Tag: sensationalist media

Call off the World Cup!

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…and evacuate the country!

Because, after much seismic activity around the globe this year, it seems that an expert has predicted the country is almost certain to be hit by a major natural disaster. 

And it could strike during this summer’s footie tournament!!!!!!

Yes, expert Dr Chris Hartnady thinks SA is about to be hit by an earthquake. And he has singled out Durban and Cape Town as the areas most likely to be hit.

As the Daily Star points out: 

That’s bad news for England’s stars, who are set to face Algeria in Cape Town June 18.

 And the 3 million people that live here as well, right? Right?

Dr Hartnady believes the tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust are active on a fault line that could pose a major threat to South Africa.
He said: “A major earthquake disaster in the region is inevitable because wide areas of southern Africa are affected by the slow, southward spread of the East African rift system.
It is not a question of if, but when. The consequences would be so expensive in terms of mortality and economic cost that the risk of being ill-prepared is unacceptably high.”

Personally, I think Dr Hartnady is talking out of the African rift system between his butt cheeks, but it is obviously a concern: an earthquake would cause untold damage to beautiful Cape Town.

Still, on the up side, it might tidy Durban up a bit.

Zuma’s Spousal Budget – Calm Down!

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Huge uproar around South Africa today as it emerged last night that the country pays a “massive” R15.5m per year to support President Jacob Zuma’s three wives. According to Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane, the money is spent on:

“…personal support staff – secretary and researcher – domestic air travel and accommodation, and international air travel and accommodation for official visits abroad approved by the President.”

The budget has increased from just over R8.1m in the previous year, when Kgalema Motlanthe was in charge – although he kept his private life private and his wife did not attend any public engagements.
In 2007/8, when Thabo Mbeki (remember him?) was in charge, the budget stood at R8.4m.

Everyone is up in arms, because obviously, if Zuma had less wives, we wouldn’t be paying as much, innit? How dare he follow his cultural path of polygamy. Of course, there are a couple of things that have been forgotten in all the fuss. Aren’t there always?

  • SA is effectively paying R5m per wife per year. Two years ago, we were were paying R8.4m for a wife we rarely saw.
    Last year, we were paying R8.1m last year for a wife we weren’t even sure existed.
    So where were all the complaints then?
  • R15m per year amounts to about R0.30 ($0.04 or 2½ pence!) per head of population per year. That’s 2.5c per month.
    And since you were already paying half of that without complaint before, you’re actually moaning about an increase of just over 1 cent per month.
    Tell me, in all honesty, did you have big plans for that 1c? Did you?

I don’t disagree that there are other things on which the money could be “better spent”: hospitals, education, housing etc etc. But isn’t that always the case? Why the huge uproar over this? 
No, this is just another misinformed and opportunist attack on Zuma’s lifestyle by the media, helpfully egged on by the DA.
When are they going to realise that their efforts would be better served on matters which they have the power (and democratic right) to challenge? Zuma’s polygamy is not one of them.

And if you’re one of those people who are being swept up by the sensationalism of it all before you’ve actually looked at the facts, well, maybe you need to sit down and think why you’re so upset: is it really that 30 cents a year you’re having to fork out or is there actually something else driving that anger?

After months of negativity

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As I sit here by the braai, with a locally-brewed wife and beer by my side, I am filled with hope, positivity and optimism about the future here in SA. And, for once, it seems I’m not the only one.

After a wholly-unsolicited ‘I’m going out of my way to tell your viewers this’ quote “Let me tell you, South Africa is going to be ready and it’s going to be a great World Cup” from a Daily Express football writer (recently returned from these parts) on Sky Sports yesterday, Piers Edwards of the BBC has come out with a brilliant blog telling the world the other side of all the negative BS and hightlighting the double standards of the international press:

When I asked the Australian delegation if they had any security concerns, they almost laughed in my face. Thankfully, they politely grinned instead while explaining how their sports stars have been coming here for years without any problems.
Indeed, their cricketers came over for last year’s IPL and Champions Trophy and there was great irony in both tournaments’ relocation to South Africa after security concerns in their original host nations – India and Pakistan (and wasn’t it strange how South Africa’s crime issues were ignored when the IPL changed venue?).

And it is, of course, the media that drives and fuels the negativity.
Why?  I’m not sure. Perhaps they’ve just lost the ability to actually write anything positive anymore. Maybe no-one would believe it.

While English-led questions about Bafokeng dominated Fifa’s news conference on Tuesday, it was interesting that not one Brazilian journalist, and there were a few there, asked about the five-time champions’ hotel – whose completion date is as late as England’s. In fact, the endless focus on Bafokeng drove Fifa’s urbane General Secretary spare.
“If the question is ‘could we host the World Cup tomorrow?’, the answer is ‘no’,” Jerome Valcke snapped. “Soccer City isn’t ready [and] we have 700,000 tickets still to sell, but we will be ready.”

Valcke is right. SA is not ready to host the World Cup. But that’s actually just fine, because the World Cup doesn’t start until June 11th and right now, we’re still in February. If the World Cup were to start tomorrow, we’d have failed. But it doesn’t, so we haven’t.
And positive quotes from big names like Marcello Lippi:

“I’m expecting a great tournament, in fantastic stadiums, with perfect security,” says Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach, who was here for last year’s Confederations Cup. “I’m not expecting anything negative.”

and Germany coach Joachim Low:

“I see the happiness in the locals’ eyes and their sense of excitement,” he said. “They can’t wait for the World Cup and South Africa will do everything for this World Cup – that’s what I am feeling.”

being reported are a welcome change from the usual doom and gloom that has surrounded the build up to this tournament.

But even as I read the comments below the post (and they’re worth a read), there were those in there who are still stubbornly waiting and hoping that South Africa will fail, still spreading their misinformation (CAPADONNA is a good case in point – WTF is he talking about??) and striving to pollute the excitement and belief around the World Cup. Piers has a message for them:

After 80 years of the World Cup, Africa – whether some Europeans like it or not – deserves its chance to host the finals: and had you decided against coming here because of the horror stories (rather than financial restrictions), when the media changes its tune from negativity to fawning praise as the World Cup begins, where would you rather be? 

I know my answer…

Jumping to conclusions

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Once again, the sensationalist media is to blame for the wholly uncalled-for outcry over the tragic story of Thembisa Nikelo whose feet were amputated at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital after they became infected when she was brought into hospital with burns on her hands.

As a healthcare professional, I recognise that these sort of tragic events can occur. Bacteria don’t care who they infect or the results of those infections. This sort of thing happens more often than we ever hear about – be it in SA or the UK, where I worked as a microbiologist for 9 years – every case is different, but sometimes these events are unavoidable.

But the papers and the radio were quick to jump in with allegations of bad treatment and poor patient management:

Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu… vowed to get to the bottom of the tragedy that crippled little Thembisa Nikelo for life after poor treatment at Far East Rand Hospital in Springs and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.

And John Robbie on Talk702 displayed a shocking lack of knowledge and research when he stated that doctors “should at least look before they operate”.

Fortunately now a voice of reason has come forward and made itself heard, explaining the situation:

The misrepresentation has been given that amputations were carried out on normal legs of a child who had burnt hands as a callous act of negligence. Individuals have shouted their loud mouths off who themselves have never taken responsibility for doing an invasive procedure on a child, spent early morning hours resuscitating an injured or dying child, or gone through the rigours required to train and qualify to make these decisions and take these responsibilities.

To have to perform a destructive procedure such as a limb amputation on a small child is, believe me, a devastating and emotionally highly distressing experience for a dedicated children’s doctor. Media reports failed to point out that the amputations were essential, unavoidable and life-saving for little Thembisa.

These are the words of Professor Peter Beale, Head of the Division of Paediatric Surgery at Wits University who has taken the step of making a statement on the incidents which led up to the surgery on Thembisa Nikelo, the reasons behind the difficult decision to amputate and also condemning those who – with few facts or knowledge of the case – have jumped to conclusions.

The media have indulged in a frenzy of misrepresentation of this case, and individuals from the lay public have written in, condemning the surgeons responsible for the amputations and maligning the medical profession.
“The doctor who performed the amputation should be immediately and permanently struck from the roll,” according to one “gentleman”. A talkshow host suggested that doctors should at least look before they operate – which is highly presumptuous. John Robbie, I suggest you confine your comments to rugby, which you at least know something about.

I applaud Professor Beale for making this statement, but it saddens me that he had to do this. What state is South Africa’s media in that they chase readers with incorrect and inflammatory rubbish rather than taking the time to investigate the story thoroughly and printing something accurate?
That the “respected” John Robbie has also fallen to this level is disappointing. His opinions are welcome when they are backed by fact, but he completely missed the mark on this one and should acknowledge this fact and apologise. I look forward to him being big enough to do that.

This is a story in which I have some professional interest and it was plainly obvious to me as to what had occurred – as I said, I have (sadly) seen this many times in both the UK and SA. However, there are a huge number of stories in the papers that I have no “insider” knowledge of. Are they all as inaccurate as this one?
Without those in the know being forced to spend their valuable time setting the record straight – and getting their voices heard – we may never know.

Professor Beale’s full statement is well worth a read.

The FIFA World Cup draw – a warning

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Let the moaning begin. Eh?
But yes, because Cape Town is going to be hosting the World Cup 2010 draw on Friday 4th December and there’s going to be a party. And they’re going to shut a few roads to make sure that the partygoers don’t get flattened by… you know… cars and stuff.

There’s a full and comprehensive list of road closures, including times here and there are sure to be some people moaning about the traffic despite the fact that they’ve had adequate warning via the radio, newspapers and internet. And despite the fact that these roads are regularly closed when there are large conferences at the CTICC. And despite the fact that no-one in their right mind would try to drive up Long Street on a Friday afternoon or evening.
Some people are just like that.

The traffic is just the tip of the iceberg though. Some people are still in denial about the whole World Cup thing and they’re going to go out of their way (with the help of the sensationalist SA media and the Daily Mail) to publicise every little bit of negativity that they can possibly find in glaringly bright lights. And with an estimated 700 million viewers fixing their eyes on Cape Town next week, they’ve got their first little platform ready and waiting.

This should be a celebration – and it will be. The World Cup will bring jobs, people, infrastructure and money into South Africa. But possibly worth more than all those put together, it will bring publicity. And publicity can swing either way.
It’s like that, is publicity, flip-flopping between sides like Allan Boesak.
There is, of course, that age old saying that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”, but that’s complete bullshit. Try telling that to Gary Glitter or… well… Allan Boesak.
While this is a huge opportunity for South Africa, it is sadly also a huge opportunity for those that seek to derail the good things that are happening in this country and the hope that goes with them. I’m talking about the racists, the ex-pats, the union leaders and those who put their own selfish agendas in front of the good of the country. They too will be watching the draw next Friday, but for different reasons to you and I. They will be looking to pounce on anything that is not 110% perfect; be it the traffic, the TV production, the pre-draw entertainment or the weather.
Whatever they can find to dampen the celebration, they will use.

It’s sad that I feel this way, but I think that it is important that someone gets this message out there before the mis- and dis-information spreads its way out across the media. Simply put, you can fully expect the usual situation of the media over-reporting the negative aspects of life in South Africa to be concentrated while the World Cup is on. (And that includes the World Cup draw). Every incident of pickpocketing, poor organisation, drunken fist-fighting, overfilled buses or littering (ok, maybe not littering) will be documented and analysed in minute detail under evocative and exceptionalist headlines. Believe it, because it’s true.

Whatever happens, it is vitally important for South Africa that the optimism and the positive vibe that surrounds the World Cup is not drowned out by the small but vociferous minorities that want to drag this country down. So go and enjoy yourselves, have fun. And take photos and blog it, because that’s exactly what they’ll be doing for the other side.

As for me, I’m planning to leave my comfort zone of Southern Suburbia and take my Dad into town to join the chaos party on Long Street.
Can I, as they say, get a woop woop?!? (Oh, and England picked as team C1? Thanks.)

P.S. I just updated this with some amazing video. Go see.