Let’s see..

White people like other white people. Doesn’t matter how good or evil those people are. Doesn’t matter if they grow marijuana in the fertile lands of Mursi under the guise of freelance guide for a well known German tour agency. As long as they are found in a foreign land, white people swear they are innocent. The death of one white person means more to other white people than the death of million non-whites. Cities have been bombed, civilians killed, children left to die of starvation, malnutrition, preventable and curable diseases to avenge the death of a handful white folks.

The other people white people like are development workers. Those development workers maybe in the business of working against development, defying traditional communities/institutions/ establishments & indulging in stuff that has nothing to do and (in the case of Terre Des Hommes-Lausanne Jarri branch) work directly against the visions and missions of the organization that employed them. But when they are found imprisoned or dead, it’s always the local government’s fault. This government pays the price, along with it’s people. More them than it.

Last, but not least, white people are greatly infatuated by journalists. Journalists are lamp to the feet, light to the path, salt to the earth. According to white people, journalists are endowed with powers other humans aren’t, and none of our weakness. Journalists can not lie. Can not exaggerate. Can not be unethical in anyway. Jouranalists never make mistakes. So there isn’t a brick-wall a journalist shouldn’t be allowed to walk through. A red tape he can’t be allowed to cut. An item he isn’t free to treat however he saw fit.

(Obviously white people haven’t come across one newspaper from the Ethiopian “private” press.)

What brought about this bitter meditation is an article I saw on Arefe’s blog entitled Journalist forced to flee country. Now, I’m not trying to defend the Ethiopian government or saying this particular journalist had what he got coming. But i’ve always been amused by the way these particular brand of people (along with Artists, oppositions party leaders, etcetera) are viewed by the West (or its media).

For a full list of stuff white people like, go here.

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