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The Spectacle Blog
The Obama administration has announced plans to withhold U.S. foreign assistance to protect vulnerable gay and lesbian communities, abroad. This strikes me as problematic.
To be clear, I find the codified criminalization of gay and lesbian people revolting. Wherever we all stand on matters relating to DOMA, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” et cetera, I would hope we can agree that human beings should not suffer harassment, injury, or death based on their perceived sexual orientation.
However, I am concerned that the use of foreign aid to promote human rights will prove shortsighted and largely unsuccessful, for three reasons.
First of all, empirical studies of human rights and foreign aid have produced conflicting studies. Social engineering via U.S. tax dollars would almost certainly qualify as an uncertain, unwelcome and imprecise policy diktat to foreign nations. The Obama administration cannot adjust distant attitudes about gay and lesbians through bribery. Attempts to do so will produce superficial results, at best.
Secondly, if the president has decided that this country is going to advance gay and lesbian rights as a core human value (presumably in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, if not a sizeable proportion of the U.S. body politic) then Obama has painted himself in the proverbial corner. For this reason, I don’t think he have any intention of keeping his word, although his administration’s incredibly broad statement allows for plenty of wiggle room.
Consider the case of Uganda, where he recently sent a crack squad of American special forces to take sides in a decades-old bush war. Uganda is widely recognized as one of the worst places on earth to live if you’re a homosexual, and I’ll be interested to learn just how soon those troops are recalled now that the Obama administration has changed the rules of the aid game. Likewise, I’ll believe it when I see the United States pull military aid and foreign assistance from places like like Egypt, India, and Saudi Arabia — each a mainstay of virulent homophobia. Such is the contradiction of toothless political pronouncement — and the root cause of many Americans’ dissatisfaction with our global handouts.
And finally, I think we can all recognize this for what it is…a transparent political outreach to a core Democratic constituency on the home front, gussied up in the guise of global cosmopolitanism.
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More Blog Posts by Reid Smith
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/12/06/foreign-aid-and-the-problemati
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Occam's Tool| 12.6.11 @ 4:06PM
Hey, anything useful to defund the Palestinian Authority. But I'll believe it when I see it. Of course, the only country in the Middle East which is accepting of gays and does not murder them is--- Israel.
Tom in Lazybrook| 12.7.11 @ 12:41AM
You are of course aware that homosexuality in the PA controlled West Bank is NOT illegal. Violence and discrimination exists against Gays in the Palestinian controlled West Bank, just like it does in Orthodox controlled areas of Isreal outside of Newe Tzederot/Tel Aviv. Last year was the first time in J'lem's history that Gay people were able to protest publically in their national capital without violence from Israelis (2 years ago - peaceful protesters were stabbed by 'tolerant' right wing Israelis. Gaza is a different story. Why don't you write me back when there is a Gay Pride Parade in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank. Or when there is a Gay bar in Jerasalem open on a weekend. Newe Tzederot is much better than Ramallah. I'm not sure Ariel or J'lem is more than marginally better.
Occam's Tool| 12.6.11 @ 4:13PM
On 2 July 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalised homosexual intercourse between consenting adults, throughout India,[5] where Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was adjudged to violate the fundamental right to life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed by the Constitution of India.[6]
6. Delhi High Court strikes down Section 377 of IPC the Hindu Front Page; Friday, 3 July 2009.
Legally, India is progressing. Not true for your sharia advocate friends, Reid.
Cut off their aid with a meat cleaver, now.
C Bowen | 12.6.11 @ 4:42PM
Reid;
Lets pick up the arguments on the Bell Curve. During the Cold War, the battle for non-aligned countries (i.e. recipients of foreign aid) resulted in Elites supporting the radical Civil Rights Movement, even allowing a leader with domestic Communist connections to head it (I guess the Kennedy's and Hoover figured they always had a file on him and there were always other options...)
Reach further for a discussion of the Deep State.
Occam, strangley, hints at the alliance, of the on-going attempt of getting liberals to "buy into" the anti-Islamic policy--though we both know, the regime is not anti-Islam (heck, they have been toppling secular regimes and replacing them with Islamic ones for 20 years now and still they get no love) but concerned about China's attempt to control...non-aligned countries.
Americans clearly don't care; this is inside Ruling Class baseball.
Allen| 12.6.11 @ 5:28PM
Where does it say the US is going to withhold aid? The article says the President directed US agencies to use foreign aid to assist gays and lesbians who are facing human rights violations.
You should check your facts before you hit "publish", or at least check that your first sentence is correct.
Tom in Lazybrook| 12.7.11 @ 12:45AM
The best thing that they can do now is to bar entry into the USA for elites advocating gross human rights abuses against Gays. When the family of Nigerian Senator Mark gets barred from going on shopping trips to New York or Martin Ssempa can't come raise money in the USA, that will have a direct impact on those that choose to engage in advocacy of jailing people simply because they are Gay or support basic human rights for Gay persons. Its long overdue. Well done Hillary and Obama!
T.| 12.9.11 @ 6:17AM
i'm so sick of hearing about this Social Garbage, the pagens who support this issue will one day pay. and to hear the KKKlintons support of this sinful garbage comes as no surprise, they have a extra long history of supporting this perversion just to gain a political foothold in their warped agenda.
why don't the muslim administration put this issue on the ballot and see how that will turn out.