I Care about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
I’m not totally immune to popular culture!?!?!?!!? Yeah – that’s a shocker. Especially if you know me.
You see, I recently spent almost twenty minutes talking to a
friend on the phone about why I was so happy Brad and Jolie was getting a
divorce. Yes, I’m a Christian. Yes, I don’t believe in divorce…but…
I had to spend some time to really interrogate why I was not
in the least bit perturbed, and even more, why I was happy about the end of
someone’s marriage…especially considering that I didn’t know the facts
surrounding the divorce or that I really hadn’t watched any film of the couple
after ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ – that box-office movie that was responsible for
bringing the couple together…I think.
Anyways, back to my reflections…I came to the conclusion
that the source of my ‘joy’…hmmm…more like glee, was the fact that I
thought the divorce was a score for karma.
You know what I mean.
Now, I personally only got to hear of Angelina Jolie
following the very publicized divorce of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. At that point I didn’t even realize that
Jennifer and Brad were married (see how much I care…). I only knew that Jennifer (who was staring in
Friends then – the popular sitcom, which was among the few that were showing on
our TV sets) was cool and that she didn’t deserve to have her heart broken in
such a public way. I also only knew that
anyone who could snatch someone else’s husband in such a public way should be
cast as the ‘Wicked witch of the west’ (you got to know you story books).
Anyway, since then, I’ve never been able to watch an
Angelina Jolie movie, I’ve mistrusted the lady on sight, and never been able to
see her so called beauty. Mind you, I’ve
never bothered to find out more about all three parties, i.e. Angelina Jolie,
Brad Pitt and the beautiful and sweet Jennifer Aniston (if she’s really that),
but I have always been very opinionated about their lives, the marriage and
certainly their divorce, which, sad to say, I’m excited by.
So, let me circle back to the point of my rather winding
musings. I was shocked to realize that
no matter how level-headed and realistic I claim to be, I, like most other
people (who may fall in the hermit category) am still influenced and affected
by popular culture.
In fact, in future, whenever I talk of karma and the need to
be mindful of that fact that ‘what goes around, comes around’, I will have
another very referenceable example to make to give my speech a punch. Indeed, I could even have a worthy example
to give all the countless married women who’s husbands are straying outside
their marriages and chasing after other women, of how things end for men like
Brad – well, they end up back at point one.
Anyway, the truth is that, the media and now especially
social media in all its different forms, have a way of influencing beyond doubt
the way we view other people. Without
realizing how deep it goes, the media has a strong role in shaping our
perceptions, views and opinions of people both near and far. It has us taking sides without really digging
deep to explore the facts and form our own opinions beyond the surface of the
news put out.
In the course of the past couple of weeks, people like Mrs.
Charlotte Osei, Ghana’s Electoral Commissioner, her two deputy commissioner’s
and Pastor Mensa Otabil, the General Overseer of the ICGC also in Ghana, have come under such scrutiny and attack
within the Ghanaian media space.
People have form opinions depending on which source they
take their news from. And what I’m
beginning to realize, is that people have not bothered to go beyond the
opinions of media players to interrogate the issues for themselves and form
their own opinions.
Unfortunately, someone out there might form a very strong
opinion of any of these people, only based on what they’ve heard on radio, read
in the papers, viewed on TV or on the various chats on social media platforms. And these opinions will go with them for
years, pretty much like my opinion of Ms. Jolie.
So, aside from thanking Brad and Angelina for getting me out
of a writer’s block, that has lasted for months, I crave you indulgence to
apply the following principles when consuming information put out in the media
space:
- Take the time to find out more on whatever issue captures your attention;
- Try not to base your facts on the conjecture and innuendos put out by the media, but on the actual facts of the issue;
- Take time to find out a little more before you form your opinion;
- Be open to hearing the stories from the actual sources if they ever come out to do so… and
- Be ready to give people the benefit of the doubt.
For all I know, maybe Jennifer was really a terrible wife
and Angelina Jolie was a saint who saved Brad from getting abused in his first marriage.
Araba Opoku Gyamfi
Presenter of Family Moments Radio Show
Class 91.3FM
Accra, Ghana
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