Zimbabwe might be one of the world's poorest and most internationally irrelevant countries, but that isn't stopping CNN and the BBC from giving round-the-clock coverage of it's elections.
Since today's Zimbabwe is of little economic interest to the West, and western elites don't seem to care much about the displaced white farmers, then we can only assume it's the battle for democracy that is pushing CNN's buttons.
Nothing seems to excite the western media more than a political battle between an aliberal, ethnocentric dictator and an educated, pro-western liberal democrat.
Not surprisingly, CNN's reporters seem to spend most of their time scouring the globe for potential democracies-in-the-making and then moving on once the evil dictator who stands before his people and electoral freedom has been vanquished. Notice for example, in 2004, during the Ukrainian elections, that photogenically battle-scared democrat Victor Yushchenko was always in the news, yet since the election, he may as well have ceased to exist as far as CNN is concerned.
Here in the South Pacific, are lust for democratic drama is periodically supplied by Fiji and its politically incorrect, but largely harmless generals, whom our politicians and media pundits enjoy ritualistically denouncing whenever they get the chance.
And its not as if there haven't been plenty of other potential stories of interest going on over the last decade.While the West media has been focusing on politics in places like Zimbabwe, Fiji and Myanmar, a massive continental war has been and gone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in which at least 5 million people have been killed or displaced. There has also been little coverage of all the interesting developments in oil and gas exploration, and the economic, political and environmental pros and cons associated with the various pipelines going through areas like Turkey, Central Asia and the Baltic Sea.
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Funny that Western media focuses on the foibles of foreign attempts at democracy but ignores our own. We don't really have democracy or even a representative republic anymore in the USA. Just layer upon layer of impenetrable bureaucracy.
If you aren't connected to some powerful organization or 'minority,' the likelihood that your needs will be address is negligible. We have one political party with two names (much like Europe except they go further with 3 or four names.)
American generals testify before Congress in order to improve their own public image or prop up the officials. We are forced to pay taxes to the unaccountable NEA to indoctrinate our children in the guise of education. Many laws are widely unpopular with the public but no one in the political class has the will to overturn them. Other laws are proudly ignored. How is this different from Fiji or Bolivia or Sierra Leone? The only difference is our standard of living allows us to hide the reality better.
I don't know if you experience this disconnect form you elected officials in NZ or not. I like to think somewhere on this planet the people have a voice.
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