David's World

July 25, 2005

Milk in the dessert: The BBC's African adventures

For the first time in years, I now live in a place that has a TV set in the living room. Happy-clappy infotainment with my brekkie, scream-at-each-other-like-theres-no-tomorrow shows in the afternoon, the tenth season of people locked up in a Big Brother container in the evening and then maybe some James Bond movie made in a time where a film-maker thought that wrist-watches could, one day, produce a magnetic field capable of deflecting deadly bullets. I've stopped short of adding TV to my list of acquired addictions. But my disappointment in what is done with people's TV license fees is profound.

I've known that afternoon TV is bad, and I've known that most channels produce crap. But even the supposedly world-class journalism of the BBC is sometimes complete and utter crap. The've had a reporter in Africa for a few days, doing little pieces and live-interviews with locals. What do I see? One morning, the reporter portrays a local flower production company in Nairobi (I think). I see hundreds of flowers in a brightly lit room, and then short interviews with three local managers. They don't really reply to the reporter's questions, but say again and again how devoted they are to getting things right for their customers. Mind you, that's not me and you - but that's Walmart and ALDI. Are the workers protected? "Oh yes they are, we have good worker protection here", replies the manager. Great information I'm getting.
Does that flower company have an impact on the community? What do they learn from trading internationally? Where are the big problems? What would actually interest me seems to have no room in the morning show.

The 30-second interviews go on. The Kenian quality control manager has no idea how many different flowers they have (stupid reporter's question, anyways), and she cannot make up a figure. Instead, the reporter tells us somebody's cousin studies in England. Bad case of forgetting to brief your interview partners. A good reporting idea gone bad. Too sad. Would the BBC recommend shipping fresh milk to feed kids in the African dessert?

I guess I would have to watch a week worth of morning shows before making a general statement about the quality of that show. I haven't gotten around to it, and maybe I never will.