Firstly: I am proudly South African (proud of the
heritage, beauty and people of my country – not proud of the corruption and
mismanagement of my country) and so, please allow me to speak from another
country’s perspective.
Secondly: Please see this article before you feel the
need to tell me that South Africa is no longer my business.
WESTERN MEDIA
I see a lot of my fellow South African's on Facebook becoming
upset over the "World" or “Western” media's non reaction to the
events happening in Africa and particularly in South Africa. (PS. Why has the northern
hemisphere and Australia become known as “Western” - They are NORTHERN and
SOUTHERN, not WESTERN, and Western has become another word for “White” which is
also incorrect of these areas on our globe.)
Please get out a pen and paper and write a letter of
thanks to Zuma, there is very little news coming OUT of South Africa. The only
way I find out what is going on, is because I had 'liked' the local papers
while living in SA and so, see them in my newsfeed. And the news is very seldom
positive (so ask yourselves: Why do expats always comment negatively – when all
they see is ‘the worst’ when they read down their timeline?)
In the mainstream media internationally, each country has
their own problems, their own news, their own murders and car crashes, their
own natural disasters. The newspapers are full.
The reason the Paris attacks have gone "Viral"
is because of the Journalists and Foreign Correspondents in France - they have
been active in sending out articles globally. It is something that has to be
physically ‘done’ . Now, in South Africa there was a law passed - if I am
correct - that placed a very scary and heavy burden on Journalists in SA. There
is the threat of jail time for any articles that would possibly expose
corruption etc. etc. So perhaps it is these restrictions that hamper
international news sharing – or it leaves international papers wondering if
they are being fed propaganda (when they receive positive news).
There are also many news types that are not allowed to be
seen (I can't remember what the word for that is) for example there are 45
murders per DAY in South Africa - why are they not mentioned in the news every
day with shock and outrage? Why is the media quiet? There have been approx 4000
Farm "multiple" Murders documented - so there have been 4000 families
wiped out.
Zero coverage.
Apart from a few zealous Farm Murder websites.
And Carte Blanch that time.
Zero outrage.
Apart from Steve and his 1 million.
The number of rapes of South African women is also
ridiculously high - the media don't even mention it. All of those beautiful resilient
African ladies broken and shamed, inpregnated and infected. Imagine the sheer
scale of reporting papers would have to do if they had to commit to mentioning
each case?
There is an assault on ALL South Africans, physically in
some cases, psychologically in many cases, on a daily basis. Each cultural
group has their own pressures and struggles - but I am telling you - the world
does not hear about you, nor see you.
Not often.
And that is not the fault of the "World" or “Western”
media - South African journos need to stand up, draw on the strength and anger
that spurred on the Journo’s who fought against Apartheid, and start building
connections and networks with the larger papers internationally – building trust
and relationship with Editors and Newsmakers - South Africa needs to take
responsibility for spreading it's own news outside of it's borders.
Remember the Who's in Whoville who had to all shout to be
heard? "We're here! We're here!" - South Africa is WORTHY of
attention.
REACHING OUT GLOBALLY
I have heard of South Africa ONCE in 6 months - and it
was on an art radio station - and the DJ had recorded it from Facebook, Zuma
was speaking in isiZulu and the DJ offered no translation. Why? I can tell you
now – it’s not because no one is interested. There’s just no news coming
through. I have purposefully spoken to as many people as possible about South
Africa, explaining its beauty and its sadness – only one person had heard of
South Africa.
Heard of it.
She knew South Africans living in Sydney.
She had healthy respect for us as a nation.
PARIS
I have seen images of famous land marks across the world
lit up in blue white and red - where is the Cradle of mankind lit up? The
Durban stadium or city hall? Table Mountain? South Africa doesn't reach out in
solidarity or share images of such solidarity with world media - so why are
people surprised when there is no such reciprocation?
A way to get attention is to reach out and DO something.
The world looked at us during 2010 and saw a shining happy place, that image
has remained in their psyche.
POORER NATIONS ROCKED BY TERROR
I see people online saying “Why is Paris getting so much
attention?” and I say this – again, it’s about word getting OUT from those
affected countries, landing in the right persons inbox or landline or cellphone
messages, it’s about a relationship between Journos and News providers. What
you are seeing is not a massive reaction to “White people being killed” it’s a
fantastic display of an efficient news distribution team – which, done
correctly as it has been done – mobilizes the masses. It’s phenomenal. It’s
evidence of HOW powerful online media is – how quickly did our facebook profile
photos turn rainbow earlier? How quickly did they turn red, white and blue? That
is evidence of the power of communication.
There are plenty of articles about the other Terrorist
bombings and attacks, If you google the word “Terror attacks 2015” you will see
a host of articles covering the different nations – bear in mind that google is
also programmed to show you the most read news first, it’s an anti-racial
computerized program and not at all personal - so don’t post little “rants” on
Facebook accusing the world of being “Western Oriented” – it’s bull.
Just pure bull.
I would say #RantOver but then I’d have to punch myself
in the face.
