Fwd: Oprah Winfrey got it wrong - Punch 26/07/07

[kol...@uoguelph.ca]

----- Forwarded message from segunol...@yahoo.co.uk -----
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:31:04 -0400

This is from today's Punch Newspaper [Nigeri]...Oprah just lost the respect I
have for her (if I ever had one)....this is ludicrous and
condescending on her part...she should be ashamed of herself...knowing
her background and the background of some Americans with drug abuse
etc as mentioned in the article below...I think we can see how Oprah's
fallacy of hasty generalization belittles her level of exposure and
understanding. .....I can't believe she did say "all Nigerians -
regardless of their level of education - are corrupt." !!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oprah Winfrey got it wrong -Punch 26/07/07

Recently, America's TV girl, Oprah Winfrey, called on America to sever
diplomatic relationships with world's topmost corrupt countries.

Worst of all the countries, Oprah surmised, is Nigeria.

According to her, "all Nigerians - regardless of their level of
education - are corrupt."

It is very pathetic that Oprah could ascribe to a larger population,
the evil act of an insignificant number of persons in the world's most
populous black nation.

Oprah's conclusion is based on the fact that a Nigerian of Igbo
extraction was caught with $500,000, which was alleged to have been
stolen from a foreigner through the Internet fraud popularly known as
419.

Oprah had sponsored an hour-long programme, which ran for several days
on the CNN, with the sole aim of exposing the clever tricks espoused
by this group of Nigerians to con their victims.

Much has been said about the greed of the victims themselves, and I
need not say more about it.

However, at a time when Americans are committing heinous crimes
against children and women, nobody has tagged all Americans as
murderous.

So, why call all Nigerians rogues because of the sin of a few bad eggs?

Oprah regularly tells her life story: how she was sexually abused by
close relations, how she 'walked the streets' (Americans' euphemism
for prostitution), etc., but nobody has ever deemed it fit to tag all
American men as incestuous because of Oprah and others' experiences.

She did drugs - just like the typical American teenager, but nobody
has cast all American youths in the mould of drug abusers!

So, why should an individual that is supposed to know better sentence
a nation to odium for the infraction of a tiny fraction of its
population?

I urge Oprah and her likes to disabuse their minds about Nigerians.

Be wary of requests for money from strangers, and if you fall for a
scam, blame your greed and not Nigerians.

Okoli Vitalis,

legen...@gmail.com

----- End forwarded message -----
--------------------
F. J. Kolapo

[Okey Ndibe]

Did Oprah make the statement ascribed to her? This is
the first time I'm reading about this.
If she truly degraded Nigerians, then she should hear
it from us collectively and individually.

Okey Ndibe

--- kol...@uoguelph.ca wrote:

____________________________________________________________________________________
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[franklyne ogbunwezeh]

I have asked this question severally. Could someone post the transcript of the said assault here or give us a link to access it. I have tried all the search engines I know to no avail.

If Oprah said what is ascribed to her, it is imperative that we make an adequate response.

Franklyne Ogbunwezeh

[Pablo]

Here's the link:  http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200707260133325.

 I  have never had much time for Oprah  (she of Zulu ancestry, and mega money for elite children in  South Africa) Winfrey.
 If she said this, it's as typically stupidly  outrageous   thing to say; and if she did indeed say it,  then she should be roundly and collectively condemned. However, let everyone be sure she said it. Nigerian newspapers and magazines, even the better ones,  can be  full of false ascriptions,  wrongful accusations, hearsay and calumny. If true, then then the Punch reporter should be given shares in YouTube, and I will personally put Winfrey in touch with Americans, regardless of education,  who can 419 her!

By the way, please, can we stop calling her Oprah, like she's our  personal friend?
Pablo

[Pablo]

Here's the link:  http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200707260133325.

 I  have never had much time for Oprah  (she of Zulu ancestry, and mega money for elite children in  South Africa) Winfrey.
 If she said this, it's as typically stupidly  outrageous   thing to say; and if she did indeed say it,  then she should be roundly and collectively condemned. However, let everyone be sure she said it. Nigerian newspapers and magazines, even the better ones,  can be  full of false ascriptions,  wrongful accusations, hearsay and calumny. If true, then then the Punch reporter should be given shares in YouTube, and I will personally put Winfrey in touch with Americans, regardless of education,  who can 419 her!

By the way, please, can we stop calling her Oprah, like she's our  personal friend?
Pablo


  ofranklyne ogbunwezeh wrote:

[F. Kolapo]

After searching Oprah.com without success to see if there is a service that sells transcripts of her shows, the following was a email message that I sent  to the site’s mailbox. An instruction however says replies to all individual mails are not guaranteed.

 

A Nigerian Newspaper  yesterday printed an opinion [Oprah Winfrey got it wrong -Punch 26/07/07] decrying an alleged generalization that Oprah made during a show on scams coming out of Nigeria, about all educated Nigerians. It was to the effect that, according to Oprah "all Nigerians - regardless of their level of education - are corrupt."'

 

Can I get a transcript of the show to buy so I can decide for my self as well as use the content to disconfirm or confirm the allegation to some concerned Nigerians who on a number of blogs and list serves are asking whether or not the report is true? I have searched Oprah.com to see if there is such service but did not succeed.

 

Or, on the other hand, could an officer at Oprah.com just confirm or deny this allegation? Nigeria’s Punch newspaper can be assessed on line. Thanks.

Thanks. F. J. Kolapo

Femi Kolapo

Univ. of Guelph.

---

[jare Ajayi]

They say that there is always two sides to every issue (sometime it could be more!). In putting his view across on this vexed issue of Ms Oprah Winfrey calling 'all' Nigerians corrupt, Mr Pablo Idahosa alleged that "Nigerian newspapers and magazines, even the better ones,  can be  full of false ascriptions,  wrongful accusations, hearsay and calumny." I honestly believe that this (over)generalisation is not only unfair, it is patently untrue.

Like many other institutions (anywhere) the Nigeria media do go into 'excesses' sometime. But writing the way Pablo does in this case is hardly any better than what we are haranguing Oprah Winfrey for. If a Nigerian (by the name 'Idahosa', the writer must be an Edo person) to write this way, how would readers of Nigerian magazines and newspapers take the information they read - as 'false ascriptions!' I disagree vehemently. The Nigerian press is one of the most meticulous - certainly one of the most courageous - in the world. Of course there are some bad legs - as everywhere...

The Punch made it clear that the writer of the piece in question is one the paper's readers. And his name (and email) appear below the piece. (Whether Punch was sure of the veracity of such a weighty matter is another point here). I think that Mr Vitalis' right to air his opinion must not be taken as a license to condemn the Nigerian press as a whole.

Jare Ajayi 

Pablo <pida...@yorku.ca> wrote:

---

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[Farooq A. Kperogi]

Hello all,

 

Check out this site: http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200704/tows_past_20070413.jhtml It may provide a clue to the authenticity or otherwise of the claim in the Punch newspaper.

"F. Kolapo" <kol...@uoguelph.ca> wrote:

Georgia

USA 30303

Office Tel: (+1) 404-413-5670

Home Tel: (+1) 404-377-7203

 

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[Pauline Tobias]

I think we all have to be careful how we ascribe comments to people. This
misquotation was taken from an April show that Oprah did on "Con-men and how
o avoid them." Usually, I don't pay attention to all the discussion on this
list-serve, but this one made me curious. I went to Oprah's website and did
a search. I got a transcript of that show and the guests which included men
and women who have fallen for all sorts of con including the "Nigerian email
scam." at the end Oprah did acknowledge that she is aware that "I know
we're going to get a letter from somebody saying that Nigeria has a lot of
wonderful people. You don't have to send the letter," Oprah says. "We
already know that. We're just talking about this particular scam that's
going on. We're not talking about the entire country and everybody in the
country."

The entire transcript of the show can be found on:
http://www.oprah.com/money/credit/200704/money_20070413_284_101.jhtml.
If you are patient and go to the end, you will see the actual quote. Put
aside your sentiments about Ms. Winfrey, and give her the benefit of the
doubt.

Chinyere

kol...@uoguelph.ca writes:

C. Pauline Tobias
Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science
College of Social Science
Michigan State University
302 Berkey Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1111
(517) 432-4583
E-mail: tobi...@msu.edu
http://www.msu.edu~tobiasog

[kol...@uoguelph.ca]

The solution to this is getting the REAL TRANSCRIPT of the show,
rather than the carefully written report that we have on the link to
Oprah.com that Pauline Tobias has provided here. I read through that
stuff many times and came away satisfied that it is not a transcript
of the original show. There are quite a number of reasonable things in
that report and a few of Oprah Winfrey's own words put in quotation
marks. But nobody knows what was edited out.
One wishes that Okoli Vitalis who penned the Punch opinion has been
following the trail of responses to his piece and could intervene to
clarify the basis of his allegation.
--
F. J. Kolapo, Ph.D. * History Department * University of Guelph * Ontario *.
Canada* N1G 2W1* Phone:519/824.4120 ex.53212 Fax: 519.766.9516*
kol...@uoguelph.ca

[Gemini]

Actually Chinese, I didn't have doubts about Oprah Winfrey. But I do now!

The 'Nigeria has a lot of wonderful people' bit hardly excuses what is said
to have gone before (anyway, I can't really believe that the nationals of no
other nation have taken up the 419 bizness if it is really as lucrative as
it is said to be) and yes, we DO have to send the letter.

Some time ago a reporter related how he was on assignment in Cotonou and
went to a cyber cafe to try to send in his copy, only to find that the 419
operators had bought up the time of the cyber cafe en bloc, having been
chased out of Nigeria by the EFCC. That suggested to me that Nigeria was
doing something about the problem (don't know if the EFCC is still 'on
message'). But what is the US doing about the often greedy ignorant people
who lose this money? Or is it like the drug problem, all the fault of the
coca growers in Columbia and the opium producers in Afghanistan?
Ayo