Even when I am travelling, or maybe even more so when I am travelling actually, the BBC website is my main source of news. And it is very cleverly, as a default, showing African news on the home page, when I am here.
Day after day, there is one sad, tragic or disturbing news story after the other from this continent. Just this weekend there was the Ugandan boat tragedy, so many people died because a boat with room for 50 people carried 120 people and then there was another car bomb in Somalia, a country in real turmoil. Also here in Tanzania, there were some disturbing news earlier this month when a high ranking government official encouraged people to report suspected gay people to the police. Homosexual acts are illegal here and can be punished with up to 30 years in prison… The president had to quickly say that those were not his instructions, but seems it was too late for the Danish government who has suspended all aid to Tanzania because of these homophobic comments… Go Denmark!!! But today the president – Mr Magufuli (don’t like him!) said that they’d rather have ‘unconditional aid’ from China than aid from the EU anyway – unconditional my arse!!
So even though I love so many things about Africa – and really would like others to see what I see as well – I am also one of their harshest critics when it comes to how the vast majority of African countries are run. Each country seem to have many similarities in terms of their politics but some also have their own individual mess of corruption, terrible policies which violate human rights and bad governing. It is both interesting and disheartening to follow.
So yeah, no wonder why people in the rest of the world have such negative views of Africa. But to be fair, what percentage of news is actually good news from around the world – not much! Even here, the only UK news on the local TV station is the Brexit mess.
Sometimes there are however a few good stories which really warm my heart! And the continued changes within the Ethiopian government and the country as a whole is one of them! The prime minister has formed a new government with gender equality and a female president has been appointed (even if the prime minister has the power that is a big step!) oh and a female head of the court… it’s very exciting to follow. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46110608
Sure, there’s still a long way to go before Ethiopia will be associated with other stuff than famine and war, but they are making great strides!
BETINA IN AFRICA 