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Monday, February 15, 2010

VBS.TV Travel Guide to Liberia -Open Apology

Last month, VBS.TV produced one of the most derogatory documentaries on Liberia. A friend of mine from Philadelphia, USA notified me and I instantly "took to my heels." I didn't just send the letter below to VBS.TV, I also contacted a whole network of Liberians urging them to do something about it. After about 2 weeks, the results were positive. First, they remove all those nasty documentaries and then wrote an open apology letter (see VBS.TV Open Letter to Liberia). Thanks to Liberians & non-Liberians everywhere for upholding our pride and dignity even in the midst of war and poverty - WE WILL OVERALL PREVAIL!

Sent: Jan 23 @ 9:35pm
Subject: VBS.TV Travel Guide to Liberia
After trying several times to get through to your phone lines I must resort to writing. As a PhD in Law student (in Canada) and a born and bred Liberian who experienced part of the civil war in Liberia; my natural instincts tell me to go after VBS legally to ensure that they pay for complete defamation and misrepresentation of information about a whole country. But then again, I shouldn't allow my anger to take the better part of me as a more sensible, resptectful, tolerant and morally upright human being.

I would really appreciate speaking with Mr. Shane Smith concerning VBS production on Liberia re: "....Liberia is the 4th poorest country in the world, (...) a large percentage of the population eat human flesh..." You must produce evidence for these statistics that so go beyond freedom of press toward violation of a whole country's right to dignity and respect. Given Liberia's under-development, there is no way you can tell me that you (or anyone for that matter) conducted a research on the entire population of Liberia (with a strong research power, of course) to prove these statistics to extent of generalizing in this manner?

I'm certainly going to go after VBS on this one. I'm so sick and tire of America/Westerners portraying Africa/Liberia with such disdain and disrespect when in fact the worse forms of crimes against humanity occurs in America. From slavery to KKK to the war in Iraq to racial profiling of Arabs/muslims, to Guantanamo Bay and all other forms of racial discrimination. How can anyone, suffice to say a whiteman of your calibre, have the audicity and impudence to portray a whole country in such a derogatory manner.

This makes me sick, it is disgusting and I'm going to rally Liberians in the US to ensure that you're brought to justice for this.

Thank you.
Veronica Patience Fynn