I'm sorry - I've heard that quite a number of times before (mainly from males, coincidentally)....I'm sorry, I apologise, it was never my intention to.....those are all words from a person normally filled with regret and to express remorse about an action. Normally!
I'm sorry and I apologise in most cases would suffice; and that person's remorse would be expressed enough to spur forgiveness - of course, depending on the action. I guess it's easy to apologise....you don't necessarily have to mean it. This was emphasized when I read this ------> Khaya Dlanga's apology for his tweets during the popular television show on SABC 1, Intersexions.
A little background on Intersexions: Intersexions is a unique episodic drama series with 25 independent but interrelated stand-alone episodes that follow the AIDS infection chain. The series starts with a wedding in a well-to-do suburb North of Johannesburg. The wife, Mandisa, dressing for her wedding, hears on the radio that a well-known DJ is dying of an AIDS-related illness. She freezes. The DJ had been her lover five years before. With this story, we begin our journey through the chain of transmission of the HIV virus.
Fast forward to last night's episode - episode 24, at the funeral of DJ Mo.
A little background on Khaya Dlanga (my take on him): well, I didn't know of him before twitter...but I did pick up on his popularity, and followed him. I found his tweets interesting...giving just the right mix of knowledge and information without being stiff and boring, and throwing in a bit of satire; to sum it up, I found him quite delightful to follow. (for a better understanding on who he is, click here)
Last night while watching Intersexions, I got a bbm from a very upset person which led me to Khaya's twitter timeline. I came across this: 'Or is it based on Dj Monde? That Dj Mo can't be a coincidence. #intersexions'. Clearly questioning if the character on Intersextions, Dj Mo, was based on Dj Monde, who passed away in December 2009. Naturally, fans of Dj Monde cried foul over this tweet. Khaya's subsequent tweet was, 'I think I just dug a grave for myself. Excuse the pun. #intersexions'. For me, that was the final straw...clearly he didn't give a hoot about how his tweets were affecting other people. I jumped on the bandwagon of the select few standing up to him about his tweets. (and the ones who were sending subliminal tweets)
He then vanished from twitter without responding to the tweets from the upset 'tweeps', and returned with the link to his apology! Whew...an apology at least! I read the apology, twice over, and realised that there was a lot of side-stepping.
It starts of with him expressing his own feelings on the matter, 'We have moments of foolishness. I have had more than my fair share of those in my life. I had that moment tonight during an episode of Intersexions'. I respect that, and fully agree with it. It was then followed by what could be seen as a justification; he mentions that he could justify it in three ways (I'm assuming this is his way of saying he wont justify his tweets, while actually justifying them). The one of the three that caught my eye is this, 'There are three ways I could justify myself by saying I didn’t say it because I didn’t actually say what people think I said. Nowhere do I say what I have been accused of saying. Considering the tweets I’d written before it is understandable how people could come to the conclusion that they did'. Nowhere do I say what I have been accused of saying. I replayed that over and over in my mind (and on my twitter page).....nowhere do I say what I am accused of saying. Maybe he's right...he didn't say it, he just asked a question...a question which insinuated something else. On Intersexions, Dj Mo dies of AIDS, or rather, an AIDS-related illness.....and questioning whether the episode is based on Dj Monde seems to be spreading the same idea. Maybe that was not what he meant, but it sure looked like it to me, and possibly to his over 12 000 followers, who went on to retweet it to further hundreds and possibly thousands...the power of one tweet.
This whole thing brought to mind an incident in December 2009 when Gareth Cliff tweeted something disrespectful after the death of Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Gareth Cliff felt the wrath of many, including Khaya Dlanga, for speaking ill of the dead. So my question is, when does it become alright? When do the rules of the game change? Does it depend on who the speaker is? Does it depend on their social standing, their skin colour...what exactly? As I mentioned, a select few stood up to Khaya.....it leaves me boggled!
Reckless, tactless and insensitive. The apology starts with his justifications, and ends with, 'My apologies to those who will accept the apology, I will extend it to those who will not as well'. In the words of Kimberly Johnson "Never ruin an apology with an excuse".
My thoughts......Its fine, he apologised, I wont say I'm happy with it, but it's an apology....but the question is, are certain people happy with it? I ask this with someone in mind.....who went to bed hurt and upset at her brother's name and memory being desecrated by one mindless tweet.
Pause-----> think before you speak...think before you tweet!
No comments:
Post a Comment