In November, the @nytimes published an article about efforts in Asia to fight back COVID. They mentioned specifically 3 countries (Hong Kong, Korea and Japan) and outlined long histories of policy implementation by health officials in these nations trying to combat infections

In the article, an epidemiologist from Hong Kong university is interviewed, an infectious disease specialist at Korea university in seoul is quoted, and there is a direct statement from the president of the Japan medical association. (this is important)

The strategies of local officials and leaders are outlined and nuance is applied to the successes and failures that officials in #hongkong #southkorea and #japan face in fighting back this deadly disease.

The pictures in the article are of people wearing masks on public transport and one photo features a thermometer at the door of a business. The authors of this article are people who live and work in the countries they are reporting on.

This is good journalism.

In contrast, the @nytimes's article about COVID in Africa (The CONTINENT) features the following experts: a professor at New York University, a local registrar in a town in Nigeria, next the owner of a local funeral parlor from the same town in Nigeria....

The next expert is a director of international org. Doctors Without Borders who is the voice behind the article’s only acknowledgement of African policies that curbed the spread of covid, his input is quickly discarded for the more exciting news about secret outbreaks in Sudan

And quickly we are assaulted with a comment from a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine whose “toes curl” when anybody implies African nations have been spared.

The first photo in the African article features a corpse wrapped in plastic, then later in the article a picture of a casket. While thousands more died in Asia from covid, the article I opened with about SKorea, Hong Kong and Japan, features 0 corpses.

The @nytimes, like countless others in Western media, has a tradition of "journalism" which takes place in an Africa without leaders, without public health officials or activists. It takes place in a vacuum of knowledge and strategy. Africa has no thinkers or planners

In Western Media, Africa has no epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, no academics, no local journalists or medical associations are quoted. Just a vast maw of African horror witnessed only by the brave souls at the UN and the Africa bureaus of western papers.

It is well documented that Western media love negative coverage when discussing Africa. A study once found that in a 40 year period of reporting on African issues, the New York Times, an average of 73% articles provided decidedly negative images of Africa. This has consequences

The New York times is very influential, and is often what papers all over the world reference when writing on foreign events in general. Moreover, the NYT has demonstrable influence on direct action that governments take in response to disasters and other crises.

Appearing in the New York times corresponded to an additional $52,000 per article towards humanitarian aid for victims of the 2004 Tsunami in South Asia, for example. Think of the direct actions taken in foreign nations &their support from the Western public. #manufacturedconsent

Thus it becomes clear that there is at least one industry invested in the repeated emphasis of disaster in Africa, and moreover in the idea of Africans being ill-prepared and in need of rescuing.

An article that cites African leaders, individual nations or any experts from local universities would make NGOs obsolete, or at least bring into question the massive amount of aid being funneled “to Africa” via international aid agencies.

There are thousands of foreign NGOs in Africa and there's money to be made and soft power to be expanded. And such a scheme does not go well with input from the hundreds of universities on the continent, 50+ ministries of health, numerous government bodies and so on.

Western writes who insist on portraying Africa as a place of failure and no leadership, participate in the White Savior Industrial complex all other manner of systems that keep nations from the Global North in positions of dominance over their “former colonies.”

COVID coverage in Africa ignores reality to instead reach for any other explanation that squares with a continent devoid of brains. Most writers lean on vague ideas about “genetics” and “immunity.” It smacks of “the tenacious physical traits of the negroid race” style thinking.

I cannot think of any other way to explain a decided refusal to acknowledge the actions of nations like my native Botswana which, through strict lockdown measures instituted as early as February 2020, managed to keep COVID deaths to 45 by January 2021.

It appears even as its own healthcare system is brought to its knees & exposed as a hollowed out shell of its former self, America’s media need a world where Africa can produce no solutions, can give no knowledge and is devoid of the power to positively influence the world

Sources aka #receipts!
Asia Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/world/asia/covid-19-asia.html
Africa COVID article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/world/africa/africa-coronavirus-deaths-underreporting.html
Study on Africa in the NYT: https://doi.org/10.2307/1166825 
Paper on NYT influence in US govt: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10584600390218896?needAccess=true
Tsunami NYT donations:
https://doi.org/10.2307/20112025

If you found this useful, I'm glad! I wasn't able to place it in the right publication so I'm happy you found it here. If you're the payin' kind, feel free to donate late-night-grad-school-coffee-money to $Siyandawrites on #cashapp. Otherwise, forward ever backwards never