These are indeed perilous times to own a Television set and a subscription to Multi-Choice Africa more popularly known as DSTV. You never know what you might get. It seems the animal mating scenes on Discovery channel are slowly progressing towards other channels where the presence of such materials are classified as porn.
Infact even sitting in front of your computers, one is not safe from these images as all the discussion forums, blogs and video websites all have one form of the content or the other. The latest is a female Nigerian housemate, the notorious Beverly warming up to a male housemate from another part of the motherland, opening her body up for him to consume on live continental cable television and internet.
Most fascinating is how Multi-Choice of South Africa issues a disclaimer saying the actions, opinions etc of the housemates are not theirs or shared by the general populace of the country they represent. Yes thanks Multi-Choice, we know! As a Nigerian man, I think Beverly’s behaviour is a bit too radical, I mean this is a woman that accused her mother of being a drug courier in Italy, and, in the same sentence, admitted to being a prostitute to make ends meet, whilst having a bowl of cereal on continental TV. She obviously has deep psychological and emotional issues. The Big Brother house provides the right blend of catalysts, to bring out even an introverted individual’s deepest and darkest secrets for the entertainment of all and sundry.
But can we call for regulation? How is this possible? When every Senator’s wife and daughter has this show, Tinsel and Nigerian Idols as their top three favorite shows. There will be no regulation, however our lawmakers and even those abroad (British PM, David Cameron) are enacting and/or enforcing more laws to keep pornography out of the reach of society. Every keen observer chuckles at the irony of a government that will allow Corporations to legally sell you Porn in your own home but try to filter internet pornography sites (as Cameron is doing in UK) or try to stop video vendors from selling them on the streets (as is being done in Lagos).
The real solution to pornography is for people to stop watching, but the global Big Brother franchise controls an audience in the tens of millions living in the countless countries they operate, meaning this is something that is globally enjoyed and accepted. Perhaps one day Big Brother Africa will bring in another trend, alien to African culture, and we will address that one too as a society, watching comfortably in our living rooms.
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