OPEN LETTER TO SA FROM THE FOREIGN MEDIA

Richard Poplak
7 hours ago

Dear South Africa,

Please get the fuck out of the way.

Wait, that probably came out wrong. Let us explain.

As you may have noted, we’re back! It’s been four long months since the Oscar Pistorious bail hearing thing, and just as we were forgetting just how crappy the Internet connections are in Johannestoria, the Mandela story breaks.

We feel that it is vital locals understand just how big a deal this is for us. In the real world—far away from your sleepy backwater—news works on a 24-hour cycle. That single shot of a hospital with people occasionally going into and out of the front door, while a reporter describes exactly what is happening—at length and in detail? That’s our bread and butter. It’s what we do.

And you need to get out of the way while we do it.

It’s nothing personal. In fact, we couldn’t do this successfully without you. In many cases, our footage is made more compelling by your presence. Specifically, we are fond of small black children praying and/or singing in unison. Equally telegenic are the Aryan ubermensch blonde kids also praying/singing, who help underscore the theme that Mandela united people of all races under a Rainbow umbrella.

Also very important, thematically speaking, are Mandela’s successors. We very much like the idea that your ex-president was “one of a kind”, and that despite his best efforts, the current batch of idiots prove that he was an exceptional presence, sui generis, and we don’t have to worry about someone else like him coming along in Africa ever again. We enjoy your leaders’ bumbling ways, their daft non-sequiturs, the glint of their Beijing-bought Breitlings. That “Vote ANC” truck parked outside the hospital? If that doesn’t speak to moral degeneration of the first order, what does? In other words, this story would lack a tragic arc without Jacob Zuma. May he keep on keeping on.

Then there’s the Mandela’s family. Really, where would we derive our soap operatic undertones if it weren’t for the infighting and the blinged-up brashness of that clan? We love subtly implying that a saint sired a generation of professional shoppers and no-goodnicks. In our biz, we call that “irony”. Makes for great copy.

In fact, we love everything about the country that doesn’t live up to Mandela’s legacy. We will take every opportunity to mention how everything you do flies in the face of everything Mandela would’ve wanted from his people—how you’re basically a nation of under-achieving screw-ups. All of this is fantastic, we thank you profusely for your individual and collective contributions to this essential storyline, and urge you to keep squandering your potential.

But like we said, we’re busy.

We need to be fed, constantly and without respite, big juicy mouthfuls of new information regarding every aspect of the story. Each piece of data, no matter how seemingly trivial or inane, is to us the rich, fatty gravy that we will slather over this one essential fact: the father of your nation is gravely ill, and we’re banking—literally, banking—on his not making it. The geraniums in the hospital planter, beating the chill of winter? Metaphor. Again—no detail too small.

Indeed, you need to brace yourselves. We’re about to engage in the single greatest orgy of industrial-grade mourning porn the world has ever known. Your little country will forever be honoured as the site that made the Princess Diana thing look like a restrained wake for a loathed spinster who perished alone on a desert island. Oh man, this is going to be big.

But that’s then. For the meantime, we need you to behave yourselves. We’re going to be pushy, and we make no apologies for it. This is the news—and news, after all, is the concrete foundation of democracy, a principle Mandela was willing to die for long before he was dying.

Note the solemn tone of our television reports. Ken the funereal passages published in our great papers. At times, the scramble for information may seem like a pursuit entirely free of dignity. But remember that watching a sausage get made can be a grisly process.

We would like to respect the fact that you’re going through a period of great sadness and protracted grieving. But we all need to be grown-ups about this.
So, we ask again, and this time with feeling:

Please. Get the fuck out of the way.

This letter appeared in The Daily Maverick.

I do not agree with all the above
is there not some truth here?

for example " We very much like the idea that your ex-president was “one of a kind”, and that despite his best efforts, the current batch of idiots prove that he was an exceptional presence, sui generis,"

"We enjoy your leaders’ bumbling ways, their daft non-sequiturs, the glint of their Beijing-bought Breitlings."

and this one "That “Vote ANC” truck parked outside the hospital? If that doesn’t speak to moral degeneration of the first order, what does? "

"Then there’s the Mandela’s family. Really, where would we derive our soap operatic undertones if it weren't for the infighting and the blinged-up brashness of that clan? We love subtly implying that a saint sired a generation of professional shoppers and no-goodnicks. In our biz, we call that “irony”. Makes for great copy."

Sounds like it was written by a bitter south african if you ask me..

hibernia Wrote:

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> Sounds like it was written by a bitter south
> african if you ask me..

1 million % Bob

Tell them to go fcuk themselves dirty farking c,unts

soodum Wrote:

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> Tell them to go fcuk themselves dirty farking
> c,unts

Couldn't have said it better myself

soodum Wrote:

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> Tell them to go fcuk themselves dirty farking
> c,unts


that was going to be my exact post.honest to God.Thank you the devils they are

the eldest daughter was right in saying that the media are like vultures waiting for the carcass. People in the media are not the kind that you would take home to meet your parents. They will write anything to make a headline and we all know the story of News of the World.

chicken 'n chips Wrote:

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> the eldest daughter was right in saying that the
> media are like vultures waiting for the carcass.
> People in the media are not the kind that you
> would take home to meet your parents. They will
> write anything to make a headline and we all know
> the story of News of the World.

Anyone that has lost a parent(or loved one) would remember how surreal everything is at that time - I would have hated to have all that attention on me when someone I loved was going to die - Decency is lacking here I think (I also felt offended when Zuma and Co had the poor man propped up in a chair for a media show that was in the worst taste possible)

Right, I know now that I have had more than enough JWB for one night (not to count the Windhoek draughts and margerita's) ... but I think that the author is not that wrong... a bit obsequious at times (whilst trying to be cute) but the general subject ....?? {shrug}

So goodnight, adieu and all that stuff..........

@The Madji I agree
another thing that I noticed is that the ANC is talking as if Madiba belongs solely to them and that they and the family has the sole rights to him and the rest of the country and world is just an irritation to them and should stand back and keep their mouths shut while the ANC is blatantly using this as propaganda for themselves
and that is how the whole world sees it
Is that how Madiba would have want it? as he has said many times he represents the whole nation
am I wrong?

Whether we like it or not, the media is going to report on one of the biggest stories in many a year. They have the right to report on it don't they?
This dude, flippant as he may be does hit the nail squarely on the head......Whether we like it or not.

It is my very own humble opinion that, besides the fact that his family will be grieving for his passing whenever that may happen, they will all also cash in on his good name and ride the Mandela train as far as it will take them, whether they deserve it or not.

I don't live in SA anymore so some would say it has nothing to do with me but Mandela changed all our lives forever and for that we have to be thankful. I would never have been able to leave the country to work for a foreign country if it wasn't for him and FW......would never have met my wife and been where I am today, so today, selfishly I say......

Thank you Mr. Mandela and FW, thank you both for having the foresight to move our country out of the apartheid era and into something different.......If it hadn't been for you guys, my life would have turned out VERRRYYY differently.

Enkhosi Tata, Hamba kakuhle!!