13 July 2015. Animal Funnies… I Think That I Just Stepped in Something Nasty

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France and Nigeria: How the World Media Responds to Terrorism… Black Lives DO Matter

“Let’s not forget Boko Haram’s victims!”

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The media gave ubiquitous coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks; nevertheless, the world ignores 2,000 people killed in the worst Boko Haram massacre yet. The world’s undivided attention on France following the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and a kosher supermarket completely overshadowed a much bloodier terrorist attack, a Boko Haram raid on Baga in Northern Nigeria, which killed as many as 2,000 people. The incident led to public debate over the media’s role in reporting events and the weight that one should give certain events as compared to others.

One issue when it comes to uneven coverage is that of media visuals. Whilst Paris is a global city and has thousands of reporters and cameras, all of whom one can easily dispatch to report on the event, Baga is a town in the remote northeast corner of Nigeria, on the coast of Lake Chad. Unlike Paris, the area is unsafe for journalists… Boko Haram fighters still roam freely and there’s a risk of attack as the Nigerian Army is still struggling to secure the area. A Haaretz editorial arguing for greater sympathy with the victims of the Nigerian terrorist attacks brought up the fact that attention to Nigeria’s Bring Back Our Girls campaign has been nil. They ascribed the failure to the Nigerian government’s inability to deal with the Boko Haram problem, despite military aid from Washington, because of its own corruption and human rights violations. The Guardian also echoed this criticism of the Nigerian political establishment; its readers learned that many Nigerians think that their government is to blame for the lack of coverage and focus on the tragedies. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Nigerian President expressed condolences for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, but not for the people killed by Boko Haram.

Although it may seem unfair to blame the Nigerian government’s inability to overcome the world’s indifference to Nigeria’s troubles, political motivation does play a role. As CNN noted, the attention on Charlie Hebdo and the national unity rally that followed it appeared to benefit Hollande, who before the attacks had an abysmal 13 percent approval rating, and to hurt Marine Le Pen’s National Front because of its focus on national unity, ignoring the issues of internal disunity in French society that caused the radicalisation of the gunmen in the first place. Nigeria has the opposite problem, as Boko Haram controls what the Wall Street Journal called the primarily Muslim stronghold of opposition to the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian. Because of that, it’s politically beneficial to President Jonathan to keep that part of the country from voting in the upcoming Nigerian general election in February. However, there’s also criticism of how the world media ignores the tragedy in Nigeria and the threat of Boko Haram. Nigerian Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama (Archbishop of Jos) told the BBC World Service that with the international support and national unity of France after its terrorist attacks, “We need that spirit to be spread around. Not just when it happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Niger, in Cameroon”.

Lastly, there’s the issue of social media. Whereas France had the #JesuisCharlie campaign which, as CNN noted, made it possible for people from around the world to watch the events unfold from their tablets and smartphones, Nigeria’s remote towns aren’t always reached by mobile internet, and the previous social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls is only associated with disappointment, as social media activism failed to bring back the kidnapped girls. Furthermore, previous social media campaigns in Africa such as the Kony 2012 campaign to catch the Lord’s Resistance Army warlord Joseph Kony, initiated by the activist group Invisible Children only became associated with the group’s ulterior motive

Altogether, the problem of reporter access and the lack of social media coverage left the killing of over 2,000 people in Nigeria overshadowed by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. France had those benefits as as well as a government that took advantage of the spotlight directed toward the attacks in an attempt to increase its popularity over the opposition, whereas in Nigeria, chaos and violence in an opposition stronghold appears to benefit the president.

14 January 2015

Sputnik International

http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150114/1016897740.html

Read More:

Trouble Brewing: West Turns Blind Eye to Boko Haram’s Bloody Massacre

Boko Haram Militants Seize Nigerian Town of Baga, Local Military Base: Reports

Boko Haram Launches Fresh Attack on Baga, Northeast Nigeria

Editor:

Do black lives matter at all to the Affluent Effluent and their running dog media whores? It appears not… just sayin’…

BMD

16 August 2014. Now, For Something Entirely Different… There Be Orthodoxy in Darkest Africa, I Hear…

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Do you know WHY Holy Orthodoxy is the fastest growing religion in Sub-Saharan Africa? Of course, it’s the True Faith and it appears to simple innocent people with signs and wonders. However, there’s more to it… unlike the RCs and Protestants, Orthodoxy appeared in Black Africa as ANTI-imperialist. It didn’t come in under the protection of the colonialists’ bayonets. Catholics, Anglicans, and Protestants all came to the black man as a part of the white man’s often brutal, sometimes patronising, but always condescending dictatorship.

On the other hand, Orthodoxy came to modern Africa from Greece and (especially) Cyprus. Cyprus, like much of Africa, had been under arrogant and arbitrary British rule and imperialism. Like the Africans, the Cypriots loathed their “paternal” overlords and their condescending snootiness… they struggled long and hard to break free. When Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda struggled for their freedom and dignity after World War II, they found rich support from Metropolitan Makarios of Cyprus, who furnished Africans with both spiritual weaponry (The Holy Faith) and material weaponry (military training and support from Cyprus).

The African peoples NEVER forgot this… Greeks and Russians (yes, even in the time of the USSR) won the love of the African peoples… and their Faith inspired Africans too… Orthodox Christianity. It was a Christianity free of the White Man’s Diktat. The struggle of the Kenyan freedom fighters against the Brit occupiers was a hard one, as the Brits had no scruples and spared no one. However, with God’s help, in the end, the natives kicked out the Brits and won their freedom. Cyprus was the first nation to recognise the sovereignty and independence of almost a dozen African states. Africans haven’t forgotten this… nor have they forgotten the cruelties of the conceited and snotty Western Europeans and Anglo Americans. We see their narcissism and wilfulness in the Ukraine today, don’t we? They sure haven’t changed, have they?

BMD

11 January 2014. Now, For Something Entirely Different… KAMAZ is at the Dakar Rally Yet Again

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The KAMAZ Master Team is at the Dakar Rally again. No, the Dakar Rally isn’t held in Africa… it used to be, but isn’t anymore, it’s a LOOONG story. KAMAZ is rebuilding after the retirement of world champion Vladimir Chagin. It’s not in the lead, but it’s only 39 minutes off the leader. The last leg is scheduled for tomorrow, 12 July. This is a far cry from frozen Niagara Falls, wot? Have good thoughts, kids…

BMD

For more on KAMAZ and the Dakar Rally, click here and here