2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer South Africa Is More Than a Jungle With Football Stadiums
Posted: Sunday, June 13, 2010
by Michael Gaffley
flatlinetochange
News media wake up! South Africa's beauty is divinely ordained. South Africa is more than just the big five. South Africa is more than just wild animals roaming in the wild. South Africa is more than pictures depicting poverty. SOUTH AFRICA IS MORE THAN BARREN TRACTS OF LAND
When will your panoramic shots showing South Africa, change? Please get out of your preconceived, tunnel visioned and dated mindset. Show us the glorious shots of the mother city, Cape Town. Give us an aerial shot from the top of Table Mountain. Yes, please show the world that Cape Town has a cable car on the mountain. Please show off the sky scrapers in the mother city and oh yes, the delightful Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Please find the Company's Gardens at the end of Adderley Street as well as Kirstenbosch Gardens. Show the houses of parliament. Show the Cathedrals, Mosques, Synagogues. Okay, we are convinced the stadiums are world class and extraodinaire. Next you take a drive around Chapman's Peak. Show us the beauty and splendor of Camps Bay, Llundudno, Hout Bay. Show us Cape Point and the False Bay Coast. Go on a road trip on the Garden Route or N2. Show your viewers Wilderness and the surfers' paradise at Plettenberg Bay. Show us the Cango Caves. Show us the Tradouw's Pass and the quaint village towns like Suurbraak, Hawston and Stellenbosch.
What is wrong with the media to persistently showcase just the pictures of poverty? Do you even know about the Drakensberg Mountains and Pietermaritzburg? Do you even care that the third largest canyon, the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga, is a comfortable drive from the stadiums at Ellis Park, Rustenberg, Tshwane and Soccer City. Do you even understand that God's Window is a place?
What kind of media is serving us? Media that is cast in stone. In spite of what has happened in South Africa in the past, it can never ever destro South Africa's inherent beauty. Please do not continue with your archaic, blinkered, classically conditioned, pictures depicting South Africa as this haven of poverty, only. WE have changed and so can the media's perspective. Please adjust your lenses. South Africa neither spawned poverty nor perfected it. Poverty is worldwide. Crime is worldwide. But the beauty that surrounds you during this world cup is not worldwide; it is only in South Africa. You are missing this golden opportunity to really put South Africa, no to re-etch South Africa in the mindset of millions of viewers. In 2014 when we go to Brazil we will showcase the unique beauty of Brazil.
I hope to see a changed perspective. Fellow South Africans please add your most beautiful place in South Africa if I have not covered it in this article.
Please note that South Africa, historically classified its races into Coloured, Black, Indian and White and your pictures should show that this reality exists. The de facto black government has to accommodate and recognize the existence of non-black groups in South Africa. A non-racial society reamins a pipe dream. Oh and by the way we do have world class universities in South Africa! We do have hospitals,five star hotels and theaters. And we do have roadside assistance and bicycle lanes in most of our cities.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I'm so torn about this, Michael, but I agree that the media feeds off the tragedy of the poverty - which is just revolting exploitation - and that the whole reality of the country is not at all being portrayed.THe media sets its own goals and standards and that is the problem. Thank you for your understanding and comfort.
Hi Michael, I think many people know South Africa is a beautifully developed country, but they also know the developments are only a hop and a skip from shanti towns where people live in the dirt. It is as you say though no different to many parts of the world which have great wealth and progress which sits in the shadow of poverty. No different at all. I support a request for all those great pics! Maybe you can post some?A very passionate article. Kudos.Thank you for your wise counsel. How do I post it?
Captivating article, Michael. As an African I used to think that the Western media template was due to some kind of conspiracy, bias or prejudice, but I am almost convinced now that it may not be as complicated as plain ignorance or their half-baked education. Remember that American journalists are graduates from the same high schools and universities that have little clue about the rest of the world. I have two high school students in my house, and they prove my point again and again. I am filling them in on the vast education gap that the American system leaves. If we want accurate reporting on Africa, it seems we will have to do it, and you have done some of that in this article. Forget the journalists who have become politicized, partisan talking heads more than real reporters of news and information that reflect the whole of reality, not to mention global reality. Thanks much. ~mogama~I am so proud to be South African. WE need to embrace diversity while celebrating our uniqueness
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