Richard says:
“I really enjoyed your ‘Mondon Cane’ broadcast. Have you seen their documentary on African decolonisation, Africa Addio? It will move you to tears.”
“Your bit on the cargo cults reminded me of what a South African ex-girlfriend told me. Her father ran a business in Cape town. His employees were so excited when apartheid fell, because now they would get the white man’s things like TV and telephones and VCRs. When they found out they had to pay for these things, and even pay an electricity bill every 3 months, they got very angry. They had thought that the white man got them for free!”
“By the way, it was nice to hear your voice for the first time. No offence, but you sound like LBJ!”
Comment by richard
I am not looking for sympathy here, but merely stating a fact of life. There are certain things I do not watch because they remind me of things I do not want to think about. “Africa Adego” is one of these. I understand that it documents the blood-filled waters as the Africans hack the Arabs of Zanzibar to death as they run to the coast.
If you have been in Africa and seen what is left of somebody you knew whom the guerrillas captured and see how they slowly skinned him alive you do not want to watch anything like it in a documentary.
Some experiences have helped make me thick-skinned. But they did not give me a thick enough skin to want to think of them again.
#1 by joe rorke on 01/10/2006 - 7:43 pm
I have exactly the same attitude, Bob. I do not want to look at something on television or any other media device that depicts something I already know about through firsthand experience when the experience has been particularly painful. For many long years I could not go near a parade where martial music was being played. I don’t apologize for that either.