Tag Archives: Washington Post

Stereotype on African countries

Article Title: Another African country is expected to pass an anti-gay law

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/03/25/another-african-country-is-expected-to-pass-an-anti-gay-law/

Article date: March 25 2014

This article discussed the issue that another African country-Ethiopia was going to pass a bill that “would take away the president’s ability to pardon people convicted under laws banning homosexual acts’. Before this anti-homosexuality law published by Ethiopia, there were two other African Country which has passed anti-gay law. These two countries are Uganda and Nigeria. In Africa, there are several countries that ban homosexual acts and for this time, some of this countries are going to put the prohibition on gays in their law.

Gay marriage is one of the hottest words recently. Since several states in the United States found that the ban on gay marriage is a violation to the U.S. Constitution, these state started to push the legislation of gay marriage, which was also supported by federal government. Meanwhile, the whole world started to focus on this issue. People started to pay attention to the rights of LGBT group. These attentions were also paid to the gay right and gay marriage in African countries. 

This article I found has a key word: condemnation. After the passage of strict anti-gay law in these African countries, governments of these countries received a huge amount of condemnation from all over the world. Due to the civilization and development of human society, people started to care more about human rights which include the equality of homosexual and heterosexual. But in Africa or we can say in the information of Africa we learned from our media, things seemed to be the same as in the old time. Mainstream of African society still didn’t accept homosexual. The social norm was more likely to be anti-homosexual. As I read all those articles about gay issue , I found that almost every article had the same tone-biased. Journalists are likely to describe Africa as a uncivilized, rude place when they write about human right issue in Africa. The article I chose is from the Washington Post, one of the mainly paper media in the United States. I think the source impacts the choice of words and tone. As a major media in the States, Washington Post represents the mainstream ideology in this country. So when it’s going to write something which is not correspond to the main ideology of this country, the tone is biased.

In my own opinion, homosexual right is one of the basic human rights. People should have the right to choose their partner. However, different places in the world have different societies. As a result, the ideology of each country or region is absolutely different. African countries had their own development, so there are a lot of social customs that cannot be changed in a short time. But with the civilization of their own society and the interaction with developed countries, Africa is definitely going to be more versatile and is able to tolerate homosexual. What we should do is not condemning but giving Africa more time to develop.

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US Drones in Niger

Drone Picture

9/3/2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1129543/pentagon-set-to-open-second-drone-base-in-niger-as-it-expands-operations-in-africa

This article talks about how the Pentagon has confirmed that they will be opening a second drone base in Niger.  The United States government and Nigerian government had been dead locked on this for a long time but the Nigerian has agreed.  The United States will now have another base to track Islamist fighters who have been terrorizing parts of North and West Africa.  The French have also been working with the Americans in an effort to stabilize the region and help the local communities and governments from being taken over by these terrorist groups.  This is an important news piece to look at because it gives insight as to what is going on in parts of Africa and shows what people have to deal with.  It is also important to note who is trying to help the Nigerians and other nearby countries to know what other countries not located in Africa are putting their efforts to.  The United States and France are obviously concerned about these terrorists and hope to be able to help in stopping them.

The authors tone is concerned and informative, they are worried about what is going on with these terrorist groups and want the people to be informed about what is truly going on so that they can know the truth.  One key word though that is used is tribal, as discussed in class this has been used in a condescending way to represent communities that are located all across Africa.  Words like this are what lead many people to believe that Africa is an uncivilized place and they could not be further from the truth.  There are cities located in Africa and universities just like in America, they have a school system in many countries and cell phones as well.  Until words like this are stopped from being used people will continue to look down upon Africa and the diverse people who live there.  Although this word was used in the article one time as a whole it did not come across as stereotypical, the author points out that the Islamists are the ones causing the trouble and have some relation to Al Qaeda.  The United States does not appear to be getting involved because they do not believe in the Nigerians but more so because of the stance that they have already taken against Al Qaeda and terrorism in general.  I feel the United States would have stepped in on the situation if it was in Africa or Europe, which is a positive sign showing that they may no longer feel like they need to watch over Niger and nearby countries as a big brother but rather as equals and they are helping as Allies not conquerors.

The source comes from the Washington Post which has some impact on the way it is written.  Most of their articles are written in similar ways with many facts just as this one is.  The tone of this article is fairly positive and really focuses on the real issue that is at hand of the Islamists and does not make it seem as if the Nigerians are helpless.  Many points are made at the discussions and interactions between the Nigerians and Americans showing that the United States does value their opinions and wants to be an ally not just someone to come in and take over.

Shane Galloway