It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The discussion in the thread includes the recognition that there is really nothing we can do about it, although a boycott of Russian Vodka is mentioned. The goal, expressed by the OP is to get a few people reading the thread to change their opinions. Far too weak a goal for the outrage expressed.
Is this what people really want? Is this how a modern society is suppose to treat TEENAGERS?!
What is wrong with the world today and these nations? It's funny, because the article states that 85% are against same sex marriage . . .
In any case, this is just purely disgusting, and these people,..well I have no words that the T&C will allow.
THE federal government has responded with near adequate conviction, the pressure by Western countries to impose the perverted culture of legalising homosexual lifestyles in Nigeria.The two arms of the National Assembly have taken uncompromising stands, making a law prescribing a fourteen-year jail term for people caught, tried and sentenced for practising homosexual acts in Nigeria. Our President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has also made it clear that he would align with the feelings of the Nigerian people and its supreme legislature in ensuring that the law is implemented.
Our rejection of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) nonsense is total and unequivocal. It is rooted in our cultural, religious and social values as a people. It is taboo, abominable and repulsive. Therefore, we cannot afford to allow the moral fabric of our society to be so degraded by foreign cultures and pressures as to allow these evil acts to become acceptable here some time in the future.
Originally posted by charles1952
Dear ATSers,
I hope this thread will challenge you. In this particular case, the homosexual youth of Russia are being mistreated.
We can certainly decide not to do business with countries that we disagree with and this may ultimately foment social change of some kind. I absolutely don't agree with aiding ANYONE in an armed conflict and certainly not going to war over cultural differences.
Should we make an effort to change Black culture (violence)? Native American culture (alcoholism)? Gay culture (unsafe sex)? Islamic culture (Gay intolerance and a basket of other issues)? Chinese culture (corruption and lack of democracy)? And so on.
Obviously, indiscriminate killing of its citizens is sufficient reason to go knocking on another country's door with a stern letter and an M16 in hand.
I'm sorry, I don't follow this at all.
As for Russia, Putin is such a macho, macho man. A real village person. He wants to generate more babies to support the country. He simply forgets that heterosexuals produce homosexuals.
Absolute agreement here.
Different countries are on different cultural evolution time tables. Even the US is in it's own cultural evolution infancy. Equality for women and minorities is a relatively new thing in the history of the US- we have progressed much faster than most countries but much more slowly than others.
I used this article as an example of a country that has a firm social and cultural basis for rejecting what we would consider a human right, or at least, a legal activity. I thought it important as I was looking at the question of cultural morality and our response to differences.
Can you describe to us exactly what form this 'pressure by Western countries to impose the perverted culture of legalising homosexual lifestyles in Nigeria' consists of? The article you linked seems to be complaining about some unnamed Western country appointing a gay person to its diplomatic mission in Nigeria.
These were mentioned as cultures we have expressed little desire to change, as opposed to the Gay-intolerance in the culture which was the sole subject of the thread I referenced.
Should we make an effort to change Black culture (violence)? Native American culture (alcoholism)? Gay culture (unsafe sex)? Islamic culture (Gay intolerance and a basket of other issues)? Chinese culture (corruption and lack of democracy)?
Good. Excellent point. If we are promoting better behavior, then we must be saying that their present behavior is not as good as it should be, and should be changed. Several posters have said that is none of our business. I take it you disagree with them.
Instead, let's ask how promoting better behaviour, even through the use of diplomatic pressure or legally allowable sanctions, can be called 'changing somebody's culture'.
Because if we are not prepared to threaten violence against those governments with a policy of killing innocents in large numbers, we have no reason to try to stop any behavior. Further, if the world knows we will not fight for any cause outside of our borders, then diplomacy is useless and the only tool we have is sanctions. Those have been proven to be only marginally effective against small countries, i.e. Cuba, and could never be seriously threatened against larger, more powerful countries such as China. If the issue was important, our sanctions would be seen as an irritant at worst.
Obviously, indiscriminate killing of its citizens is sufficient reason to go knocking on another country's door with a stern letter and an M16 in hand.
Can you explain why this is so obvious? I'm very interested.
Again, good. You seem to be saying that we should disregard claims of "culture" when a group tries to justify doing something we don't like. Something, in short, which is against our culture. But it is our culture that tells us our freedoms are important. Many other groups don't have that same belief. If their cultures can be ignored, why shouldn't ours be?
Every hidebound, patriarchal, atavistic power-elite in the world tries to protect its privileges and its cherished prejudices by invoking the totem of culture. This is as true in the United States as it is in Russia or Nigeria.
And if dissidents are arrested, ballot boxes are stuffed, and our diplomats are snubbed (Russia again, among others), then we stop sending them free money and ask the UN to punish them? What do we do to the country after we've cut off their aid and we find that they're still managing to get by?
It is very different from trying to bring about change through democratic means, peaceful protest, diplomatic gestures,