BBC Hardtalk with Sharon Looremeta
Just a quick note on the Hardtalk program I just watched on BBC News 24:
Zeinab Badawi talks to Sharon Looremeta, a Kenyan Maasai, about her campaign for action to help the world’s poorest people.
(Note: I would really like to have the transcript of the show to quote here but I can’t find it on the site.) I thought this would be a really stimulating discussion but I was thoroughly disappointed: both with the presenter, Zeinab Badawi - who I should do some research on - and Sharon Looremeta in the hot seat.
Zeinab Badawi was far from impartial and repeatedly simplified issues (e.g., compensation vs. monetary aid vs. transfer of enabling technologies) to primary school level taking many important ideas out of context. Rather than pressing for answers to difficult questions it felt like she exploited Sharon’s language barrier to put words into her mouth and subsequently hammer the same ideas.
Though Sharon is quite well spoken she seemed to struggle quite a bit both with using the right vocabulary (e.g., carbon emissions, ecological footprint) and remembering key ideas (intermediate technologies,…). She didn’t even try to counter several key arguments such as Zeinab ridiculing the idea of a future based on renewable energies.
Overall a real shame and lost opportunity in particular as Sharon works with Practical Action a UK charity promoting intermediate technologies to enable communities according to the motto “small is beautiful” (after EF Schumacher).