About two years ago I made the decision to stop watching the news on tv and to not read comments in news articles on South African websites.
The negativity was far too overwhelming. When you see such negativity every day, how can you not help but feel bad about living in South Africa?
My life has been all the better for my decision.
I live in the here and now. What I see and experience is so much different to anything that I read, especially online. I’ve never seen anyone being called racist or ignorant to their faces in public or in any conversation.
Yet you can pretty much go to any of the popular news sites and find people blow up over the smallest perceived slight. And not even about anything serious.
It’s understandable if the anger is directed towards someone who hurts a child or who steals public funds, but to call someone names when the discussion is about 7de Laan possibly being cancelled? Come on!
However… Should SABC tv and news media mainly report on positive stories as Jacob Zuma wants?
Absolutely not!
They should report what they see. Especially expose corruption from government officials and especially President Zuma’s financial and political scandals. Because we are paying their salaries and because they are accountable to us. We should not only be informed, but we have a right to protest our disagreement.
It’s not that we shouldn’t disagree about anything. Of course we will. We come from different places; we see the country through different perspectives.
And we are allowed to get angry sometimes.
But to remain angry all the time? I don’t get that.
When Zuma mentioned that the negativity causes him to want to leave the country, most of the rhetoric was…”please go…”
As if…
Where’s the discussion and debate about changing things around. Not for Jacob Zuma, but for the rest of us. For the next generations of South Africans. It’s so easy to sit behind a computer or hold a smartphone in your hand and post snide comments as if that will make the differences as if it is so clever.
Where is our accountability? The government or my neighbours have no say in my decisions or quality of life.
I choose what get’s through my personal firewall. I choose what I consume in the media, tv programmes, movies, books, music, who I follow on Twitter, etc.
South Africans are so generous when it comes to the big occassions. Why can’t we be as generous to each other in the small things too?
