Reporting, Live from the Motherland

So I was watching a show called ‘African Diaspora’ the other night and the discussion was about future President Barak Obama and how his presidency would affect the nations of Africa. I sensed from the questions that were being asked by the host that there is an expectation for Obama to create policy to effect change in the motherland. Wow! I mean that is so much pressure but I completely get it. The way they see it, he’s black, hell he’s half Kenyan so he needs to “help a brother and a sister out” essentially.

One of the things that I’ve noticed and appreciate about people in the places that I’ve visited in Africa is that Africans don’t mince words. They pretty much put it out there. So the host was asking the guest questions like “what changes will Obama make to ease the economic, social and political strains that many African nations are facing today”? “Will Obama have an “I’m my brother’s keeper policy strategy or will he seek to please his constituents in Washington”? Yes, he actually asked this question. My mouth was agape during this entire episode!

The guest was Monica Faith Stewart, a an EMEA delegate to the Democratic Convention who lives in South Africa and represents the US Democratic party in that region. Well Ms. Stewart, being the American that she is (you know how we like to mince words, be politically correct, and use cute euphemisms for obvious shit) was practically accosted with questions that she clearly did not feel comfortable answering. In her defense, she’s obviously NOT in the position to speak for Senator Obama and the truth is no one really knows what this man will do once in office. The host’s position was basically that Africa is tired of being viewed as the Dark Continent that’s plagued with HIV. As the host stated, African nations have been saying for years that they want "trade and not aid". There is talent amongst the people but most of the countries are not in the position to help themselves without an opportunity to trade and engage economically with the western world, sad but true. But the way the host badgered this woman was priceless! Maybe you had to be there to really get it, but I laughed my ass off.

So then I watched a show called ‘Countdown to 2010’, which basically is all about South Africa’s country preparedness plan to host the FIFA World Cup in 2010. As I watched all, I could think to myself was WTF is wrong with the people making economic decisions in this country? I understand that to host a huge event like the World Cup, the Olympics, etc, the host nation must make some adjustments and changes to the infrastructure of that area in order to accommodate the event. Maybe I’m naïve but it seems to me, that those changes will cost a lot and for that reason, that country needs to be able recoup that loss from revenue generated during the event and AFTER!

To me South Africa is not the place for this. For one, there is a huge energy crisis in SA. The last time I was here, all the power in the area I was went out every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 4-6pm. If you had a generator, great, if not, lights out for 2 hours. Why, because there was not enough coal/energy supply to sustain the normal energy usage so the government devised this load shedding plan for the entire country to help assuage the costs. During this trip, we didn’t have these power outages because the government raised the electricity costs by 40% instead. Gotta love that! I don’t even know if it’s worth mentioning the crime rate here. So of course they’re beefing up the police force. Good thing for people who’ll get jobs during this time but what happens when the festivities end? Will the economy be stimulated enough to sustain itself or will it crumble in the aftermath?

It seems to me that SA is taking a huge leap of faith by agreeing to host this thing, in the hopes that hosting the World Cup will “put South Africa on the map”. See right there is where I’m like get the f%&k outta here. How many of us have not heard of freaking South Africa? Nelson Mandela, hello!!

Ask 10 (black) Americans to name some countries on the continent of Africa (first make sure that those 10 people know that Africa itself is not a country) and I am almost positive that South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Senegal (maybe folks who realize that Senegalese twists are called that for a reason), Ethiopia & Somalia (thanks to all those ‘Save the Children’ TV campaigns), Rwanda (thanks to Don Cheadle), Kenya (cause they always win for running at the Olympics, sorry), Sierra Leon (blood diamonds), and maybe Cote D’Ivoire and the Congo. Zimbabwe’s getting a lot of airplay on the global news scene now (maybe on BBC, not FOX news) thanks to Robert Mugabe’s thuggish ways but I have a colleague here who’s from Zimbabwe who worked in Malawi and was asked by a South African recruiter if Malawi was a town in Zimbabwe, which BTW shares a border with South Africa.

Some of the countries listed above are questionable depending on one’s global (African) scope of awareness but I don’t care what they try to sell me, South Africa is on the damn map!!! Cut the jokes and tell us the real reason why you’re gambling with this country that’s already in economic dire straits. Oh that’s right you won’t. I got my own theories though.

I’d love to meet people from or that have visited places in Africa that I’ve never heard of for real. Right I am obsessed with everything about the entire continent.