Uzodinma Iweala - Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa - 3 views
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Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been "granted independence from their colonial masters," as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned?
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Felecia Russell on 04 Oct 11Now this is the question. It is not about why Americans are helping Africa, but it is about who are being highlighted as the faces of saving Africa. This is partly the media's fault, but it is also a guilt trip of Americans becasue of previous slavery and racism towards African Americans. Highlighting these people is a way to show reparations and the new and improve America. To show how white people are helping the poor Africans. However, this is unfortunate because some of these people do these things out of the kindness of their heart and not for the public hype. There is nothing wrong with helping those in a less fortunate space. Personally, I LOVE brangelina :)..Nevertheless, they are not the only ones helping those in Africa and Africans are not the only people who need help.
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Matt Nolan on 04 Oct 11In today's society everything is about celebrities and what they do for the world. Bono and Angelina Jolie are an example of white people helping the poor Africans. I completely agree with Felicia on this one, people don't want to see someone of the same race who is just as poor trying to help someone, people want to see rich celebrities giving a helping hand because it motivates the people of the United States and around the world to try and help anyway they can. The celebrities are symbols of peace and bring the people together.
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Kaitlyn Guilbeaux on 04 Oct 11I agree with Felecia that subconsciously, perhaps the media is placing the spotlight, and the 'halo', upon Bono and Angelina as a way to make up for the way that white people in the past have treated African Americans.
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Tavish Dunn on 05 Oct 11I agree with Felecia's statement. Celebrities are highlighted as the ones trying to "save" Africa as a way of generating hype for the issue, whether they are helping out of kindness or the desire for more fame. In addition to using this as a way for people to get rid of their feelings of guilt, people are motivated to give because they have placed celebrities on a pedestal. Many people give to a specific cause because they want to be like the celebrities they idolize and follow a trend rather than showing feelings of true kindness.
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Eric Arbuckle on 05 Oct 11I agree with Felecia too!
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Xochitl Cruz on 05 Oct 11I agree with you Felicia. I feel that the focus is on people who are not African helping out, for the reasons you and others have pointed out. These famous celebrities get all this media for doing something with a country in need. However, the people who pay out of their own salaries to help everyone else around them, gets nothing, those people I feel are the ones really doing this for personal gain
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anonymous on 05 Oct 11Felicia definitely hit the nail on the head here. I agree, and I find it a little bit unfortunate that Africa has gained the image of this disease ridden poverty stricken place due to the focus on celebrities and what they've done for this country. The media has a huge impact upon any movement or form of popular culture today, and I think the author makes a good point at the end when he states that Africa is framed as this place that needs "saving." Others feel sorry for Africa because of it, and a big deal is made of helping and being Africa's hero really, communication and maybe some alliances with other countries would be much more effective in helping Africa to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty it's been in since apartheid.
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steve santos on 05 Oct 11The framing heuristics of the hype of the celebrity influence of thinking celebrities are the vital sense of sincerity in actually trying to help where marketing typically is a guilt trip to advocate a cause for the sake of sales wether than the ideal is truly advocated. The severity of the heart of africa is drawn to be black and diseased where there are certain aspects of civility that africa actually has but is undermined to the sense of racial diversity.
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chelseaedgerley on 12 Oct 12Honestly its all part of politics.For decades the USA had gone back and forth on US policy and whether or not to intervene. Its unfortunate that Africans have this stigma attached to them as dying, and unable to help themselves at all. However stars and other white people have raised/donated mission to help them. I understand that white are portraying them a certain way but a lot of good have been done for those people.Media driven or not, I believe their is a true passion in most people to help people in Africa. Some intention may be dishonest but you can focus on the negative when trying to save lives.
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It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption.
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Oh, how much I love this statement! Truly selflessness is a flag we all fly, as we shout out about our altruism, in order to fulfill the selfish desire for recognition, and in this case, rectification.
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This is truely a good statement, since I do believe that this is very true. Westernized countries just plain feel guilty about the situation in the Middle East, therefore they took to trying to "save" Africa to clear their guilt.
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I do think a lot of people just do things like this to make themselves feel better but I think it's more related to them trying to justify the way they live. How much we have compared to others. I've never really thought of it in relation to the Middle East, I don't think I see the connection.
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I think that this could be attributed to a general trait that Western societies have in general... people need to help other people in order to, essentially, feel good about themselves. Yes, people may feel guilty about other situations, but I think that generally people need to do something to make themselves feel better, and that something, in this situation, tends to be "saving" Africa.
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I have to comment, though it humors me you believe we are responsible for the middle east situation, I am not surprised. What is the "situation" in the middle east? How did we get there? What kind of beliefs do the radical Muslims have? And if we "messed" up the middle east and if it's our place to feel guilty, what was it like before?
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If we are reasonable for the situation in the middle east who says we are not responsible for the situation in africa. We have continued to pour more money to dictators to get resources like diamonds. Which they use to buy more weapons to repress the people. We then give money for aid to these communities but they have to either go through the dictator or the dictator himself just posts a heavy tax when the currency is converted to the local currency (which he has a law in place to require)
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This statement speaks so true to all Americans because even they can honestly say that we're all guilty of this. Whether it is the government or us as individuals, people do good things to feel good about themselves.
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This is the epitome of what America had become. Actions to "help" others are taken out of personal guilt. The reasoning behind helping others, especially others, has lost meaning. It's as though people justify lending hand to others is because it's what they are supposed to do, rather than really wanting to.
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I think this is also an example of the "white savior" mentality that a lot of people have, without even knowing. Africa and its inhabitants are not seen as equals, but as things that could be saved with westernization. It's racism in a very subtle, but real, form.
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Everyone wants to help save africa, but there are so many other problems in other countries too. Like the drug war in mexico. Africa is not the only country in need. In fact there is still a lot to do in our own country to help others.
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as emaciated as those they want to help.
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The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and "civilization."
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It is sad really. The West feels that it needs to industrialize, modernize, and stabilize developing nations - a goal which is objectively not plausible - and there is a definet focus on Africa. While many other developing nations receive aid, African countries are singled out and lumped into one group of "african", where s south east asian countries for example would be listed by their specific names. Africa is a large continent with a VAST array of cultures, languages, races, and governments. The nations of Africa differ greatly in their levels of modernity, and to assume that the governments of Africa are corrupt or unable to fix their domestic problems, is in a subtle way, racist and ethnocentric.
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Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself
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There is no doubt that Hollywood does tend to exploit people. But then again, what flashy business doesn't?
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I agree with this statement. The issues pressing onto Africa with starvation and warfare are used as simply entertainment background for cinema. Sure there is always a message with topics like this. Aid is important, but the pop culture attention drawing to Africa makes it seems like nothing is being solved at all.
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There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans.
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Every time i see an ad or commercial about the white celebrities trying to "help Africa" a thought like this goes through my mind. I highly doubt that a celebrity with such high ratings in today's society truly wants to save Africa's poverty or starving people. I feel as if they do it more for the social attention and positive reputation rather than for their souls and well being.
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I would not go so far as to say that all celebrities vie for attention by doing the "help Africa" stuff, but I would agree that a large majority do it. I don't really feel it is asserting cultural superiority or dominance as just being selfish in their own right.
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I think it's really interesting how charity has become a social appeal. People don't donate because they want to help out, they donate because other people will think higher of them. A point this article is trying to make is that the publicity of "helping" is so overwhelming it almost takes away from the action itself.
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I really agree with the above statement that people help now because they feel like everyone is and not because they are really into the cause and want to help. I think this is also why so many stars have their own foundation, they feel like more people have them then people who do not.
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Does it really matter what inspires the help? As long as the people that need help get help that's what is most important. Help is help no matter how you look at it or the reasons behind it.
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i think that it does matter. I don't think the people want others to pity them. Yes, they are receiving help but it is demeaning if people are going to help and have no passion for it. "here, take this because it will make me look good and i want to follow the trend." i don't think anyone would feel very good about getting that.
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The basic premise that the author appears to be making is that of the egoism that we as "first-worlders" have in regards to Africa. The author feels that we do not help Africa typically out of genuine want to see good happen. but out of our own want to feel good about ourselves and have other perceive us as good people. Sometimes even when I do "good" things, I wonder if this is the case. Especially when I was applying for college. Did I do 200 hours of community service out of the goodness of my heart, or the want to get into a good college? The truth may lie somewhere in-between.
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It is obviously a bit of both but I think how the media plays it, it leads us to lean towards the cultural superiority
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I understand how his "mood is dampened". I can't stand when people feel they must talk about how amazing they are and what they have done. Whenever people do that it becomes evident that the reason they did whatever they did was to acquire more attention from others. "You have to speak to be heard, but sometimes you have to be silent to be appreciated".
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True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments -- without much international help -- did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.
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But isn't that the point, these people are helping just to help and the other people are often helping to gain media attention.
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I would have to agree with this point of the article as the media will portray what they want the people to focus on. If the media does not believe that certain aspects of a situation will grab the people's attention then they will not show it, even though that point could be significant in pointing out the true heroes and their actions. I find this unfortunate as the article mentioned earlier that the media portrays celebrities that help, but why not the ordinary people, especially those of Africa. The media should really get to focus on the true aspects of a situation.
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I think it's important to note that all the media cares about is the bad things that happen. They only report how Africa needs to be saved but there is no information of all the good that is being done right now.
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i agree that the media only focuses on what they want us to see, not everything in africa is as terrible as the media may portray it to be. yes situations in other countries are extremely hostile but the media tends to focus and just the negative to gain sympathy and attention to that subject. the opinions are then skewed.
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a sexy,
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Something about using this word doesn't seem appropriate in the context of people who are active. Whenever a writer uses this word, depending on its context, I usually think less of the author.
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I dont understand why this word is used in this article, it doesn't seem to fit. I agree with the above person it makes me think less of the author.
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I feel like this word was used in this article to represent the current generation. Our current generation is basically to the extent that sex sells. So the author was just probably trying to make it known. I think the word, 'sexy' also had to do with the fact that the author was talking about celebrities in relation to the main topic.
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I also agree that this was a reasonable use of the word. The lovely irrational citizens of America are much more likely to get behind something that's trendy and "sexy". And that's exactly what the author is calling us out on. Many people arent (perhaps subconsciously) 'helping' out Africa out of humanitarian love, but because it has become trendy lately. you see "sexy" people helping out kids in Africa, and you want to be "sexy" like them.. I've done a terrible job explaining the use of this word, but hopefully y'all get what I'm trying to get at.
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stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death.
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See, this is one of the problems with widepread media campaigns... they often give people the wrong idea about what is really happening and what is the real state of people. It won't be easy to integrate into campaigns, but people need to be aware of the big picture, not just segments of it.
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I sometime catch myself falling into this trap as well, I get convinced by the media campaigns that africa is just filled with disease and starving people.
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This is definitely a problem with media. Obviously not all of Africa is as bad as we make it and it leads all of us to believe that everyone needs help. It paints a different picture than what is actually going on.
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Media blinds us from seeing the actual problem going on in Africa. I do find myself believing that these campaigns are true. The only focus on certain things that attract us to think the worst. This is a major problem in the social media campaigns
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I think that the major problem with these ad campaigns is that they only show poor run down villages. The towns that have actual success in their businesses are never shown. The play to society's emotions to raise revenues, which may or may not be helping. Although I'm sure there is corruption in Africa, the West may be trying a bit too hard to fix the problems. Social media leads society into believing they need to make a change radically, when a gradual change is probably going to help more.
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Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
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This statement could very well be true and if our country, along with others do not give them a chance how will we ever know if they can stand by themselves with good relations. I believe that it is just hard for us Americans to realize this point because we are a country that is used to helping when we believe someone needs it and it is hard to back off if you have seen they are in trouble.
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I see where African is coming from, with all progress the western world sees as coming from powerful nations, when really there is quality work being done from the people of the nation themselves. If the western world keeps on crediting themselves for the progress made, it makes them feel like they have done all the work and makes them feel better about themselves for doing such quality humanitarian work. Though humanitarian work is absolutely helpful, more note should be taken to the work being done by the people themselves.
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This is an interesting point. Maybe instead of trying to emulate the suffering of Africans, we can talk about the power they possess. By empowering the population, by providing life-sustaining support but not expecting glory in return, and by identifying African citizens as capable citizens of the world instead of a helpless population reliant on our generosity, the world will gain a bigger respect for Africa and its citizens will tap into this unprecedented growth.
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pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.
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This really illustrates the majority of the college liberals who say they want to save africa, I think that if we just gave the same sympathy that we give to africa to the destitute in our own country then more people would help because it would bring that same fame and self fulfillment as someone who is making a difference for someone.
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I don't think that this statement is really appropriate for the author to say. I also think that if they are trying to help those that need help then that should be respected.
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should it really matter what the motives are for people who are giving money and aid to Africa as long as it is helping and trying to make a difference?
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I don't think it should, but I think that what this author is trying to say is that people are trying to make a difference but it may not actually be helping the African cause. However, this author is asking something of the media that they do not do in regards to other things besides Africa. They don't ever report good things that people do, it's always about the bad, so the media isn't targeting Africa, they are targeting everything.
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Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
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Just because parts of Africa are in poverty, doesn't mean that all areas are. Those people should still be acknowledged and recognized for the hard work they are doing. Some parts of Africa are actually capable of going far and are going to be very successful. People there still have the opportunity to make a change.
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News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation.
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I never really understood why news does this. Why do you focus on the negative? I feel like society has become increasingly negative. But the negativity makes sense because when things become frustrating you get discouraged and give up. There needs to be a balance between negative and positive. When there is positive it is up lifting and gives people hope. The news shouldn't focus on just negative because that contributes to the discouraging factor.
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ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted "tribal markings" on their faces above "I AM AFRICAN" in bold letters.
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I like the last line, "we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth." It's nice to think about ourselves in that light, and its an optimistic picture for the future, but what are we actually accomplishing and what are we falling short on?? Words can only go so far, sorry to be sort of hypocritical, but action must be taken if change is your goal.
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magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back.
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Stuff like this bothers me. I am all for people wanting to help out in places that need it even if it is for self gratification and all of that. But the situations are much more complicated than the media leads people to believe. There are religious clashes in many of the central African countries and in the Northern African countries like Mali we are seeing Al-Qaeda and similar organizations set up Islamic radicalism. Feeding the poor and helping the people that are displaced by these things is not fixing the problem. And for the people who are saying the the US is just sending money to these countries and their 'corrupt dictators' is just wrong. We are trying to do much more than that. We have US Special Forces in many of these countries like Somalia, Mali, and many of the other central African countries. The US is putting some of our best soldiers in there to help the people. The media does not cover that part, they rather highlight the Pitt's and Clooney's.
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Africa doesn't want to be saved
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African citizens just want to be seen as individuals that are equal to us, who have simply been born into more difficult circumstances, as opposed to some diseased animal that can only survive out of the goodness of some person's heart.. it's very similar to people who are crippled and are treated as less than human. this is kind of a reminder that we need to treat everyone as equally human, because we don't know what they're going through, we just know that they're people who deserve their same God-given rights.
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I completely agree with Felicia. The media is the greatest influence on why these celebrity figures are the ones being spotlighted for the force behind helping out Africa. I think in many ways it is the media attempting to save these reputations of celebrities in order to keep the population of readers and listeners interested. People tend to be drawn to stories that they are familiar with or that they can relate to.
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Well, I do agree it is nice to give aid to Africa and the reason does matter. People that simply give money just to have his or her name announced that they did so is not the morally correct reason. You should just give cuz it's the right thing to do but nevertheless I would not stop sending money because of ill reasons. The reasons don't matter that much. We are saving people and if the ends outweigh the means then who cares.