Ignorance

Attending to a relatively liberal university like UCLA sometimes gives you the illusion that the rest of the world is just as forward-thinking as Bruins are when it comes to human rights. Today as I was driving one of our Director’s cars to a commercial shoot, I didn’t want to disturb her radio settings so I listened to NPR instead of a Top 40’s station for a change.

In the short twenty minute drive to the studio, I heard about how the UN is attempting to restore order in Afghanistan through peace talks with the Afghani government and the Taliban. However, these agreements are completely devoid of any statues in regards to Women’s rights. A female government worker in Afghanistan’s second largest city of Kandahar speaks about the terror of living as a woman under the Taliban regime and how she herself has received threats on her life from members of the Taliban. The Taliban that women should not possess any occupation outside of the home. As such, this anonymous female government worker wears a different color burqa and take different routes to and from work each day out of fear that it may be her last.

Afterwards, they featured a program about Anti-Gay laws in Uganda. A pastor in Uganda by the name of Martin Ssempa is trying to get an Anti-Homosexuality Bill passed that if enacted, would result in the sex penalty for anyone having homosexual sex if they are HIV positive, two consenting adults being incarcerated for life for practicing homosexual sex, as well as prison time for heterosexuals who do not report homosexuals known to them to the government. What’s even more ludicrous is that Kevin Odor, a pastor of Las Vegas megachurch Canyon Ridge Christian Church, is financially backing Ssempa behind the guise of wanting to end the AIDS problem in Africa. 

While we may think that the days of civil rights activism ended with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, it is evident that much more needs to be done before people can get over their unfounded bigotry and begin to understand one another. And perhaps this is a sign that I should stop listening to trashy Top 40’s stations all the time and listen to more NPR.