#egging'emon

Ugandans who are great admirers of Bukedde TV’s Agataliiko Nfuufu receive a daily treat at 10pm, of comedy, with scenes of women pulling out each other’s hair, boda-boda riders beating up a “thief”, or the mysterious death of a rich businessman caused by an evil spirit.

Granted, some of their videos are hilarious and provide the much needed de-stresser, necessary after serious day of ranting from your boss, but I often wonder what the cameraperson and reporter are doing, egging on this sort of misbehavior. Take the case of a little boy whose fingers were subjected to a merciless, cruel, brutal squeezing, in a pair of pliers.

Some may argue that this shows us the depravity, disorganization, derangement and dysfunctions of the society in which we live, but what were the pressmen doing to save the little child whose fingers he will never be able to use again, or the ‘thief’ who is crying for his life as blows are rained on his back, as the brick that will eventually kill him is menacingly swung above his head?

In April of 2011, the BBC was accused of being a “cheerleader for assisted suicide” after filming a man killing himself in a controversial Terry Pratchett documentary. This was at the notorious Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, and the man was in the late stages of motor neurone disease. Obviously, the move by the terrestrial television was condemned by campaigners, politicians, medical professionals and religious leaders.

But what do these groups of people with considerable clout and power do about the pictures shown on Agataliiko Nfuufu? Nothing. The politicians continue to steal and misuse government funds, the church continues to engage in the no-go arena of politics, the medical professionals continue to take bribes, campaigners make noise about unimportant issues, we continue to whip out our latest model bible phones, while that sad group of society continues to suffer in silence.

The Weekly Observer in March 2011 published an article by Moses Talemwa and Juliana Nantale, which said “ Agataliiko Nfuufu… warrants day-long anticipation mostly because of its unending tit-bits of scandal, albeit short on basic journalism principles. Some people still can't believe it is on TV. The Vision Group management picked on longstanding Bukedde newspaper writers Semei Wessaali and Hadijja Nabukenya to head the search for an appropriate package. In turn, the two picked on a successful model started by Citizen TV in Kenya; making local programming acceptable to an audience used to foreign productions. Wessaali and Nabukenya decided that this was a bulletin which would involve the local people more than the conventional journalists; so, they gave their contact phone number to several local people in markets, trading centres and far-off villages, so they could send the news in. Wessaali helped form a 50-man team of freelance stringers or reporters with cameras that send their pictures to the station for the news. These stringers hunt for any whiff of newsworthy scandal for a fee of between Shs 15,000 and Shs 20,000 per story. Two weeks after the bulletin came on air, Wessaali got better response than he had been hoping for. Reviews and surveys put the station in a driving position because of the bulletin. "The idea came out of demand from viewers who wanted news prepared in much the same way as Bukedde newspaper; so, we responded", he says. The bulletin has reached incredible levels of acceptance, to the extent that total strangers turn up daily with news stories complete with video, which explains how the bulletin has news from remote areas, usually captured in the nick of time. While the critics are upset with many in the journalism schools lambasting it for being unprofessional, Wessaali is persuaded that it works. Right down to its unconventional upright pyramid concept of running light stories first, showing faces of rape victims and dead bodies, insisting that it is by design rather than plain incompetence."

I applaud Bukedde TV for always having a camera on hand and for having a strong nose to sniff out these “funny” incidents that have “no dust”, but really--- what has our government done? Granted, there have been positive responses- the little boy was offered treatment (where is he now, by the way?) and the police arrested (and I am ‘conc’ sure, released) the men who subjected him to that agony. Then, the police arrested the beater of a policeman (this incident happened outside Namboole Stadium at the time when there was a match between Kenya and Uganda) who also stole the officer’s phone and left his face muddied and the policeman dizzy from shock. But I can bet that the culprits were set free. Maybe that very day itself.

You see, the pattern is so “this eat that”, “how do I benefit?” that is sickening. Agataliiko Nfuufu may be doing a wonderful job, but on the other hand, if their reporters “revel” in seeing people in pain, how then can I not accuse them of being apathetic? Here is someone writhing in pain, screaming their lungs out begging for mercy and here is the happy snappy cameraman earning his day’s bread. It’s so sad.

I think that journalists have a duty to society- to report what is going on, to expose the dirt and the rot--- and the good as well, but on the other hand, would it hurt to help? Would it be so hard to say to the mob crew to have some heart and not judge a man who knows he will be dead in the next few seconds?

But, like the BBC incident that I mentioned in the paragraph above, I saw another picture in the Daily Mail (dailymail.co.uk) of a depraved man, high on bath salts, chewing off the face of another homeless man who had been enjoying his sleep on the street minutes before the horrific incident. Someone took those pictures. But were they also dialing the police as they snapped away.
Society tends to love watching others suffer, I think. We love posting gory pictures on our facebook pages, just for the fun of it. Why can’t we just say--- “no” to this depravity? Why do we just look on and not fight back? Maybe it’s a deeply rooted thing of human nature- something like “today’s his day, tomorrow may be mine, let him stew in it!”.

BBC was accused of being unethical and disregarding the sanctity of life. Maybe things are changing for the worse- or for the better. Whereas a few years ago, disregarding media ethics was frowned upon, today the climate kind of applauds the lengths the media will reach to catch viewer attention.
So instead of our policemen sitting idly by and guffawing at the antics by the actors in Agataliiko Nfuufu, they should get off their bony backsides and do their job. The media guys should be mindful, and know when to jump in to put a stop to the situation (the image of the little boy having his fingers “wrenched”, wrenched (pun unintended) at my heart strings) and not let the situation go out of hand. I mean, they could explain to us that they had to intervene and stop taking pictures and we would understand and let them off the hook.

And I also think this promotes violence among the little ones. I sometimes hear kids giving graphic details about the ka-story of the old woman who was beaten by villagers on suspicion of being a witch, or the bad mother who caned her daughter senseless, or the village thug who burnt his family as they slept in their hut because they had accused him of stealing a mobile phone. And they laugh away innocently.