Friday, March 5, 2010

Zuma the Magnificent

Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s flamboyant president, decided to take only his latest wife on his trip to the UK. He (or his PR team) were probably apprehensive that landing with all three wives in tow could raise some eyebrows. And all that in the aftermath of his confession that he recently fathered his 119th child out of wedlock. They needn’t have worried. The Guardian prints a picture of Zuma and his heavy-weight harem, and asks its readers to consider being “more open-minded about non couple-based relationships.” According to the editors, “perhaps, in the context of polygamy, we should be able to discuss different models of relationships.” They invite readers to share their opinions on a string of teasing questions: “Should love and commitment between two people – the couple – really be the only approved sort of relationship in society? What about alternative living arrangements, such as open relationships and communes, let alone the extended families of polygamous unions?” It’s ironic that the New Left should have abetted to such an extent the erosion of any vestige of personal self-restraint and propriety over the last few decades. This is precisely the process which has shoveled the most high-octane fuel into the engine of what the typical Guardian aficionado would probably regard as a particularly creepy brand of zombified consumerist capitalism.
P.S. Woops - I shouldn't have been so critical of Zuma. It turns out the British tabloids did pick on him. The Daily Mail ran a piece colorfully headlined "Jacob Zuma is a sex-obsessed bigot with four wives and 35 children. So why is Britain fawning over this vile buffoon?" Of course, I don't want to be associated in the least with such opinionated, over-the-top bigotry. Particularly toward someone of different skin color - it's not for nothing that the whole South African press is up in arms against this thinly veiled eruption of neocolonial racism. It's high time we sincerely embraced the idea that any cultural practice branded immoral by a faux Victorian tabloid moralizer could be perfectly normal and even admirable in a different cultural setting.