SIGHT & SOUND
Africa speaks, at last
Amita Malik

REMEMBER Hamlet, asking his mother to compare the face of his dead father with her new husband’s? Well, TV watchers such as myself, and I am not the first to have said so, could not help but notice the contrast between the reactions of the emergency services, the opposition, the media and the general public in London after the bombings, and those of our own ones. Our media, particularly TV, followed a familiar pattern. Star Plus, as usual, trotted out their own figures of those killed even before the police chiefs and administrators could announce them. NDTV was cautious, as usual, almost casual to begin with. And our top police and politicians in power were also cautious about identifying the labels of terrorists.

In London, the emergency services were exemplary, the press conferences were conducted with discretion and the media reacted in kind. Our TV studio folk, as usual, asked long-winded and impossible questions from reporters, who, mostly, refused to over-reach in an effort to be first in the rat race. But the biggest contrast came in the reactions of the opposition in the British Parliament and also the statements of ministers until Tony Blair arrived. There was no blame game and the leader of the opposition said loudly and clearly that they were solidly behind the government. They did not ask for the Prime Minister or home secretary or the London authorities to resign. They said they would keep their criticism, if any, for later. No cheap scoring of points at the wrong moment. Our media also reacted with dignity and compassion to the London blasts and Deepak Chaurasia and the other Indian reporters in London followed suit.

To coincide with the ill-fated G-8 meeting at Gleneagles, the BBC had lined up for the whole of July a daily programme called Africa Lives, which I have followed with great interest. It ought to open the eyes of Indians about that sad continent and since most Indians know little about Africa beyond Mahatma Gandhi and, now, cricket, I strongly recommend these well-documented, researched and educative programmes which have Africans, so seldom heard or covered in our media, speaking for themselves. In one programme, a former BBC foreign correspondent, an African, goes back to his roots. George Alagiah certainly knows his Africa. In another, there was a comprehensive political and social travelogue by Bob Geldof, who makes us see Africans at close quarters. For instance, in Benin we see poor farmers packing the cocoa beans they have grown for export. But they are so poor that they have never tasted cocoa, let alone chocolate, in their lives. And slavery continues in modern form, because 5000 children are sold for child labour every year by the poorest of poor parents.

However, one of the highlights of the month was the panel discussion, Question Time Africa, conducted by David Dimbleby, one of the BBC’s most experienced interviewers. In the programme last week from Johannesburg, there was a British-African woman in the British cabinet, a human rights’ activist who is White, the leader of the Opposition (in exile) from Zimbabwe, all speaking up spiritedly under the able chairperson who had evidently done his homework. This is more than what can be said of some of our chairpersons of Question Time India.

I have been watching another film with a cause on Sahara, again with Salman Khan and a brief appearance by Preity Zinta. Preity dies leaving her heart willed for a transplant and the young girl whose life is saved, of course, falls in love with Salman. But unlike Phir Milenge, Dilne Jise Apna Kahaa becomes very filmi half way through, complete with songs and dances. A great pity.