It’s a Texan miracle Shiloh survived …

THIS (last) week’s prize for Most Useless Gratuitous Africa Bashing Editorial (the prestigious MUGABE Award) must go to one Roger Friedman of Foxnews.com.

He also gets the prize for most sensationalist opening paragraph. This is what it reads: “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new baby girl, Shiloh, is lucky to be alive.”Fox News, as many non-Americans will know, is a conservative television network that is so pro-government it sometimes sounds anti-American.It’s such a caricature of how you’d imagine evil right-wing America to be thinking, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a cunning propaganda plot by some al Qaeda version of the CIA.Called the Camel Intelligence Arabs, to make a Foxy joke.Why are Pitt and Jolie lucky that little Shiloh is alive? (Unlike the rest of the world, I don’t feel I know them well enough to call them Brad and Ange).They’re lucky, according to Friedman, because their baby was born in Africa.That’s instant death, man! Africa! I’m surprised the little critter didn’t get taken by one of them African tigers.Ah, maybe I shouldn’t be too harsh on Friedman.He has actually been to Namibia, if you count a visit 18 months ago to a luxury lodge on the Chobe River as Namibia.And few could argue that he doesn’t have a point of sorts, when he writes that “The infant mortality rate in Namibia, according to the CIA’s website, is 48.1 deaths per 1 000 live births.”As polemic goes, his does have an apparently liberal agenda.Which is to highlight that fact, beloved of old Africa hands (known as “white people” in these parts), and oft quoted by the battalion of foreign correspondents that make their living off our apparently constant pain, that “Africa is not for Rogers”.”Or “Africa is not for sissies”, if you prefer the more classic expression.Friedman’s closing paragraph is this: “So I can only imagine what the Namibians who’ve been pressed into service for this birth are thinking (and not saying) to Pitt, Jolie and company.’Stupid Americans’ comes to mind.’Patronising Hollywood stars’ is another.But Namibians are too polite to say such things.They have more important issues on their minds.”The important issues that they have on their mind are, basically, surviving from day to day.Illustrating the true horror that is Africa, Friedman writes: “There may be one movie theatre, but there is no record of the Pitt-Jolie action pic Mr & Mrs Smith having played there.DVD players are nearly non-existent.”My goodness! They don’t even have DVD players in Africa! The horror, the horror.Friedman’s entire column is about how lucky Americans are to live in their beloved country, where giving birth is as easy as ordering a MacBaby.Them robust yanks just pop the little critters out like popcorn.He writes: “But let’s not make any mistake here: any pregnant woman in Namibia would trade just about anything to have her baby in the United States.”According to him, any Namibian woman would give up her country, her family, and her sense of who she is, so that she can rush off to America to give birth to more black cannon fodder for the American war machine.Thank you for that insight, Brer Fox.Your heart may be in the right place, but your attitude sucks.For those of you who love stats, here are some that’ll make you happy.Apparently, our desperate Namibian women who flee to America will still have something to remind them of home – the white people still have a much better life than the black people.According to Child Health USA 2003 report: “Based on preliminary data, mortality among Black infants increased slightly to 14.2 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2001.The infant mortality rate for Black infants continues to be 2.5 times that of White infants.”And according to USA Today.com: “Although life expectancy in the USA reached an all-time high in 2002, infant mortality rose for the first time in more than four decades”) * Chris Roper is a South African columnistThis is what it reads: “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new baby girl, Shiloh, is lucky to be alive.”Fox News, as many non-Americans will know, is a conservative television network that is so pro-government it sometimes sounds anti-American.It’s such a caricature of how you’d imagine evil right-wing America to be thinking, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a cunning propaganda plot by some al Qaeda version of the CIA.Called the Camel Intelligence Arabs, to make a Foxy joke.Why are Pitt and Jolie lucky that little Shiloh is alive? (Unlike the rest of the world, I don’t feel I know them well enough to call them Brad and Ange).They’re lucky, according to Friedman, because their baby was born in Africa.That’s instant death, man! Africa! I’m surprised the little critter didn’t get taken by one of them African tigers.Ah, maybe I shouldn’t be too harsh on Friedman.He has actually been to Namibia, if you count a visit 18 months ago to a luxury lodge on the Chobe River as Namibia.And few could argue that he doesn’t have a point of sorts, when he writes that “The infant mortality rate in Namibia, according to the CIA’s website, is 48.1 deaths per 1 000 live births.”As polemic goes, his does have an apparently liberal agenda.Which is to highlight that fact, beloved of old Africa hands (known as “white people” in these parts), and oft quoted by the battalion of foreign correspondents that make their living off our apparently constant pain, that “Africa is not for Rogers”.”Or “Africa is not for sissies”, if you prefer the more classic expression.Friedman’s closing paragraph is this: “So I can only imagine what the Namibians who’ve been pressed into service for this birth are thinking (and not saying) to Pitt, Jolie and company.’Stupid Americans’ comes to mind.’Patronising Hollywood stars’ is another.But Namibians are too polite to say such things.They have more important issues on their minds.”The important issues that they have on their mind are, basically, surviving from day to day.Illustrating the true horror that is Africa, Friedman writes: “There may be one movie theatre, but there is no record of the Pitt-Jolie action pic Mr & Mrs Smith having played there.DVD players are nearly non-existent.”My goodness! They don’t even have DVD players in Africa! The horror, the horror.Friedman’s entire column is about how lucky Americans are to live in their beloved country, where giving birth is as easy as ordering a MacBaby.Them robust yanks just pop the little critters out like popcorn.He writes: “But let’s not make any mistake here: any pregnant woman in Namibia would trade just about anything to have her baby in the United States.”According to him, any Namibian woman would give up her country, her family, and her sense of who she is, so that she can rush off to America to give birth to more black cannon fodder for the American war machine.Thank you for that insight, Brer Fox.Your heart may be in the right place, but your attitude sucks.For those of you who love stats, here are some that’ll make you happy.Apparently, our desperate Namibian women who flee to America will still have something to remind them of home – the white people still have a much better life than the black people.According to Child Health USA 2003 report: “Based on preliminary data, mortality among Black infants increased slightly to 14.2 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2001.The infant mortality rate for Black infants continues to be 2.5 times that of White infants.”And according to USA Today.com: “Although life expectancy in the USA reached an all-time high in 2002, infant mortality rose for the first time in more than four decades”) * Chris Roper is a South African columnist