The Trouble With Africa

Africa. An ocean away. A continent afar. And that’s when the trouble began. At first, when contemplating my headline, which I often enjoy writing more than the actual column, I thought of triffids. Not to be confused with trivets. Oh let me explain. Triffids were invasive species from outer space, using the politically correct, can’t lead a horticulture, phraseology. Ahem.

An example: The day of the Triffids was both an English sci-fi novel of a most excellent sort and a movie. A cult classic movie no less. The plot from the wiki; A spectacular meteorite shower unexpectedly renders most of humanity blind, leading to the breakdown of society literally overnight. Bill Masen (John Duttine), who by chance has retained his sight by virtue of being in hospital with his eyes bandaged, joins a small band of similarly lucky survivors. As British societal norms collapse and the human race turns against itself, the survivors must fend off attacks from roving bands of the blind, and a sinister military force.

Gotta love the wiki. The thing is, I had already decided that the headline was going to be The Trouble With Africa, and clearly the Day of the Triffids wasn’t the movie I thought it was. There was a movie about The Trouble With Harry, but there were no creatures in that, just a dead guy so that wasn’t the cultural reference I was looking for. Trivets, on the other hand were not the case either, But for point of clarity. A trivet is also known as a ‘hot plate,’ is an object placed between a serving dish or bowl, and a dining table, usually to protect the table from heat damage.

Now, that alarming cooking utensil was not quite the direction I was going for either. But All those “T” words were confusing, and I clearly remember some sort of trouble involving something that began with the letter T, and thus was rewarded a short google trip later, with The Trouble With Tribbles. Egads, Tribbles and tribulations, I got it. And now to be entirely photo inclusive.

The plot of this Captain Kirk featured Star Trek episode was simple: A cuddly pet turns into a menace when it rapidly reproduces out of control. Which is exactly what happens when the media and Africa get mentioned by a political flunkie. First up, Republican VP nominee, Sarah Palin. On the subject of Africa, Palin is reported to have not known that Africa was a continent. On Fox News, no less:

Heh. Oh the pile on that ensued. The Huffingtonpost. Wonkette. Think Progress. Amusing, eh? Well Palin came back and said something along the lines of confusing South Africa or southern Africa or something. Well, South Africa is an interesting country, known for Apartheid, the Boer War amongst other things. White people, that is those that arrived about the 1400′s and colonized the land, represent about 10% of the population. North Africa, is home to such countries as Morrocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Look lets look at a map.

Which brings us to last night’s Common Council meeting and the point at which Council member Amanda Brown raised the issue of language being used in the Affirmative Action plan for the City of Norwalk. She asked if instead of using the world black, to identify a protected class defined in the plan, that the, in her words, more politically correct version, of African descent be used.

The trouble with Africa is that it is a continent, which is home to several countries that have decidedly non-back populations that would end up being covered under the whole, of African descent, label. This guy is, of African descent.

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So is this guy.

So is this guy.

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I think you get the point.

Africa is a continent. An ocean away. No tribbles, triffids or trivets were harmed in the writing of this column.