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Forums - Sony - Nigeria hates Sony, confirmed.

binary solo on 21 September 2009
mibuokami said:
Adjudicator said:
mibuokami said:
Adjudicator said:
Have any of you ever been to Nigeria or know anyone from Nigeria. I know it's all in fun but some of you posts seem rather immature and uninformed.

It only hurts when it strikes too close to the truth.

I concur, I just get the feeling alot of these posts are knee jerk reactions from people who have had fleeting interactions and anecdotal experiences. I just think that sometimes there are people and organisations trying thier very best to change certain things, and it is very frustrating when things like this happen.

I happen to know a number of Nigerians who are neither prostitutes nor con men. This is not to say that all of them are like that, but one should never encourage stereotypes.

Steretypes are always rooted in truth, and while its commendable for the Nigerian government to try and change its image, part of that process of change is learning to accept criticism and embrace free speech.

I'm probably being a bit insensitive btw :P

 

I mostly agree with you, however even though stereotypes are usually (not always) based on truth, they are almost always wrong, unjustifiably inflammatory and generally defamatory to the group/race/nation/religion etc etc being stereotyped. Doesn't mean you can't use stereotypes as a fictional device, just look at the Russian stereotypes in the old Bond movies: Unemotional, masculine women with giant hairy moles on their face who want to crush 007 with their tree trunk thighs. I don't recalll the Kremlin complaining about it though.

Criticism should be accepted only if it is fair. If it's not fair then it is right to criticise the unfair criticism. But it's not right to call for a movie to be banned.

@ Naraku: You're going to have to define senseless violence because IMO there wasn't any senseless violence in this movie. Violence yes, but senseless no.



“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell

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Feylic on 21 September 2009
binary solo said:
I watched the movie, I liked the movie. I did think the mentioning of the nationality of the human criminal organisation in the alien slum was odd. I wonder if Blomkamp has had a history with some Nigerian criminals and is taking a creative swipe at said criminals. Perhaps he is trying to make a political statement about the corruption and other social ills that in his view stem from Nigeria and have spread to other countries in Africa. I think we need to be very careful about trying to restrict artists in their expression cultural or political views in their work. Perhaps in South Africa there is a criminal underground with substantial representation by Nigerian immigrants. I don't know enough about South Africa and it's relationship to Nigeria to know if there is some bad blood between the 2. All I know is Nigeria isn't close to South Africa geographically speaking.

I'd like to hear from Blomkamp about why he chose Nigerians as the human criminal underground for this movie because it might be quite enlightening, or it could expose him as a flat out racist. Either way it would be good to know.

I doubt Blomkamp is overtly racist though. After all, to me one theme of the movie to oppose attitudes of prejudice and intolerance.

Things like this don't make sense to me... why can't it be that Blomkamp just needed a random country, close to South Africa, for the "bad criminals" to be from? Why does there have to be a reason behind this decision. And how could any answer from him expose him as a "flat out racist", what would make him not a racist in your eyes?? Choosing the criminals to be from the US instead? Or Austria? Or Japan? No matter what he chooses, someone would call him out for it. Just let them make their damn movie the way they want.



mibuokami on 21 September 2009
binary solo said:
mibuokami said:
Adjudicator said:
mibuokami said:
Adjudicator said:
Have any of you ever been to Nigeria or know anyone from Nigeria. I know it's all in fun but some of you posts seem rather immature and uninformed.

It only hurts when it strikes too close to the truth.

I concur, I just get the feeling alot of these posts are knee jerk reactions from people who have had fleeting interactions and anecdotal experiences. I just think that sometimes there are people and organisations trying thier very best to change certain things, and it is very frustrating when things like this happen.

I happen to know a number of Nigerians who are neither prostitutes nor con men. This is not to say that all of them are like that, but one should never encourage stereotypes.

Steretypes are always rooted in truth, and while its commendable for the Nigerian government to try and change its image, part of that process of change is learning to accept criticism and embrace free speech.

I'm probably being a bit insensitive btw :P

 

I mostly agree with you, however even though stereotypes are usually (not always) based on truth, they are almost always wrong, unjustifiably inflammatory and generally defamatory to the group/race/nation/religion etc etc being stereotyped. Doesn't mean you can't use stereotypes as a fictional device, just look at the Russian stereotypes in the old Bond movies: Unemotional, masculine women with giant hairy moles on their face who want to crush 007 with their tree trunk thighs. I don't recalll the Kremlin complaining about it though.

Criticism should be accepted only if it is fair. If it's not fair then it is right to criticise the unfair criticism. But it's not right to call for a movie to be banned.

@ Naraku: You're going to have to define senseless violence because IMO there wasn't any senseless violence in this movie. Violence yes, but senseless no.

Oh I agree, criticise the movie by all means, that again is part of free speech. =)

I probably should seperate the two sentence, my reference to steretype and the second regarding image change veered off. I am speaking about the real political allegory that the director (who had first hand expirience) portrayed through the film when I refer to the criticism (which was certainly not just directed as the Nigerians) while the later (stereotype) is an unfortunate example of free speech.

To borrower from my better: I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.




Heavenly_King on 22 September 2009

@Feylic

EPIC SIG!! LOL XD



Open World-Survival-Game Days Gone

scottie on 22 September 2009

Make a movie where the enemies are Russian or German and are depicted as terrible people and it's considered fine. But as soon as it's a small country people cry racism



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Porcupine_I on 22 September 2009

Oh, and thank you for the Spoiler warning! i almost read details about the Movie i didn't want to know!

Wait! I DID!



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

mibuokami on 22 September 2009
scottie said:
Make a movie where the enemies are Russian or German and are depicted as terrible people and it's considered fine. But as soon as it's a small country people cry racism

When you have no muscle to flex you use your wit, and you have neither muscle nor wit... well....




N.Genckel on 22 September 2009

Gazprom bought Nigerian Oil not long ago, and changed the name to Nigaz. I'm not kidding. It's hilarious.



Check out my DS site.

Cypher1980 on 22 September 2009

All Sony did was represent the Nigerians as baby eating racist cannibals.

I mean c'mon



forest-spirit on 22 September 2009

Every Nigerian hates Sony?