Tired of the laziness

[rant]
It took me three times before I could sit through the whole of The Constant Gardner. The first two times I stopped watching about half way through the movie. That movie irritated me like I have not been irritated in a long while. The movie to me is a clear example of the intellectual laziness excused by good intentions that seems to be ascendant in dealings with Africa.

You can get away with peddling all sorts of intellectual crap these days so long as you wrap it all up in nice flowery good intentions. Parts of this movie came across as nonsense to me. For example, there was a guy who had refused to take an AIDS test. The British woman tells him to take one, suddenly the next day he agrees to take one, “why did he change his mind” she asks? “Because you told him”, her black side kick replies gazing into her eyes. Then there is that silly scene where she goes to have her baby in a run down and dirty hospital in Kiberia because the, “women of Kiberia have no choice but to have their babies there.” How the hell was that meant to be sweet? She drove there in a Land Rover, she left in Land Rover, she is a wife of top British diplomat, once she delivers her baby she will go back to her massive house complete with servants, and we are meant to feel moved for her solidarity with the women of Kiberia, nonsense. And this movie was meant to be a picture of reality in Kenya? Nonsense. To me she came across as full of tokenism. But hey, they are putting Africa on the map right? They are raising money for charity right? So it’s all ok. They can peddle any crap they want so long as they have good intentions right?

I was listening to an interview on the radio a while ago on the BBC where an African music promoter was complaining about the lack of access African artists and African promoters have to the UK. He complained that governments and venues would fall over each other to host concerts like Live8 where they are raising money for us, but those same governments and venues will never assist African promoters in generating wealth for Africa through bringing African artist to the perform in the west. If the artists do manage to get a work/entertainment permit to enter the UK (in itself a nightmare - many artists come in on tourist visas which forbid you from working) to perform, then venues are reluctant to book them. Or increase their fees 500%. These promoters also said that they approached the Live8 organisers and offered to bring African artist to the London concert. They would have covered their own costs. They did not ask for a penny, but they were turned down by the organisers. But since those organisers had good intentions, since they were part of Live8 its all good right? I mean their intentions are good right?

The examples are endless and to be fair a lot of the nonsense comes from within. Until last week the main UN human rights body was the UN Human Rights Commission (it has since been replaced by the Human Rights Council of the UN). Which countries did other African nations choose as their representatives on the now disbanded commission? Zimbabwe, Libya and Sudan. But they have good intentions right? They stick up against the colonialists, right? They are showing Africa will not be pushed around right?

Argh!

[/rant]