Friday, October 25, 2013

Anthony Bourdain on CNN International calls South African freedom fighters 'ugly Dutch guys with guns; calls putu pap 'futu'.


Viewers will see the ignorant Anthony Bourdain refer to South African freedom fighters at the famous statue of Paul Kruger on Church Square in Tshwane on Friday on CNN International (DStv 401) at 17:00 as "ugly Dutch guys" and "assholes".

Anthony Bourdain who appears to brim with disdain for legitimate parts of South African heritage from the outset of the episode, also makes mistakes like referring to putu pap as "futu" as he comes to shoot eland, see how people in Hillbrow lives now and takes a taxi ride to Soweto. Later Cape Town's restaurants get dissed.

Anthony Bourdain visits parts of Gauteng in South Africa in Friday's episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown on CNN International which is sure to grate some viewers and already elicited strong reaction from viewers elsewhere in the world who've seen it.

At Paul Kruger's statue in Tshwane surrounded by anonymous soldiers who fought British imperialism and colonial oppression in South Africa, Anthony Bourdain says: "Who are those ugly white men?" and then: "Who are those assholes anyway?" taking no time to actually find out, while people from all races continue to pose for pictures at the statue.

"Ugly Dutch guys with guns. Who I guess was particularly friendly to the current power. They look like they're either coming from, or on their way to oppress the black man," says Anthony Bourdain.

"The first order of business when I take my country back is take that shit down. Tear that down."

Later in the travel show the travelling chef Anthony Bourdain mistakenly calls putu pap, "futu" .

Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown also gives opportunity for Cape Town's restaurants to be dissed in the episode.

"After this show airs I'm going to get a huge amount of mail saying why didn't you go to Cape Town - great modern restaurants, cutting-edge chefs. Is it alright that I missed all that?" says Anthony Bourdain in Friday's episode, talking to Johannesburg chef Andrea Burgener.

"I feel like those particular restaurants in Cape Town are not really representative of  what most people in this country are eating," says Andrea Burgener.

"You know, I'm almost used to it, foreigners coming to South Africa and basically being ignorant about our country, like those guys from The Amazing Race that were so surprised that Johannesburg was a city, or journalists coming here to do documentaries about violent crime and end up trying to rationalise it by invoking apartheid," says an overseas viewer who saw the episode, and calling Anthony Bourdain "completely sanctimonious".

"He mistakenly claims the ANC was formed in 1923 when it was actually formed in 1912 - their centennial was last year."

"Didn't they do any research or did they just not care? What if the other episodes had problems only the locals could spot, how can we trust them now?"

I asked CNN International for a response or comment on why Anthony Bourdain calls South Africans "assholes" and made reference to "ugly Dutch guys with guns".

"We leave it to our viewers to watch Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown: South Africa in full to get the complete picture," says CNN International.