June 15, 2021
Albert Baron Ansu
The drama at the China Railway Seventh Group mines portrayed the Chinese oldman to have first assaulted a Sierra Leonean Safety Officer. There was an ensuing physical fight and the Chinese lost face. This image went viral on social media.
What we could not understand is the antecedent to the images that panned out. Why did the Chinese old man become petulant to have kicked the folder in the hands of the Sierra Leonean safety officer? This is a question that cannot be captured in the social media post.
Something could have instigated the Chinese old man’s action- attempting to retaliate the slap that he received after kicking the folder in the hands of the Sierra Leonean safety officer. The ridiculous scene of the Chinese old man running for a stick to hit the Sierra Leonean Safety Officer; and the dazzling Jackie Chan style flight of the Safety Officer to kick the old man in the stomach that saw him tumbling down was the hysterical side of the drama.
How this incident has been mistreated in the ridiculous is very much unfortunate. We have seen varied forms of short videos created by Sierra Leoneans to ridicule the Chinese. There are questions to be asked about this unfortunate incident warranting the reported sacking of the Chinese old man by the embarrassed company that had employed him.
What is the essence of these social media videos? Are they meant to taunt the Chinese? This is what we are figuring out and it is just too unfair. For how could one misstep of a Chinese national provide the recipe to show our prejudice for a friendly nation that has been supportive of our national aspiration to develop?
What is this reckless recreation of provocative videos about that incident telling about us as a nation? It is telling a lot about our comedian inclination. Granted, we are given to project things that can make us laugh. But for goodness sake, we cannot allow that risibility tendency to get the better part of us and lose our human sense of decency.
The point is that the gleefulness in portraying that incident in ways that are irritating to Chinese nationals is sending a wrong message to extent that we hate the Chinese and we are happy that one of their elderly citizens has been beaten up by a Sierra Leonean. Too much laughing is a mark of foolishness. The drama was laughable but never warranted the ridiculous mimicry we are seen unraveling on social media. It does not show maturity and gratitude from the Sierra Leonean; for the Chinese have done and are doing so much for us. If it is for fun sake, must we say enough is enough? The videos have lost their value and must be taken down.
It is high we assumed a sense of sobriety and look at that unfortunate drama from hindsight- that it can lead to soured relationship between Sierra Leone and the Chinese, not so?
And the implication is that we are going to lose more than the Chinese will. De-emphasizing the ridiculous Chinese joke on social media that women have joined in the fray, after the Nasser Ayub and musician LAJ rendering serves us best than satisfying our comedian instincts. We can do better than that by stopping to share such videos; condemning in comments posters of such recreated versions of unfortunate drama and telling those enjoying getting serious and rising above pettiness. There are better ways to show loyalty to Sierra Leone.