Madona and Malawi adoption: Malawians are not fools!! For British Media

We are not a foolish people and niether do we spend time hero worship a human being. Malawi is a God fearinf country, ranked number two in Africa as the most peaceful country and by the Economic Intelligence Unit as the fastest growing economy in Africa and number two in the World. British Media should be told this in clear terms.
I have respect for some British newspapers and the BBC- though at times the BBC behaves like we do not have success stories in Africa, but I am tired and sick, very sick of the type of reporting found in the British media related to pop singer Madonnas recent adoption of Chifundo James from my motherland.
There is a report in Gurdian by one Jacques Peretti , which mocks Malawi and another in the Mirror which claims Madonna bribed Malawians with US$19 million to get the child. Sick and very sick reports.
Mr. Peretti when he comes back to Malawi we will take him back to our schools of Journalism that he can learn to report "facts" and not his own creations as he has done. He claims there is a mass grave in Malawi which we bury three babies everyday, my foot.
Malawians respect death and even a day old child is accorded its own space and grave. This is very sick reporting.
By the way we have achieved a lot than most people would want to believe, we conducted peaceful elections and peoples choice was heard, we have a growing economy, we have enough food for our people's, reduced Aids prevalence and we are heading towards more prosperous society, why should we be labelled as poverty improvished or whatever accord used when our proverty levels are down.
Coming back to Chifundo, the Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo that the Mirror thinks could be bribed worked as a Deputy Registrar for the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague. He was the Registrar for Rwanda Tribunal in Arusha in Tanzania.
Malawi's legal system is very accomplished and full of professions that even the President can loose a case (Section 65). The British press should not belittle us with a colonialist eye and believe we cannot make decisions unless money is involved.
For the Guardian and the Mirror, apart from Munlo. some legal minds of Malawi today are in the International service including the Rwanda Tribunal (Justice Dustain Mwaungulu), Chief Justice of Swaziland, Justice Richard Banda, Head of Anti-Corruption Commission in Swaziland Justice Mtegha and many others.
We are a nation of achievers, peace makers and we are proud we have a record.
Next time the British media want to sale papers they should avoid creating stories that do not happen in Malawi and some of us will not rest to respond to useless articles that are full of their writers figment of imagination.
If the British media wants respect of the Malawi media, let the hire Malawian Journalists to train them and tell them that factual reporting is the core and basic principle of Journalism not creations that we have seen this week.
This reminds me when for the last seven years the British media has claimed over five million Zimbabweans facing starvation yet we still are yet to hear how these near-to-death people have survived. It is time you left African reporting to people who know Africa.
Africa is changing and it is the same neo-colonial mind that makes British Journalists fail to see that there is no difference between rebels in Eastern DRC and those in Ireland. They both kill innocent people.
There is no difference to huge racist points in Europe and Russia with Aparthied, but very few media outlets report such news. What is the difference between George Bush and Tony Blair who killed innocent Iraqs compared with Robert Mugabe.
Perhaps, that is why American media which has relative authority have remained the epitome of press. Look at Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and New York Times, these are authorities.
They dont spend time chasing half naked celebrities. Wake up British media, the world is changing and your sales are plummeting, people want reality.
Once again the article in the Guardian is very trash and usless piece of imagination. I invite the writer to take me to the grave or dusty court room he saw and I will give him a Pulizter!
Africa is no longer a play ground!!

Comments

Bennett Kankuzi said…
Well said Kondwani! Malawians are not fools as some British journalists would like the world to believe. This superiority complex of some people in the West has obviously led to resentment by many in the world.

Honestly speaking, is Madonna a holy figure in Malawi as Perretti in his Guardian article would like to put it? What a shame!
steven kk said…
Am always puzzled as well with the reporting of all British Media.They base their stories on one side and because to them they feel that Madge is not a good parent they try to twist the stories so that the readers should have a wrong conclusion.
I have been watching almost their TV channels since i came to UK and their reporting is as if all people in Malawi live under poverty line as they always write and report about HIV and a hungry nation but they forget that all those people live by their own means unlike their own brothers and sisters who are living on Government funds and council flats.
Its high time they report about positive side of Malawi and Africa as a whole and the other thing i have noted is that their curriculum in school is poor as most of them seem have not done even basic geography and think that Africa is a country not a continent.
Am even tired now of answering stupid questions like where is Malawi?
Jimmy Kainja said…
Well said Kondwani. Perett's article was really disgusting. I posted a blog on this topic as well, about a week ago: http://malawiafricanaffairs.blogspot.com/2009/06/western-media-must-give-honest-account.html
RME said…
I agree.

Most media coverage that originates from outside of Africa paints a picture of the continent as a large nation chaotically and inefficiently led by despotic rulers and inhabited largely by orphaned children who will all be saved with a few mosquito nets.

It is high time the BBC amongst other so-called news agencies stopped taking Africa hostage as current reports all succeed in writing away Africa's own agency. A phenomenon that sadly can be paralleled to Edward Said's critique of Orientalism.
I have just realised that we have a great writer here. This is one of the best articles I have read from you.
its high time countries in Africa are addressed individually and not as Africa. For example if the problem is in Uganda, the reports should not go as 'in Africa'... I hate that or else they should leave Africa alone. Every country (with or with limited resources) has its own unique problems.
Rani said…
it is very true that there is a lot of biased reporting in the world's media. It is very worrying to realise that the perceptions we have of others could be based on this very faulty reporting. Journalists have such far reaching power (especially western media)that surely there must be a special place reserved in hell for some of them!! Its important that we tell the african story from an african perspective.

I'm not sure that I'm allowed to post links here - but I have a great link to a talk by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie about the danger of the single story. Very impressive. http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

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