The truth behind the seen

                                                                                                                                                                                             A  reality television is a genre of television programming, which exposes purposely  unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documented actual events and mostly features ordinary people. The edging need to pursue a reality show has participants being promised big money and also overnight stardom. However the dark side is that the rushed stardom contestants have to often undergo tremendous psychological stress when they are humiliated for what not performing well.

 

Kim Kardiashian



Such victims who fall under the trap are the role of enthusiastic and overzealous parents pushing their children towards stardom but what they do not consider is that the effects are scar deep as the children are ripped off from their childhood and forced to live of what is expected from them by their parents. What the audience is not aware of is that all of the footage or scenes being captured are manipulated through editing and other post production techniques.

If we take a closer look at the truth behind reality shows is that within a normal person’s life, such events are far-fetched and seem posed as they have an element of unfathomable. For instance a reality show “Keeping up with Kardashians” which is a personality Kimberley, who has ever since been looking for love and when she ‘thinks’ she has landed her knight and shinning amour which led to a divorce after 72 days of marriage and quickly moves on to dating Kanye West, with no bitter taste of licking a new flavored candy, we are left to believe that this was all a publicity stunt.

The audience is deceived as nothing we witness on television can be definitely confirmed to be as true as the reality of life.

“Let us not be deceived by what we see and envy what we do not know”

Fury runs against song

 Siyabonga 'Slikour' Methane, a South African Hip Hop artist who recently debuted a music video of a single he had titled 'Black are Fools', which has left tongues wagging of fury.
The lyrics of a song go on to say : "cause blacks are fools,
they just wanna be fresh
Give them a little money
And they think they rule.
But I hope we better than that
Nowadays its all about money
And political favors
Is BEE the only way to be something?
That's why we do not even own nothing.
'Cause we think of ourselves as nothing" He argues that his song is misinterpreted as people do not even attempt to listen to his lyrics but end up just making a conclusion with the title of the song. "I still believe, though, that people should not only focus on the title of the song. I'm saying all this because of what white people or foreigners say about us. They say we are lazy; that is why they take our jobs," he says.
I have attempted to listen to the song attentively and have found that some of the points he make are valid and true, I think which is why many people are triggered by what he is stating. On the other hand, the choice of words starting from the song title it is definitely harsh and spiteful. He could have chosen a more appropriate and calmer tone register to address the issues because it seems more aggressive and viewed to have turned his back on his people.
 What makes me agree to some of the points he makes is that we are easily driven to want to live an extravagant life without having to work hard and earn money you deserve, instead we are more intrigued into quick cash and be seen as people who are living the "life" especially within the black community. The society approves of people who have tons of money and are not even educated, and that gives the impression that the youth can see themselves invincibly rich within a short period time instead of investing in education. As the song ends, he expresses " If you keep the truth in the dark, our future will be even darker" hence we should re-address all the issues to build a solid foundation for the future generation.    

The truth behind the false me!

I was caught in disbelieve when I first saw a video clip compiled by dove, to really define a vivid sight I witnessed was “an ugly duckling transform into a swan”. What was actually displayed was a young woman beautifully clean looking, without makeup, hair worn down combed back and fingers roughly run through it, transformed before our eyes into what the media considers as “beautiful”.

She had gone under drastic changes which made her into someone she really is not. It got me thinking that as young girls all around the globe have such great exposure to the media and they are all fed only one perspective of “beauty”, which is not even close to any form of human beings. It is in human nature that we have flaws, and it is with flaws that make us uniquely beautiful, to think that girls look up to models in magazines and billboards and try to imitate their looks which is really far-fetched.

These models wear heavy make-up, add on hair extensions, wear designer extravagant and expensive clothing which in the final stage of a photo shoot go under major photo shopping; narrowing the nose, bigger eyes, higher lashes, slim cheek bones, thicker lips and a short chin with smooth edges added on.  A fake version of the once naturally beautiful model is then placed on the billboard to be witnessed by many young girls envying to see themselves in that way, when the model is not portrayed as her real self.

However a great initiative by Dove and Girls Inc, had joined hands into giving girls a perspective of gaining self esteem which will make them strong enough to face the world seeing themselves as beautiful. Mind + Body initiative aiming at giving them knowledge, skills and attitude required to form and maintain a healthy and positive sense of self.

Check out the Dove @ self esteem tools for girls

Are we puppets of the media?

As time have dramatically evolved to a more modern and advance way of disseminating and obtaining messages at the moment they have been published through technology. Media continues to play a huge role especially in keeping the society informed about news, whether local or internationally, helping and enriching a knowledgeable literate community from television programmes, radio shows and so fourth. Its main intentional focus is to enlighten the society on matters that really affects them, in some instances it has unintentional messages being disseminated on which it is mostly on the youth.

The media has been painting a picture in how we should dress like, what to eat, how to live and whom to associate with. Some of these suggestions proposed are even impossible and even life threatening as young girls are forced to look slim and be like magazine models, dress up to the latest trends, live a luxurious life and be seen with the “IT” people.

It has even led to people to have a certain way of thinking, with what effect, decisions to be made and actions.

It is indeed very questionable to what rate of impact the media has on the youth, as they do not play outside like past years in the sun and be involved into face to face conversations rather than being more in to social media/network (Skype, MySpace or Facebook) to communicate or watch television with lots of violence and explicit sex.

Now, how do we expect our youth to be leaders of tomorrow, when the media seems to be swirling the puppets, to which ever direction it believes to be appropriate?

A study by the Media scope institute found that many children have already, by age six, spent more time watching television than time they will spend talking to their parents in their entire lifetime.

I will conclude my argument by stating that we should accept media as one of a sum of a part of our lives but not make it a necessity that we cannot live without as its implications and intentions may not of building a moral and stable society.

When one sows a cabbage to only find it eaten by ants when it is time to reap

I was saddened yesterday while watching SABC 1’s Cutting Edge programme which brings me to today’s topic. Each year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. One might ask what human trafficking is, it is a crime against humanity. It is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, sexual exploitation, forced labour, or a modern-day from slavery.

Watching the programme was so eye-opening that even individuals lead themselves to it without being fully aware of their surroundings. The young woman, who was fortunate enough to have lived to tell a tale, shared her horrifying experience. Having to come from a poor background was the only solution to the starvation was to get an occupation that will help alleviate their predicament at home. As she describes that she was fortunate enough to have met a clean, well dressed man who said he could help her to get an occupation in Pretoria, when it suddenly turned ugly when the man locked her in a room for sexual favours but she was fortunate enough to escape without being harmed.

According to a 2009 U.S Department of Justice report, there were 1 229 suspected human trafficking incidents in the United States from January 2007-September 2008. Of these, 83% were sex trafficking cases, through only 9% of all cases could be confirmed as examples of human trafficking. 

We live in horrendous world were especially children and women are violated of their rights and are forced to live with scars that will always be part of their lives to have experienced such horror. How I always say to my friends that you cannot sow a pumpkin seed and expect to reap a pork loin, far-fetched I know, which is similar to the upbringing of a child in a family. It is quite rare for a child to be brought up in a family of strong and influential values, beliefs and morals to force another human being to be treated in such a manner of molestation or worse. As for the community we need to teach the children that it is important to always be honest of the places they wonder in, who they are with, their time of arrival and which mode of transport will be utilised. By being informed with such we able to detect if there is a delay and when trouble has occurred. The International Labour Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade, and other illicit activities around the world.

The National Human Trafficking Resources Centre is a toll free hotline for callers to report tips and receive information on human trafficking by calling the hotline at 1.888.3737.888, which it is based only in the United States. And for other countries they can contact the Anti-human trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Unit or to join the Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking, visit the Blue Heart website and to learn about the Global Initiative to fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) visit the UN.GIFT website.