Having lived in the developed world for almost four year now, I think I am in a good position to correct some few things in our system regarding the way our journalist and government either help or collaborate with the western media to dehumanise our own people. How many times have they not allowed the western media to go into our villages to take pictures/video of the most deprived in the society? How many times have they not sold such pictures to the western media for their own selfish gains? How many times have they not collaborated with the western media to exploit the poor and underprivileged?
Its is very sad to watch the television everyday just to see aids patients from Africa being paraded for financial assistants, very sad to see people living in slams being paraded on the television, very sad to see the underprivileged being paraded on the television everyday. This does not auger well for us as a nation and a continent in general. I believe everyone know most if not all Africa countries are developing countries, and some of the symptoms associated with developing countries are diseases, hunger, poverty etc. Most of the so-called developed countries have once been to where we are before, but is that the way they portrayed themselves to us?
Everyone who has been in a developed country before knows that life is not as easy as we all normally portray to our fellow citizens back home, and to those of us from the developed countries is even more difficult. There are people in the developed countries that are homeless just as some in the developing countries, they have no place to sleep, some sleep in boxes under bridges and in front of shops. There are quiet a lot of teenage pregnancies in the developed country just as there is in the developing countries, there are more children in the developed country who come from broken homes like some in Africa. There are people in the developed countries who have not worked for most if not all their lives. There are so many types of diseases in the developed countries some of which we have not even seen before in Africa. The crime rate in the developed countries is nothing good to write home about. Teenagers keep killing each other almost every month.
One good thing about the white man is that, they will always try to portray the good side of their country and not the bad. On the contrary an Africa journalist/government will always portray the bad side of the continent. Most teenagers in the developed countries for instance get benefits from the government from the day they were born till they start working. Most girls who engaged in teenage pregnancies get the necessary support from their governments to help them in their new life. They are given a flat of their own and monetary benefit to keep them going. Women who have separated from the husbands normally get some benefits for themselves as well as for their kids. Most mad men do not parade on the street in the developed countries like it is in Africa. They are kept in rehabilitation centres, thus making it to look like there are no such people in the developed countries. Every citizen in most developed countries are entitled to free healthcare and education to some extent. There are aids patients in the developed countries but are never paraded on the television as we help them to do to our people.
From all that have been enumerated above, it is very clear that the white man will always try to protect their own, while the Blackman will always exposed his. Back in Africa there is nothing like benefits. There are people in need of some few cedis in Ghana to start a business of their own but never get it, there are people who cannot afford to go to hospitals because they do not have the money to foot their healthcare bills, people could not afford the basic necessity in life like food, clothing, shelter etc. Girls who engage in teenage pregnancies are never given any support, parents from broken homes toil alone to cater for their children. But the good thing is that all these people managed to survive this hardship.
Instead of our media to protect such people they rather turn to betray them the more, by collaborating with the western media to parade them on their televisions day in and day out. In my own view, I believe we are doing well as a nation and a continent. The developed countries also borrow moneys from similar sources as most African countries, but they do not parade the underprivileged on their television in order to get what they want. It is about time we show the western media the positive side of our dear continent, our rich cultures, our capital cities and our tourist attractions etc. We need to respect the dignity of our rural folks; no one can protect them, except we the educated. We should stop selling videos of HIV patients to the western media and rather sell our rich culture and tourist attraction to them. We must deceit from selling video of our children/future leaders to them; else posterity will never forgive us. Those who need to give us loans/grant are already aware of our plight and all they need are figures to help with their projections. We need not show them videos to beg for money, because there are people in similar situation here who have never been shown on the television in order for the government to get grants to help them. We are tied of seeing our brothers and sisters being paraded in the western media and I appeal to all African leaders and every educated person in Africa to help in protecting our people. Our leader have failed us over the year and now is the time for us to take our destiny in our own hand to protect all our citizens no matter their political and cultural background.
Copyright © 1994 - 2024 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.
