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Spartacus R.
editor of Global Africa Pocket News and author of "Violation" and "The Maat Mystery" takes another look at the world.

Greetings Brothers and Sisters. May the Ancestors smile warmly on you in 1996.

Chances are, you know at least one African (Black) person who drinks beer. The odds are, that person occasionally or regularly drinks the one that is supposed to get to the parts other beers can't reach. What would he or she think of a faxed statement from a representative of Heineken in Holland that "There was a too high proportion of negroes (sic)." in the audience of the Hotel Babylon show? Did you see the show Friday night (5 Jan. '96) on ITV?

According to Terry Jervis, director of the first six episodes, the audience of maybe 200 included only about "Fifteen or even ten Black people". Bearing in mind that African people proportionately consume more beer than Europeans (Whites) who are traditionally wine drinkers, how can a 5% African content of an audience in a show sponsored by a beer company be "a too high proportion"? Justus P. Kos, the Heineken representative, was merely repeating the old Global Europe (White) lie that there are too many Africans in the world. To a racist any number of us is too many.

Waheed Alli, the managing director of Planet 24, the production company, said to me: "Ourselves and Heineken were both appalled at the contents of the fax." He did not say what Planet 24 intends to do about the affair but confirmed that Terry Jervis who had resigned from the programme is unlikely to be replaced by another African director.

Mr. Jervis made it quite clear that there was no animosity between himself and Planet 24. He said: "It was not the production I thought it was going to be. I just felt it was going through teething problems demanding more of my time than we contracted for." and added: "If I had seen that fax before I resigned I would have raised hell, let me tell you."

A faxed reply from the chairman of Heineken to Bernie Grant states that the letter should "never have been written." and promises that "proper steps will be taken to prevent recurrence". Heineken will not say what position Justus P. Kos holds nor how long he has been employed with the company nor will they elaborate on what they intend to do about the incident. But, as usual with multinational parasites, I expect that "proper steps" would be to promote the vermin out of circulation and remind him that it was rather stupid to put in writing words which are spoken openly in private. The worst racists are usually more careful with their words.

Never the less, imagine if the comments were about too many Jews, would the show have been aired at all without some heads rolling in retribution and some compensation being paid?

The key question is: what are we, the African community, going to do about this kind of behaviour which has only been revealed by accident? Are we going to just carry on buying and guzzling down Heineken until it reaches the part where we can do nothing about the situation? We cannot afford to do that. We cannot afford to finance our own destruction. We cannot accept that an apology from the Heineken chairman to a Labour party parliamentary representative resolves the problem. That is just a start. I suggest, as a gesture of good will and to show us that they are really, truly repentant:

1) Heineken makes an apology to the African community with full page ads in the "Black" press

2) dismisses immediately Justus P. Kos, those who agree with him and the person who hired him,

3) donates £1,000,000 (one million pounds) as compensation to African-owned and controlled charities and children's care organizations such as the Marcus Garvey Foundation.

4) Planet 24 finds an African director of the calibre of Terry Jervis to direct the rest of the episodes and includes an African presenter in the programme.