A wish for my future

Human Rights and the struggle for equality.

I’ve always wondered what exactly I was going to be doing with my life. Was I gonna be a doctor? A lawyer? A cook like my mother? A big shot CEO for some fancy company? I simply did not know…And it has caused me quite a bit of stress throughout my life. What did I actually want to do job-wise with my life besides trying to be happy?

But….while doing my Masters degree I STILL did not know what I actually wanted to do….other than the one thing I’ve always wanted, but mainly just took for granted the everyone wanted to do that as well…I’ve always wanted to help people.

People who has every odds against them…the underdogs….the resistance….people who go against the norms found in society in order for them to be themselves….Those are the people I wanna help get to the top.

While doing an Internship in Cape Town last fall, I worked for an NGO who did a lot of civic society work and promoted democracy in South Africa. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Heinrich Bôhll Stiftung’s conference titled “Struggle for equality: Sexual orientation, gender identity and human rights in Africa”. http://www.boell.org.za/web/lgbti-593.html

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and I loved it!

Such an eyeopener…

I know quite a few people in Europe who are struggling with being accepted with the more conservative views on homosexuality. Comparing the (at times) very conservative European views with the African views, I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be gay in Sub-saharan Africa!

As one soon figures out after arriving in Cape Town, the city is the Mekka for homosexuals in Africa! This is because South Africa is one of the few countries – if not the only one – where homosexuality is protected in SA’s constitution. This could not be right. Surely, with the African (Banjul) Charter, every race, gender, sex, political attitude and religion was secured within the charter. Naturally every country’s constitution had to protect everyone’s right when the Charter clearly states that everyone is protected…

Surely, I had to be mistaken or I must have misunderstood something. Homosexuality is a difficult subject all over the world, but to hear how in certain parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, you can get stoned for getting caught in the act of ‘having fun’ with someone of your own gender. In certain places you can get away with a large fine (and if you can’t pay, prison time or removal of a limb) if you’re mere accused of acting inappropriately by someone.

At the conference I was told countless stories; of how a gay man  had come out to his family and their reaction was to call the government, who came arrested him. He was sentenced 75 years prison time! A woman was tortured and scarred all over her body because she was caught kissing an other woman. Another woman had her children removed and then her husband beat her within a inch of death, when the neighbor had told him that his wife was a lesbian and had kissed another woman on the street.  These stories horrified me and yet I was deeply fascinated by how different and intolerant some people can be, because it is so far from my own life that I can’t relate in anyway.

Growing up in Denmark in a working class family, I always worked hard to reach my goals. Well….mostly…I hit an extremely lazy period during my teen years  ….I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, so me and my siblings quickly learned some of the corner stones of life:

• If you want to be the best, you have to work at it.
• Treat people the same way you would want to be treated by them.
• Do not be afraid to make mistakes-its the way you learn in life.
• No matter how much you screw up, your family will always have your back.
• The shit Life throws at you, does not define you. You define yourself.
• Be yourself and you’ll have better chances of being happy.

During my time in Cape Town I quickly realized that even though I’ve never been rich, I’m still privileged in the sense that I have no doubt that my family and friends would accept for who I am no matter what.  A lot of other people are not as privileged…Many people are struggling to have the equality that I’ve always had and clearly taken for granted…so the conference was a lesson learned not to take my life for granted and now I have a clear view of what I want to work with in the future…

I enjoy my life, so why should I not help others try and enjoy theirs? One way to do this would be to work with human rights with a special focus on minorities such as homosexuals, woman and children’s’ rights.  

I really think I could make quite the difference within that field.

If only someone would actually give me a job....