Filed under: Media-related
Have you ever seen the graduated income tax explained on NBC?
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) had a puzzling program on TV this morning called “My Tax,” and I watched all 15 minutes of it. It was like a late-night talk-show version of those boring IRS tax forms, complete a witty host and a clapping studio audience. It told me all I need to know about how to file taxes in SA, why it’s important to pay them and how the tax structure is organized. And it didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the program that its sponsor, the South African Revenue Service, has a very funny acronym.
Some of the my favorite local programs, other than “My Tax,” include:
- A call-in game-show called “Brainstorm,” in which callers have to identify words in a thematic crossword or word-find in order to win money. Because it costs a dollar a minute to call in, the host has to fill time with ridiculous filibusters. “Okay, now think really hard about all those movies you saw as a kid. What actors’ names started with ‘a’? Hmm.. Think about you and your dad going to the cinema together–and what names would be on the poster?”
- An “investigative” program called “Speak Out,” which is in Zulu, I think, with English subtitles. The very energetic host goes out on the town to investigate people’s day-to-day problems and usually gets in trouble with hoodlums, stubborn bureaucrats or the police. It definitely speaks to most people’s monetary and legal problems–with employers, with con-artists, with uncooperative officials.
- Another game-show (there are lots of them) whose name I don’t remember, which is mostly in a mix of Zulu and English. The teenage contestants have to identify musicians by clips from their music videos, which the stylish young host introduces with a high-kick, 360 spin and hip-hop hand sign.
The most popular programs, however, are the local soaps, which have fairly good acting and, often, ethnically and linguistically integrated casts. All of them have English subs, but dialogue is often a mix of three or four other languages.
SABC, I should explain, is South Africa’s public broadcaster, and it owns three of the four free TV channels here, which aren’t separated based on subject matter. Its commercial competitor has a similarly scattered programming schedule–and I mean that as a compliment–so it’s almost always possible to flip on the tube and find something interesting to watch. Survivor could be on one minute, followed by a sultry jazz music video, the evening news in one of half-a-dozen languages, the lottery, the SA version of “The View,” a travel program, “The 101 Funniest TV Moments,” Ghostbusters (the movie), clips from English soccer and … “My Tax.”
On the minus side– Even though SABC has greatly improved since its pre-1994 days as an apartheid propaganda machine, SABC is still guilty of occasional government bias in its news. It refused to air a documentary critical of the president, it didn’t fully report the health minister’s drinking and theft problems and it banned anti-government commentators from the air.
But hey, look on the bright side:
- It certainly says something that people now expect it to be a balanced news source.
- Its news coverage is more relevant and of better quality than almost any TV news, local or national, in the States.
- There are only three instances when you’d realize that SABC was paid for by the government:
- PSAs for the child help-line or HIV testing;
- The (weekly?) playing of the national anthem, backed by beautiful images of the SA countryside; and
- Fifteen-minute talk-show tax sessions.
- It shows good movies, not made-for-TV garbage. A weekly series of Robert De Niro flicks just ended, for instance.
- It will have more coverage of the Paralympic Games, it claims, than any other national broadcaster.
- And in general, it has a nice mix of education, information and entertainment, which doesn’t create the PBS/FOX sort of cultural divide that we get in the US. You can find programs teaching basic algebra and revealing celebrity gossip back-to-back, on the same channel.
So way to go, SABC. Now just let people know when their taxes are being mishandled–not just how to pay them.
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