Africa is one big country with many problems
Friday, April 24, 2015
Just when it looked like things were improving for the ‘dark continent’, following the 2011 Arab Spring, we are once again back to square one – feeding international news media with negative news.
African leaders, academics, and even journalists have for many years been moaning about the Western media’s seeming obsession with the negative side of the African continent. The politicians have lamented images of war, disease and poverty that have come to be associated with the continent more than anything else. They were right.
The heartbreaking reports carried elsewhere on this publication of a woman killed in Metsimotlhabe and four family members perishing near Metsimaswaana Bridge are, devastatingly, not isolated incidents. They represent the sharp, painful tip of a weekend that has seen far too many collisions, injuries, and losses on the roads. This alarming spike in fatalities is a screaming siren we cannot ignore. It compels a direct and urgent plea to every...