Matt Lauer in Cape Town this morning: Stupidity run amok

[HamdenRice]

I realize that Matt Lauer is a brain dead talking head, and I appreciate that a fairly developed, stable attractive African country is getting some exposure, but does Matt have to demonstrate over and over that he has not done even the most cursory research about the country he is in?

Here are a few howlers I picked up so far. He is in Cape Town harbor and claims that the country was settled in 1652 by the Dutch.

No Matt, the country was settled at least 10,000 years ago by the first indigenous people there, the Khoisan, and about 1,500 years ago by other indigenous Africans of the Sotho-Tswana and Nguni groups.

The food segment was ridiculous. He and Giada di Laurentis are looking at various Cape dishes. One if the first, bobotie, is Cape Malay. Gaida points to the next, biltong, and Matt says something like this is black African meat? She agrees. WTF does that mean? That they are about to engage in canibalism? Actually biltong was introduced by white farmers, and is not an indigenous dish.

Then they are playing the 60s pop tune, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and Matt says that it was a hit in South Africa in 1939 before it was a hit in the US. Wrong again Matt. The hit in South Africa was "Mbube," which was in Zulu. American musicians and producers eventually wrote English lyrics and covered it as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." He might also have mentioned that South Africans are very pissed off that Solomon Linda, the Zulu musician who wrote Mbube got virtually nothing for the song, even after it made millions after use in a Disney movie.

Most glaring, however, is Matt's complete incapacity to take note of the most glaring part of his trip: That virtually where ever he films the "good life" in Cape Town and the surrounding wine country, he is showing white South Africans eating and drinking and being served by black South Africans.

Doesn't the persistence of this glaring racial inequality a decade after the "transition" merit even a note of interest? Isn't he even a little curious about his social fact?

[bigscott]

1. matt loser

is an asshole - how can anyone watch him?

[spanone]

2. Who in the world gives a shit where Matt Lauer is? That should be the title.

[acmavm]

3. Matt's a bona fide idiot, that's a given. Giada is doing her level

best to prove that she's right there on his level. No gender discrimination on that issue.

It's a damn good thing she can cook.

[HamdenRice]

15. Poor Giada -- sucessful after overcoming so many barriers!

Being the niece of Dino de Luarentiis must have made it really difficult to break into the mainstream media!

[Lost4words]

4. matt would need a brain for curiosity!

8643

[qanda]

5. Thank you

It's good to hear the real history. I don't know that much about South Africa, but I'm not trying to pawn my ignorance off as fact on millions of people. There's something to be said for a good education or at least a good researcher.

[blueworld]

6. Did his co-workers take up a collection to keep him away?

I mean, it costs millions to export him all over the world & NBC can't even afford a two-way phone system with a keypad for Russert. He has to sit around waiting for people to call him!

I like Giada, but I sometimes wonder why she doesn't just store her wooden spoons in her cleavage & have done with it.

:woohoo:

[HamdenRice]

16. Can't they afford Google?

It's free, ya know! Woulda cleared up a lot for them!

[WinkyDink]

7. I guess he's never read "Cry, the Beloved Country".

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. The Tiki Barber portion of the show discussed the continuing disparities

He interviewed a "colored" man who was imprisoned at Robben Island with Mandela, and he visited a township. Of course, this was all soft-peddled, as per usual, but since when have you expected NBC to do interesting, comprehensive work on race, class, and globalization?

[HamdenRice]

17. Send the black guy into the ghetto

Even though he's an athlete and not a journalist. Matt might have gotten some dust on his rose colored glasses if they sent him in.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. Indeed

To be fair, Tiki Barber spent the whole week in South Africa, and it was his portion of the rport. But the "send the black guy into the ghetto" thing was a cringe-inducing backdrop of the story.

[HamdenRice]

21. Yeah, into the ghetto and into the shark cage

Strange pairing.

To be fair, I didn't watch the entire thing, but what I caught was indeed "cringe inducing."

[undeterred]

9. Contest: Where is Matt Lauer's BRAIN?

[Connie_Corleone]

10. Soylent Green is made out of black African meat!

[HamdenRice]

18. That was funny as hell!

I think he was trying to get at the idea that biltong, unlike the "fancy" dishes is authentically indigenous "African."

The irony is that they had it exactly backwards. The primitive looking Biltong, the dried jerky like beef, ostrich and kudu meat, was the "white" (Afrikaner) dish. The "fancy" bobotie is actually a more indigenous "black" dish, that comes from the descendants of the slaves of Cape Town.

[npincus]

11. K&R

enjoyed your post!

[Beausoir]

12. That segment with Giaada was really bad. Forced, confused, cutsey-pie stuff.

Ugh. I used to like her but she's starting to really bug me.

[WinkyDink]

20. I can't abide her.

[HamdenRice]

22. It's called "food porn"

Bill Maher had a great bit about her last week. He pointed out that she fakes orgasms when she tastes her food.

The first "food porn" host was Nigella Lawson. Her former show wasn't really about food at all, but filming Nigella from various strange angles with a soft focus lens.

For both, it takes rather little cooking skill or general intelligence.

For Italian, I'd much rather watch Lydia, but if I ate like that I'd drop dead of a heart attack by 50.

[erpowers]

13. Someone Mentioned

I am not trying to contradict you in what you are saying, in fact thank you for trying to clear up the issue; however, I think Ann Curry or someone else mentioned the fact about "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". I was not really paying complete attention during that segment, but I think someone pointed out that it was "Mdube" in Africa. In addition, Lauer did mention that things were not all good in Cape Town. They did show that there are still some problems even after the end a apartied. Tiki Barber took a tour of one of the shanti towns.

I guess you are right that Lauer should have talked more about the racial inequality. However, maybe people who saw the story will take a trip to South Africa and see for themselves the problems that are still a part of the country. However, thanks for trying to set the record straight.

[HamdenRice]

14. The thing that ticked me off most was the "settled in 1652 by Dutch" part

because it was part of official apartheid ideology that the black people of South Africa arrived AFTER the white people. Yes, believe it or not, that was official ideology. It was the justification for saying that South Africa was a white man's country and the blacks were their guests and migrant workers. The term "black" or "Bantu" did not include the descendants of the Khoisan of Cape Town who eventually became the "Coloured" population.

When radio carbon dating began to prove that black Africans were there for at least 1,000 years before whites, they banned radio carbon dating!

So Matt was taking a page out of South African official history books circa 1972.

[erpowers]

23. Unbelievable

Wow! That is really unbelievable. I am very surprised that white people tried to say they had come to South Africa before the black people. Thanks for informing everyone about this. I had no idea that that had happened. I always know about some of the problems during apartied, but I did not know white people tried to say they had arrived at South Africa before black people.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Matt "I'm too sexy for myself " Lauer? "Now watch this drive!

Who in the World Cares Where Matt Lauer is? :shrug: