Boycott U2? - [website] Published: 16th of Feb 2011 by: (c) Staff Training Staff Reporter
U2 frontman Bono recently created a stir among South Africans for his comments regarding the anti-apartheid struggle song “Shoot the Boer.”
The trouble is, South African newspapers, knowing what a hot topic this currently is, decided to misrepresent the situation and pose Bono as a supporter of controversial ANC-YL leader Julius Malema, when in reality all Bono said, was that there was a place for these songs in our history.
Almost immediately groups on Facebook started popping up with names like “Boycott U2”, illustrating what a few misplaced (or misinterpreted) words can do to a nation.
Instead of uniting South Africans for a day in which race, gender, creed and caste are all forgotten in the interest of great music, Bono's words have stoked a fire many of us would like to see die.
You’d think that in a country as culturally diverse as South Africa we would be able to see all angles of the story before picking a side, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case.
In South Africa’s defence though, Bono could have educated himself on the issue before remarking on it.
If he’d have done that he would’ve realised what a controversial topic “Shoot the Boer” really is, and he might have changed tack, or avoided the topic altogether.
I think there’s a lesson to be learnt here.
Not that it’s best to keep quiet, certainly not, but instead, before interacting with different cultures (who have different beliefs, values and morals) it’s probably wise to find out at least a bit about them.
It can’t be stressed enough, especially in South Africa, that being culturally aware is a necessity in both the business and social worlds, and that no matter how strongly we feel about a topic, there’s bound to be someone who believes equally strongly about its antithesis.
(c)Matt Wood
Staff Training
Real Solutions for Real People
Matt is employed by Staff Training, a soft skills training company dealing with these topics and issues on a daily basis. You are welcome to re-use and/or re-publish this article, but please ensure that this final acknowledgment paragraph and link accompanies it. Thank you! The Staff Training team.
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