeria is not an exception. In spite of the presence of Shell, UAC, BP in our midst Nigerians will resist any effort to transport the gay culture to their nation. That to me is cultural progress not tied in any way to economic or political progress which are issues to be viewed in a different context and with different parameters. Once again From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.