3 posts tagged “journalism”

Some of you may be shocked after reading that. Not only by the gore of it, but by the fact you could never have imagined that could happen. Let me tell you that the area it happened in is only a twenty minute bus ride out of the centre of a major Azanian port. This gruesome incident occurred in a suburb of Durban City. Yes, you never heard about it being this bad. I know.

The truth is seldom heard. Most people only see blurbs on CNN, and then they are usually the same ones repeatedly shown, regardless of the story connected to them. If such images are shown to you without any information, you assume it happened in one of those "naughty" countries like Zimbabwe or Mogawhatsusname", not good old Mandelaville. The truth is that violence in Azania is so severe it puts Zimbabwe in the eyes (no it's not as bad as Mogadishu yet). Let me say that in standard, non Azanian English: the Azanian violence levels are far worse than that found in Zimbabwe or Malawi. The sad difference is that our situation is ignored. It is drummed home that we are a democratic country so many times, that when people go missing and turn up in the hands of the terror cell controlled from the pentagon, people just continue with their daily duties. After all, South Africa is one of the "good African states", obediently following American and British guidelines about social spending, and economic policies. So, one is sure they did "whatever" for "whatever good reason". So even if you DO happen to hear that "politicians have repeatedly said that security is an expensive affair and that Azanians need to start paying for out of their own pockets", you'd probably agree with them. A few years ago, the security industry was the fastest growing industry. Today, private security companies patrol wealthy neighborhoods, expensive electric fences and burglar alarms are installed by anyone with half a brain and the money to do it. The rest of the folks get screwed. Private security companies have even been signed up to protect certain police stations that had had their weapons stolen so many times, they themselves had become part of the problem.

Of course, I don't blame you for not knowing about our situation. We are a small drop in the ocean compared to all the other things going on. Besides, the media and shoddy journalism is also to blame. This is not only true about Azania (still known by it's colonial name, South Africa). Last month I showed some students a report about the Russian exploration of the North Pole, an dteh following day, one of the net savvy kids showed me a young blogger's response to the event. The video shown during CNN TV soundbyte/blurb was footage taken from the famous movie "Titanic". Though it doesn't prove the Russians had faked the whole affair, it does lead one to question what the media giants really assume about our intelligence. We weren't even informed about the source of the footage, which would have been half respectful. Such oversights or plain shoddy production or "journalism" is meant to sensationalise and sometimes to mislead. Many misconceptions about many important things arise from this sort of dishonesty.

When we actually read the cold hard facts about a situation in Azania or Iraq, we tend to see it in relation to other images we have seen (genuine images or otherwise) and the impact of these hard facts are actually softened by the subliminal (and not so subliminal) repetitive rubbish we have been fed prior to exposure to the facts.

As a result, when we see a leader like Ahmadenijad or Chavez address the UN, though they may be making very good points, if we have been suckered up to that point, we can't understand the address.

Now, back to the article I posted: Why has the situation come to this? If anyone wants my opinion, let me hear yours first. i will only say that it has a lot to do with a culture having been whittled away and something else put in its place. Also with a breakdown of other norms, services, and a silence regarding the whole thing. If there is noise being made, it's all that it amounts to: NOISE. The noise takes place at middle class dinner tables, and among ruling class newspaper redaers. The end result is that nothing ever happens, and a state of paralysis sets in.

There, I've gone and said too much now. I'll leave the rest to you.

And amidst all the terror they have created, they lie and lie and lie and lie......
This New Zealand interview shows the legendary reporter, Robert Fisk explaining his reasons for retiring. A seemingly broken man. The inhumanity he has witnessed in 30 plus years, has not turned him into a sub-human, but it may have nearly broken a very good man.

If he doesn't return to his job, his legacy will certainly live on in the journalists who follow his footsteps. This interview brings me to tears. I have long last seen the film called the Road to Guantanamo, and seeing these news clips in the video remind me why I have often turned the film off midway. I apologise for the language in the title, but I couldn't use the"F' word, so we will have to make do with the word "bastards".

Shame on you Bush and Blair and all your cronies. Shame on all who support these lies against all reason. Those who howl down the voices of reason and civilization, and continue to support these tyrants. History will not deal kindly with this generation. Shame on us all, for we have not done enough.

Fallujah_111404_m November 2004

60km west of Baghdad, there is peace. But residents describe it as the peace of the dead. Resistance to the invasion is still common however. Unemployment is at 80%. Car movement is banned. There is no longer freedom of the press. People often go missing and then turn up as unidentified bodies in the streets. Medical supplies are denied to the residents. It is a slow death that residents are being subjected to.

The city sees no more of the kind of resistance attacks of old, and no more of the 2004 kind of crackdown. "We are so happy that our city is peaceful and quiet after all the battling that killed thousands of our citizens," a captain in the local police force of Fallujah, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "We can patrol the streets without fear now, and arrest any person that we suspect to be a terrorist." ...

... Several of those found dead had been arrested earlier, eyewitnesses and families of several of the men killed have said.

"This is fascist behaviour that shows the brutality of the Americans and the so-called Iraqi government," a former member of the Fallujah city council who asked to be referred to as Mahmood told IPS. "Those young guys were executed without any trial. This brutality was not known in our city before this occupation began." ...

... Journalists inside the city are also quiet after a few of them were arrested and held for several days.

One of the detained journalists spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. Visibly shaken, he said that a major in the Fallujah police force had told him that freedom of the media had been misused and that the police would not allow it any more. He said the major told him that "the news you transmit to the world will be what we tell you, not what you pick up from the street". ...

... Medical services also continue to suffer under the vehicle ban. Doctors at Fallujah General Hospital told IPS that the government in Baghdad is not supplying them with medicines and medical equipment.

"The officials of the Ministry of Health tell us we are terrorists, and so we do not deserve their support," a doctor said. "As if they own Iraqi money and it is up to them whether to give it or not."

The Ministry of Health was headed by Ali al-Shemari from the group of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr until Sadr withdrew from the government Apr. 16.

Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily (August 28th, 2007)