Freedom is not a privilege but a human right
Celebrating Black History Month
By Wesley Letsholo
As an immigrant from South Africa, I acknowledge it is a privilege to be able to call Kawartha Lakes my home. I am conscious that in the generations before us, caring citizens planted trees whose shade they never enjoyed. For the sake of future generations, they strove for unity, peace, and freedom. It is incumbent upon us all to continue the good work.
Lessons learned from the past should help direct a better future. The actions we take today must be congruent with our desire for a better community. In February, we acknowledge Black History Month.
At this time, we pause and give thought to racial injustices that have displaced and dispossessed many of their commonwealth. We especially recognize how personal biases, prejudices and even racial discrimination have led to unequal treatment and negative outcomes. As we all work towards a stronger, healthier, and unified community we must remember that freedom is not a privilege, but a human right achieved through mutual responsibility.
My wife and I made Lindsay our home in 2006. I remember taking a stroll on one of the widest downtown streets in Ontario (Kent Street). I contemplated the beauty of this area, a small city on the cusp of farming and cottage county. How amazing is that? As I walked, a kind local gentleman initiated a conversation with me. He was curious as to what brought me to Lindsay.
From our conversation, it was clear that he was born and raised right here. For a man who grew up in Lindsay, his accent was peculiar to me. He spoke with an assumed Jamaican accent. He did this based on his assumption of my country of origin and he wanted me to feel welcomed. I cherished his intent.
We had a lovely conversation. As our dialogue drew to a close, I kindly commented that not all Black people hail from the Caribbean. We learn through open communication.
My experience living these past 18 years in Kawartha Lakes have been positively wonderful! Have I had racially motivated negative encounters? Sadly yes, but gratefully very few. The reality is often when we encounter someone who looks, or sounds, or dresses differently than us, it can sometimes be a knee jerk reaction to place them in categories based on our limited knowledge of other cultures and ethnicities.
The challenge for us all is to rise above our preconceived notions and recognize we are all human. We all share the same basic human desires for life, liberty, and acceptance. Diversity is our strength.
I believe that taking practical steps towards creating a strong and vibrant community are imperative. Ways to do this could include volunteering your time to assist local programs that are having a tangible impact on the people in our community. For instance, locally, Community Care offers a holistic program portfolio.
Another idea to build a healthier community would be to support or join organizations like Kawartha Lakes Health Care Initiative whose members recruit family physicians to our region. Additionally, the Lindsay Rotary Club is active in seeking projects that better our community.
With our combined efforts of goodwill to all humankind, we can move towards the positive outcomes we all desire. Now more than ever, our efforts towards peace must be resolute.
While I agree that freedom should be a universal human right, that view is not shared by everyone on earth. With more displaced persons than ever before in human history world-wide, increasingly open, even if illegally, borders, and 40 million slaves in the world today, we must sadly acknowledge that freedom is not, in fact, a universally accepted human right.
Nor does every culture value goodwill toward all humankind; some are downright genocidal. The flag of the Houthis (officially Ansar Allah), backed by Iran and currently occupying Yemen, trading slaves, and waging war, reads: “God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam”.
On our streets in Canada, we regularly hear protest chants encouraging the Houthi attacks on supply chains in the Red Sea: “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud; turn another ship around”. Sadly, we must accept that even in Canada, freedom and diversity are not universally valued.
The Outlaw Ocean by Brian Urbina details a thriving business in slavery upon the high seas that exploits mostly poor people from southeast Asia. CBC has a podcast entitled “Outlaw Ocean” in which Urbina details slaves kept on ships for years – in neck chains, in hunger, in desperate conditions, whipped and beaten until they are no longer useful, then thrown overboard and shot in the water.
Kawartha Lakes is still pretty uni-cultural but not entirely and over the next decade with our population predicted to double, we cannot take for granted that everyone who moves here will share our values of freedom, equality, human rights, democracy and rule of law. I would like to see the City and private organizations support active outreach to newcomers to welcome them into our community and to share with them and to actively advocate for our human rights values. But it will be hard to do that in the context of a province and a nation that is doing the opposite.
I do not believe equality, freedom and human rights are compatible with every other ideology. We need to actively promote the value of our beliefs if we want to retain our freedoms.