We are so obsessed with quick fame and everyone wants to be an entertainer. Half the time the individual can’t hold a note, can’t tap a toe let alone bob their head. It’s ridiculous. All these annoyingly bad reality shows, Project fame, that my friends and I aptly call Project Shame, and Flop, oops, ‘Pop’ Idols.
The auditions of course, are comic relief, but talent lacks. Why does everyone want to sing, act and dance all of a sudden? Then you have people with some form of falsely acquired confidence in themselves, that they have good voices to host radio shows and even anchor news. News anchoring has become a joke; there is absolutely no dignityor professsionalism in it, at least from what I see mostly in Eastern Africa.
It’s all about good looks, literacy (read, I can read from a teleprompter) absolutely no effort in back ground checks on stories. Questionable angles on stories, everything is politcal. On radio, the two predominant topics that people seem so absorbed in, are either politics or sex. It is so frustrating.
I just think we are so absorbed in the microwave era; instant fame, instant cash, instant appeal, instant clothes, instant meal, instant car, house, courtesy of loans. What if the land your house is built on was a road reserve, about to be reclaimed? The car you owned was an SUV, guzzling fuel and polluting the environment or your meals were made from genetically modified foods?
I hope you are seeing where I am headed with this? GM foods have caused hell in the so called ‘developed’ world over the hormonal implications and related disorders. As for the cars; America and other developed countries are getting rid of their fuel guzzlers for 'greener' and more economical cars. That’s why Toyota is the world's leading car manufacturer. This has left General Motors grappling in debt, yet in 2008 when the Hummer was launched in Kenya,a whole batch of brainwashed Kenyans were first in line to feed their steel and polluted exhaust fetish. Just proving that we are sponges that just absorb all the refuse of the West with so much glee. It is to our own detriment.We complain about what is not being done, what are you doing about it? We are hungry and the politicians are arguing. Solution, find out what agricultural methods work for your rural area or neighbourhood, huddle around with friends and family, and over the weekend cultivate the land and show people how it’s done. Work with the community.
The sewer system is spoiled? Contact the local authority in charge and follow it up. The education system lacks proper co-curricular activities. Approach the principal of your local school and see if you can start a co-curricular program. Writing, debate whatever it is.
The school doesn’t have a feeding program, start one. Fundraise for it. You don’t know how to fundraise, Google it. Find out which organizations contribute to your cause. For crying out loud ask REAL journalists or even email newsrooms.
With all the instant things we have, one thing that can work to help us all is the internet. Quit trying to figure out how you can help yourself, when the solution just lies in helping others around you.
There’s nothing wrong with some fun, but you can’t let it rule you, at the risk of an obliterated future.
1 comment:
A few friends and i were in awe while watching Inside Africa this past week. After over 3 days of deliberations The International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses made a resolution calling for legislation by all countries importing rough diamonds, requiring all imports to be polished and officially parceled by the exporting countries, in a bid to stop the multibillion dollar sale of conflict diamonds worldwide. Wonderful!!! Definitely a step in the right direction and these are efforts the whole world should applaud.
The story went on to tell about a Senator in the U.S trying to push a bill through congress to this effect. Now here we were thinking 'this is great! Somebody’s finally noticing the urgency of the situation!’, until, the Senator in question appeared on TV and when asked by Isha Sesay what the bill was all about, he said, that the legislation was geared at determining who controls these mines... need I say more?!!
My friends and I looked at each other and shook our heads in disgust! Because this is the typical African story; Africa has something we need, so let’s go to the diamond-laden villages with little goodie bags feed a few starving kids, pave a few roads in the jungle, give people clean water, throw in a few electric generators while we’re at it and decide for them what happens to their natural resources! It’s ridiculous!
That just means a decision made in the U.S congress could lead to America deciding exactly who mines where, when and how. Don’t even know why I’m surprised this is so typical, because there’s no other way to explain how a continent which lacks absolutely nothing SEEMS to have... absolutely nothing!
The British enjoy a 99 year leasehold control over salt mining in my country, Kenya. They grow coffee on our land process the beans in the U.K and sell refined branded coffee back to us at absurd prices.
Now the U.S wants to 'decide' who controls mines in Congo huh? And Isha Sesay didn’t ask the Senator what gives the U.S the right to do this. The bill probably won’t make it through the committee stage because, let’s face it; Africa may be important but not really worth anyone’s time in Congress.
What’s startling is the imperialistic mindset that even drew up the bill to begin with. They probably did it just because they could huh? Isha Sesay should have taken the Senator to task over this issue.
You know, We like to believe it did but colonialism never really ended, did it?
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