NaijaPositive.com

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Re: Negative Image of Nigerians Abroad

I'm almost surprised by this recent uprising 'cos I was beginning to think no one was peeved about some of the reasons why we continue to have a negative image, considering 'some' ignorant people think we deserve all the bashing we get because 'after all there are some bad eggs' and 'why shouldn't we get smeared with their feces?', just because we share the same nationality. I suppose it's a case of wonders will never cease or we've just got to feel the individual and direct effects before we're peeved enough to remark.

Anyway, it's nothing new that there do exist 'some' Caucasians who indeed venture out to Africa just to infect Africans with their HIV/Aids. Some travel under the guise of missions while they are in fact predators sleeping around with and exploiting innocent young children. I believe I previously posted such cases.

Sex tourism is also very prevalent and those that travel to predate on innocent young girls have their field day when they travel to Africa. Then, there are the business men who supposedly go for business and then ask their African and Oriental hosts to accommodate their sexual urges, and in this case the fault is two-fold because their African and other hosts provide the so-called high class prostitutes whom they service for the duration of their trip. Those who decide to venture out on their own pick up the street prostitutes and who knows what diseases they're spreading or exchanging.

Sometimes it's the case where young women are promised travel opportunities and they are then flown to Italy, Saudi Arabia, etc., only to have their passports seized and destroyed, after which they are then forced to become sex slaves unable to report to authorities because they lack the documentation with which they can plead their cases.

In Brazil for instance the prostitutes are mostly 13 year olds who check in with the tourist on arrival, the hotel adds a discrete gratuity (service fee) to the tourist's exit bills, and the girls check in with the next tourist, so the cycle never ends. I witnessed this with my own eyes, including when someone who asked about extra unspecified charges on his exit bill, had to have it explained to him much to his embarrassment, that it was for his extracurricular services and such practice is business as usual.

Regarding the movies and the way Hollywood and the media in general portray Nigeria, it's our collective fault because we do NOT object, or our objections are not effective enough. Only recently U.S. issued a very derogatory travel alert and when we finally responded, they stood by their ludicrous biases, yet we did not think it right to continue to stand up in our own defense until they rescinded their unfair portrayal of Nigeria as a whole.

Well, I say one of the options we have is being as effective in campaigning about the things we too find undesirable and objectionable, so far what we present and educate our own people with are verifiable facts. What would help is for those of us who lie or exaggerate our circumstances to our family and friends back home to be realistic about the life and circumstances in the Diaspora. It ain't all rosy and they deserve to be told the truth and be well-informed, so they don't continue to have unrealistic expectations and demands; and so those who want to venture out can have fair and true information at their disposal before they make the choice to endure being treated like animals just to get their visas, and equally waste money on tickets to venture out.

Ghettos do in fact exist in the U.S., as do heavy crime in mostly inner cities, homelessness, and all the other ills that afflict U.S. and other foreign countries. All we need to do is make naive people aware and let them make the assessments on their own. No country is perfect and if we sit down expecting those who enjoy denigrating our image to discontinue, very soon we won't be able to walk the streets for shame (unfair and unjustified as it may be).

I visited a friend who had recently moved to the outskirts of town (the equivalence of villages in Nigeria, I now have to say), and I was totally shocked to see an untarred roads. And not just untarred, but the 'gidipa-gidipa eshin dondo' (jagged, rocking and rolling) type. My car was shaking so much from the roughness of the road I was scared it would literarily fall apart. Had I not driven 3 hours in traffic to get there I would have turned around. The good thing was I had a witness who rode with me, and she was equally shocked, else no one else would have believed me. (I've decided to take my camcorder on my next visit, hopefully soon enough.) Having just moved from Nigeria, all she could say at that point was, "Ah! you mean all these exist in the U.S. and people lie to us all the time". Since her arrival, she had experienced and witnessed much more than she could have ever envisioned and though she is presently taking things in stride she knows and has expressed that she'd be returning to Nigeria soon enough. Bottom-line is, the U.S. it isn't all it was hyped to be.

Regarding the Bruce Willis movie, the embassy did object to the movie's portrayal of Nigeria as depicted in the movie, considering it was made in the jungles of Hawaii, and in NO way relates to the true situation of Nigeria. Nigeria is NOT a war-torn nation and it's denigrating to portray it as such. I believe the studio responded saying that they would state that it was a fictional story..., etc, but I cannot say if they indeed do so, 'cos I chose NOT to see a movie based on LIES to further denigrate my country.

Cxsm
6th Feb. '04

© Cxsm 2004 All Rights Reserved

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Folks,

A few years ago, there was a story in Lagos of a rich white HIV-infected American, who went to Naija in order to infect someone else with the virus. B/4 he died, he left all his money to his intended victim, saying as someone infected him, he had to infect someone else in return. So lets write script with this theme as the main story. We should also highlight the way Americans go to other countries for sex tourism. If we portray them as immoral perverts in Nollywood features, I'm sure they'll be vexed as well.

The Dreamer
2/6/04

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Nigerian Government's objection letter to Sony Pictures and Sony Pictures response to the negative images portray in the "Tears of the Sun" movie. http://naijapositive.myfastforum.org/about51.html
_________________
May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Editor · Site Admin Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 142

Yeah, watched "Tears of the Sun", and merely shook my head. Virtually no hint of accuracy whatsoever. It is almost like the filmakers were like, "Oh, let's make a cool movie about turmoil and civil war and blood and rape and explosions and stuff! Here, give me a map, we got to pick a country here...Ah, Africa, why not, the whole ******* place is a hellhole anyways...Let's just pick a country from there, you know, to make it more realistic and stuff...Yeah, Nigeria will do! Now all we need to do is write a script, it doesn't have to be good or accurate, throw in a couple of B-list actors in there, go to Hawaii and it's a wrap! We'll have a blockbuster on our hands!"

I didn't waste my hard-earned money to see that crappy movie in the theatre. The only way I got to see it was when my brothers brought in the DVD (They wanted to watch it, out of curiousity). What ticks me off more, though, is not that the movie was made in the first place; it is that some of my Nigerian buddies actually believed that "Tears of the Sun" was an accurate depiction of Nigeria!!!

I didn't even bother to see the Law & Order: SVU episode--I knew what I would get. Typical Hollywood crap. The best way to combat this misinformation is to fight back with media of our own; event though it might not be initially easy to get that exposure, it is one lofty and noble goal worth pursuing. I know I'm doing my part...

Jagun-Jagun
2/8/04

Editor · Site Admin Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 142

Even though it is Hollywood standard fare to make every one else look like morons and even though Americans are often considered dumb by most Europeans, I think because of the huge influence of hollywood, that country can do more harm to other countries, like ours. Imagine making a terrible movie like Tears in The Sun and exporting it all over the world.

I have a friend who is a white Kenyan who just came into Nigeria. He is a security consultant and he asked me the other day, "Nigeria is a far better country than Kenya and a lot of the Southern African countries. I don't even take as much precautions as I would take in some of those countries and I'm walking around free as the wind. How come Nigeria gets so much bad press while Will Smith and his wife are thinking of buying a house in Kenya?" I could only shrug my shoulders.

Clairej
2/9/04