I am leaving for Oslo today.
Earlier the Norwegian television company TV2 sent a television crew that came to visit us in Niger. They were doing a documentary about Niger’s hyped famine of 2005 and stayed with us for two amazing weeks. The project is now done and will air on March 3rd, at 10.30 pm. Here is their description:
Året er 2005. En fem måneder gammel gutt dør rett foran et TV-kamera, og BBC erklærer sultkatastrofe i Niger. Men tv-bildene forteller ikke sannheten.
This roughly translates to:
The year is 2005. A five month old boy dies in front of the cameras, and BBC announces that there is a famine in Niger. But the TV images don’t show the truth.
I have been flown from Niger to Scandinavia in order to be available in Olso. I have no idea what controversy the documentary is going to stir, but I am looking forward to seeing it tonight!
2 users commented in " Oslo "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks for the link to the article at the Eden Foundation. I’ve posted the link at Observations of Africa and recommended it highly.
Wish we could see the documentary here in the USA! So many chronic problems get ignored in the faddish pursuit of sensationalism.
I am just watching the debate in TV2 at this very minute - with your participation. The subject is interesting indeed, since I am a communications specialist, having worked in PR/media for many years.
The media has “produced” pieces of borderline character for a long time, with the idèa: Means justifies the goal. Usually “all PR is good PR” works - but when it comes to aid it can be a very dangerous strategy indeed. I fear now lots of people in Norway will be thinking “that’s what I’ve alway said: this country gives money to everyone that doesn’t really need it, now we need to focus on our own country instead of everyone else”. This is something lots of Norwegians unfortunately have been saying for a long time - which does NOT help the areas that are really in need of aid.
Difficult one this one, I hope there is a PR system in work at the moment, to ensure this debate does not sabotage the aidwork and fundrising needed in other areas of the world.
But it is naive to think Norwegian aidfundations will not use the strategies we find in f.ex USA. Problem is, they are not doing it the right way…
Your work is very interesting, this is the first time I’ve heard of it.
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