When our friend Cliverton railed on at Ikael Tafari the other day I stayed quiet because like all of Clive’s friends, I know that he gives no quarter when anyone holds up Fidel Castro as being worthy of praise. (Clive’s article is here)
Clive’s friends understand his personal reasons for the reaction to Tafari’s article. We respect his passion for a free Cuba, his knowledge of Cuban revolutionary history and even his stand that anyone who disagrees with him about Castro is unworthy of consideration.
And we’re no fans of Ikael Tafari ourselves, you know!
But by targeting in on the fawning reference to Castro, Cliverton missed the point of Tafari’s Nation News article African Crossroads – The Human Condition.
As I read Tafari’s piece, I see his argument that all races do evil, and have done evil on a mass scale. Further, he relates that some folks attempt to point to the cesspit that is Africa as an indication that the black race somehow has a predilection to violence, chaos and authoritarian government – and that this racial construct is false having regard to the history of the world.
So far, I agree with Tafari – but then he begins to wander down a path that is no doubt clouded by some fragrant haze hanging in the air. Tafari says that the “white-controlled international media” ignored our recent peaceful Barbados elections because of some racist views. Here is what he said…
If a predilection for authoritarian government was something inherent in Blacks, this triumph of democracy could hardly have happened here. Doubtless this is why the white-controlled international media have not accorded any worldwide attention to the Barbadian election – the political maturity displayed during the recent campaign confounds the kind of racist assumptions underpinning the Euro-centric world view which they systematically construct through selective presentation of the “news”.
… Ikael Tafari in African Crossroads – The Human Condition
Hmmm. I think that Ikael Tafari’s own racist views have coloured his vision.
Did the “white-controlled international media” ignore the Barbados election? Google search “Barbados election” and you will see about six thousand returns including many news articles and blog commentaries from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and many other countries primarily served by the “white” media.
But Tafari would have been happier had the international news media done major stories saying “Hey… look at them darkies down in Barbados. They had an election and didn’t slit each other’s throats like we expected.”
I have news for Tafari… THAT would have been a racist response from the international news media – but again, Tafari expects and demands international praise and recognition that Bajan black folks had a peaceful election.
There is a cruel saying in the newspaper business: “If it bleeds, it leads”. Tafari doesn’t get it. Peaceful elections in tiny countries are not news unless violence was expected.
Thank goodness that the world’s attention doesn’t focus on Barbados elections!
The World Does Not Revolve Around Barbados – And It Has Nothing To Do With Race…
Mr. Tafari also fails to consider that while we are proud of our country and our peaceful elections – we have a population of less than 300,000 on a good day. And that, my friends, is less than the population of a large town in many countries. It is a sad but true statement that most of our larger neighbours consider our Prime Minister to be of less importance than the mayor of a small city. In fact, there must be hundreds of mayors in the world who control city budgets that handily exceed our country’s annual budget!
No, Mr. Tafari – the world media didn’t ignore our elections because of racism… they ignored our elections because they probably can’t even find us on a map.
Again, it is not what our proud citizens want to hear, but it is nonetheless true that for most of the world’s population if they were asked “Do you care at all about Barbados?” they would reply “No” or more likely “Where..?”
Back To Tafari’s Rose-Coloured View Of Africa…
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