Anonymous said…

Newsflash
There is frankly another dimension to this.
Who exactly is “the Western Media”???
It sounds absurd to me that we all sleepwalk into believing that this amorphous blob is really acting in one voice, on behalf of 500-600 plus million people.
Then we discover that it is true: If the western media is so open and democratic, then why has there NEVER been a single “balanced” story on Zimbabwe since the farm invasions?
There is another issue here:
All of these TV channels, newspapers, and “pluralist”
media are all controlled(privately owned) by a handful of people.
This is even more stark when we view this in the context of the Iraq war. The scale with which they are able to all switch from a MTV, multichoice, all access world to JUST ONE VIEW AND VISION, is stark and clear.
I reject the view that they are even acting in the “Western” interest: In Iraq the scale of the catastrophe there will be worn by ordinary British people and American people for decades, as evidenced by the misguided youth that are now terrorising their streets and stations.
The western media only act in the interests of a handful of wealthy zealots WHO HAPPEN TO BE WESTERN. They dont give a toss about ordinary peoples who live in their country. This is important because the average zimbabwean doesnt understand who they are up against, when they click or pick up a newspaper.
They will be made to shout “Mugabe Must Go” idiotically when they dont know that the reasons why the media outlets want him out is for completely different reasons to the day-to-day reasons they see on the ground.
Another stunning success “The Western Media” always seem to pull off is to carefully ignore western interventions that are directly responsible for the stories that they are reporting.
“INFLATION AT 2000%” could equally be headlined as “US Hedge Funds destroy Zimbabwean currency equilibrium by manipulating the Z$ on the open market”
My point is that there are only a few institutions large enough to affect the inflation of a country like Zimbabwe that directly, and they are NOT in Zimbabwe itself. The ignorant citizens then believe that their leader is responsible for the “busted economy” when it is quite obvious on reflection that he has no control over the demand for the Z$ on global markets.
In a way, it is very hard for an ordinary Zimbabwean to rationalise his true thoughts on all of this because
(1) They will be entering into a frame if understanding/existence where there has only be twentysomething years of “democracy” and “non-racial oppression” whereas the “western media” will be reporting on behalf of 100s of MILLIONS of people who have been economically and politically organised for CENTURIES.
(2) The scale and power of the western media and the levels to which it permeates households with its message makes the average zimbabwean (especially in the diaspora) even forget who he is and what (s)his views are, and then try to conform to the media’s message. This is evidenced by the number of contributors to this board who start off their honestly held comments with”This will baffle my western friends, but Mugabe is good”
(3) This humiliating standpoint for a zimbabwean expressing any point is exactly the aim of the Western media, and that zimbabwean should know full well that his”western friends” know exactly what is going on.
(4)Because of how young Zimbabwe is as a country, the average zimbabwe is at a disadvantage, even if there had been four different leaders democratically chosen after four different elections.
Take the example of South Africa, where despite changes of leadership we still have 20 MILLION unemployed people, which “western media” care nothing about.
(5)The average zimbabwean needs to also be aware that “Westerners” are actually jealous and envious of the country and space that (S)he takes for granted, and can be sure that even the journalist being paid to type shitty things about zimbabwe into his newspaper is sitting in very CRAMPED surroundings and bad weather. There is a big POPULATION/SPACE problem in the countries from where Zimbabwe is being reported on, which is not the case in Zimbabwe itself.

By Jon on 05.12.07 12:48 am

I’m commenting on your mention of Africa having been a far eastern and middle eastern trade partner long before the white man came over and “discovered” Africa. You are aware of the slave trade “commemoration” {sic) this past March by the British…have you wondered how come they never want to talk about the slave trade that transpired across the Indian Ocean before the TransAtlantic one?

I’ll tell you why: It’s for the vry reasons you have stated - The West is afraid of revealing how “civilized” and forward looking Africa was while they were still living in caves and plunging their continent into further darkness.

I’m an East African; I find all this talk about China (for instance) being a new trade/investment partner to Africa! The first visitors to the East African coast were the Chinese come to trade and exchange goods, some even stayed and mingled with the local coastal people. There are still treasure laden ships at the bottom of the Indian Ocen along the East African coast dating back to the Ming Dynasty…The Greeks came over saw and copied, the Romans in their quest to assert themselves destroyed the ancient stone city of Carthage, Napoleon couldn’t fathom the brilliance of expression of and ordered the nose on the great Sphinx to be blown off. I could go on but it would make no difference.

All the best in Zimbabwe Bro!

Signed: East African

By East African on 07.11.07 11:00 am

You are quite right right about the history. I know that Southern Africans also traded with the Chinese and Indians eg, Mapungubwe, and Great Zimbabwe. West Africans also established great empires that traded with the Arabs and reportedly sailed to the Americas where there are sculptures of giant stone (African) faces wearing helmets. The Nubian civilization of Sudan is older than Egypt….I could go on. Anyway, we need to protect & teach our history less we become a forgotten people.

By Pianki on 09.16.07 2:59 am