Just a few days ago, I was cracking up, laughing about the hilarious episode South Park did on Kanye. I often hold the creators of this show with a certain regard, for I believe, good comedy will from time to time, hold a mirror up to society's collective face. So that we may look at ourselves and burst out in laughter, even if the frowns of self examination follow. I gotta say though, Kanye handled it well. The homie and I have some mutual friends and I don't remember ever making a remark to anyone about his personal choices. Even when his presentation of his own ego swallowed him whole, I always found the honesty in his music more of an appealing focus. Now, what I wanted to write about isn't really Fishsticks, but honestly, who would have thought South Park would be the first major American TV program to do a real piece on the Somali piracy crisis?
First of all, they used real Somali voices, which is always a point of charm for the Somali people. We DON'T LIKE NOBODY PLAYIN ON OUR LANGUAGE!! Black Hawk Down was unbearable in that, it was like being told you were watching a true portrayal of the Bronx's early days of Hip Hop, except Cool Herc and em spoke with a German accent.
The F*&#!!
Secondly, they touched on the supreme lawlessness, poverty and humanitarian crisis facing the country. Cartman says "In Somalia, people have no laws, they have no rules and they never grow old" The response? The golden truth of the Somali tragedy: "They never grown old because they die before they're 30!"
They talked about the toxic waste issue which I have been quite vocal about. "Even the fish here are radio active" says Kyle. Could 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper or any of the supposably serious outlets not have looked into this issue? Should it take a witty jewish cartoon boy to make this statement? Well, I think the answer is: When fear grips the rest, comedy is where the truth is left. It happens everywhere. In Somalia, when political theatre was being suppressed, and serious poetry could not be composed to criticize oppression and inequality, the poets would use comedians to get the word out.
So while we all find relief in laughter, I would argue that there is more to the chuckles than meets the ear. Because even pain is funny, so long as we're not laughing at it, but about it.
South Park is not without its imperfections though. It seems the clever creators can also be guilty of the African stereotypes. If you look at the emotional moment of the episode, presenting the young Somali pirate's puzzlement over the American's fascination with lawlessness and piracy, he explains "my mother is dying of AIDS". Now while the disease is a major issue in some African countries, it's about the same of an issue in Somalia as it is in Greece. The reason for the comparison is that the two countries, Greece and Somalia, are roughly around the same in their population. The HIV prevalence rate for Greece is 0.2, while in Somalia it's at 0.5. Unicef estimates that in 2007, the number of people in Somalia living with HIV is 24, 000, Out of an estimated 11 and a half million people.
It's a relatively low number considering most of the new cases stem from high border crossing and mass internal movement. For greece, it's at 19, 000 out of its 11 million population.
So Clearly the problem of AIDS in Somalia, isn't comparable to say that of Botswana, with its heart aching 23.9 prevalence rate for its meager population
of 1.8 million. And while it's important to say something about the HIV problem in Africa, Somalia is the wrong country to profile it through. I suppose it would strike us all as odd, if some American sitcom, (during the warm and fuzzy parts where we all get our life lessons) made a remark about Greece's "AIDS problem". So is it acceptable to do so about Somalia because it's in Africa?
All in all, while a part of me wants to resist being vocal about Everything Somalia, I can't help but speak on what I am most passionate about. One blogger said it best, "FatBeard is to K'naan like Fishsticks is to Kanye".
We can all complain about the imperfections of major media outlets, but I wanna take a moment, to thank God for Jon Stewart, thank God for Dave Chappelle and thank God for South Park.
Peace.
K'naan
