More Stupidity From World Leaders

 

Is anyone else tired of the stupid characterization of an entire continent?

Image taken from a study regarding Africa’s water availability as one.

China Slams Hillary Clinton Over Africa Comments

Hillary has been on a tour of Africa to boost U.S. relations….. with Africa? 

She made a couple of critical comments about China’s involvement and investment in Africa.  So they’re responding. 

The acerbic commentary Friday from Xinhua News Agency went on to say that Clinton’s “implication that China has been extracting Africa’s wealth for itself is utterly wide of the truth.”

China has poured billions into Africa in recent years, emerging as the continent’s main trading partner and a major source of investment for infrastructure. But its presence has also sparked concerns about labor abuses and corruption.

As discussed previously, cultures matter.  When they’re referencing Africa as one unit, it does a great disservice to all of the various peoples on the continent.  Can we ever stop pretending that Africans are one people?  The issues and concerns are widely varied.  It doesn’t make any sense to continue to regard them as one.

For instance, we see a horrible story from Somalia. 

Somali comedian who dared to mock Islamist militants is gunned down

Abdi Jeylani Malaq, also known as Marshale, was reportedly killed by two young men as he left a local radio station where he worked as a producer and performer, the BBC reports.

Malaq, who worked for Universal TV, frequently impersonated Islamist fighters in his comedy routines, according to the BBC.

“This is a black day for the entire entertainment industry,” Yusuf Keynan, a radio presenter who worked with Malaq, was quoted as saying. “He was a leader in Somalia comedy and everybody liked his performance.”

Malaq was the seventh journalist to be killed in Somalia this year in what appear to be targeted killings.

Now, this is instructive.  First of all, by using vacant terms which lumps an incredibly diverse people into one group means that we imply this is a problem in Africa.  It isn’t.  The problems is Somalia are entirely different than say Mali, which are different than say the Congo, or South Africa.  Stop lumping these people into one category! 

But, more over, here we see that culture does indeed matter.  Not only is it right and proper to examine cultural differences, it’s extremely dangerous not to.  There are very few places left on earth where this willful ignorance hasn’t literally destroyed lives. 

This incident should also serve as a great reminder for western societies to jealously guard our freedoms of expression.  When diverse opinions and ideas are not tolerated, this is the result.   

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