DEREK VAN DAM REPLIES

Derek Van Dam, the man formerly sent by God to Swaziland, who is now reading the weather on eNews TV, has responded to my blogpost about him posted on Monday (23 June 2008). I reproduce his email below.

I have also had an email from a pal of Derek’s from college days who recounts stories about Derek’s behaviour that run contrary to his present image as a man sent by God. They are a bit too personal to reproduce here (sorry).


‘You know, you sure have quite a bit to say for an angry old man.

‘If you want a reality check, why don't you care to ask some of my co-workers the countless hours/days/weeks/months this has taken us to create.

‘I strive every day to make a quality weather presentation that is easily understood by our viewers.

‘If I mis-pronounce a city (that most South African's have difficulty with themselves anyway), I work twice as hard to make it better the next day. What do you have against me? Have I offended you?

‘Just so you know, because last time I checked you weren't at the interview with The Times...my words happened to be mis-construed a bit. In fact, on the audio recording, you can clearly hear the edits.

‘You be the judge for yourself. But in the meantime, leave the harsh comments out of your blog. You really aren't making any progress.

‘Derek Van Dam’

See also
GEORGEOUS DEREK STILL IN AFRICA

GEORGEOUS DEREK STILL IN AFRICA

After all the flak I got from the God Squad a previous time I wrote about him, I hesitate to bring you an update on the work of Derek Van Dam.

Derek was the American who read the weather forecast on television in Michigan. He came on a ‘missionary’ trip to Swaziland and sent broadcasts back to United States television showing how helpless the Swazis were and how wonderful were the Americans.

Now, Derek is reading the weather forecast – rather badly it would seem – on the new South African news channel eNews.

Not only is he having trouble with pronouncing South African place names, it seems he is getting the eye from female viewers.

‘I must say, though, we have some pretty forward females out there who just won’t stop until they get what they want!’ he told thetimes.co.za.

The online newspaper reports, ‘Comments like “simply gorgeous”, “finally a reason to watch the news” and “local is lekker, but the new weather guy is mesmeri sing” abound.’

It seems Derek, aged 25, who was first attracted to Africa by the poverty and disease has wowed the women so much that he has been offered modelling contracts.

Station group news editor Patrick Conroy said Derek was also in demand by other companies who want him ‘to endorse their products’ or as a guest speaker.

The television station has made a virtue out of the fact that Derek can’t pronounce many place names in South Africa when he is broadcasting his weather forecast.

This hasn’t upset Derek one bit, ‘I would say 95% of South Africans have been overwhelmingly positive and fantastic,’ Derek told www.thetimes.co.za.

Derek might care to read some of the comments that have appeared about him on the blog accompanying the thetimes.co.za report for a reality check.

OK God Squad over to you……

See also
DEREK COMES TO AFRICA
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 1
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 2
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 3
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 4

DEREK 'IS AN ANGEL SENT BY GOD'

After my comments about Derek Van Dam, the US weatherman turned missionary in Swaziland I received this email from a fan (of Derek’s not mine).


Hello there,
I just read everything that you wrote about Derek Van Dam. What do you have agianst Derek? You make him out to be this guy that knows nothing unless it has to do with the weather.

Have you ever met Derek? Derek is one of the most sweetest, caring and loving guy that I know. He truely cares about the kids over there in Africa.

It took a lot for Derek to pack up and move half way around the world. He is over there away from his family and friends. He is great at what he does and that just happens to be the weather.

He is an angel sent from God.

If you just give him a chance and get to know the real Derek you will see what we all see. that is a wonderful guy!! Derek has a big heart and you have to admit that his heart is in the right place.

That trip has changed his life big time and you guys are lucky to be getting him in Africa. What I would have given to have him back here in Michigan again.

All I am saying is before you judge someone, give them a chance and get to know them first!!!

Jennifer
Essexville, MI US

See also
DEREK COMES TO AFRICA
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 1
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 2
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 3
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 4

DEREK COMES TO AFRICA

Who remembers weather forecaster-turned-missionary Derek Van Dam?

He’s the guy who came to Swaziland from the United States and sent back a series of reports to his television station NBC25 in Michigan.

I wrote about him in August and September 2007 when he was working with the El Shaddai orphanage.

In his reports called ‘Derek Goes to Africa’, NBC25 followed Derek and his church friends as they prepared to travel to Swaziland and then looked at the work they did when they were here.

The reports give a fascinating insight into the way Swaziland is viewed in America.

These reports are important because very little about Swaziland gets covered in the foreign media and this is even more so when you look at countries outside the continent of Africa. Because of this people know very little about the kingdom and what little they do know they learn through the media.

I was very critical of his reports because I felt they didn’t really understand the complexities of the situation in Swaziland, especially over the problem of HIV AIDS. They also suggested that Swazis couldn’t look after themselves and needed outsiders to come in and ‘save’ them.

Although I didn’t think much of the reports, I did feel that Derek himself had some kind of life changing experience.

And so this has proved to be.

Writing on his own blogsite, Derek says that he is giving up his job in Michigan and coming to Africa.

Derek is moving to Cape Town to the South African television station E.tv to be the head of its weather department on its new 24 hour news channel.

Derek serves on a board of directors for a non-profit organization in the United States called Compassionate Life Foundation that focuses on humanitarian/mission work in Swaziland. The foundation works with widows and orphans of AIDS victims.

Derek writes, ‘We provide them with medicine, shelter and places to worship (among other things). To make a long story short...I will also be working with them while in Africa and going back and forth to some hard-hit areas. It is an important step to make the personal contact needed to keep the trust between the people and the Americans.’

To read more about his experiences when he was in Swaziland and to link to the television reports he made click here.

See also
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 1
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 2
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 3
DEREK GOES TO AFRICA 4

DEREK GOES TO AFRICA (4)

It’s that man Derek again. For readers who have stayed the pace, this is the latest (and mercifully last) instalment of the adventures of television weather forecaster, Derek Van Dam.

He is with a group of missionaries from his church in mid-Michigan, United States, who have been in Swaziland to work at the El Shaddai orphanage. He has been sending reports back to the local television station NBC25 in which he shares his experiences with viewers in the US.

In this latest report he reflects on his experiences as he comes to the end of his stay in Swaziland.

I wrote last time about how Derek (pictured above with a Swazi child) and his friends misunderstand the situation they find themselves in. They believe they have come to help Swaziland, although it is unclear what skills the man who reads the weather on local TV has to share.

In the present report, Derek talks about how he and his missionaries have been digging gardens. ‘While planting gardens today, the children instructed us how to do it.’ He then says’ ‘This is a way of making it their own.’ He says this as if the visiting Americans have given Swazi people something they couldn’t make for themselves.

You can see the report, which lasts nearly four minutes, here

Before I wrap up on Derek, I would say that he seems a really sweet, if misguided guy. He has been keeping a blog of his experiences and the entry he makes on his return to his home in the United States is heartfelt. It is reproduced below. You can see more of his blog here

As I come home to the country I once so-adored, I sit here and reflect on the past few weeks with a broad understanding of what reality truly is. Its much clearer now how this trip has changed my life, how its changed the Swazi's life, and how others what I may not even know may have been effected.

I have been given a unique opportunity to share this experience with the world, so take it as you may.

People will never completely grasp the seriousness of a country in trouble until they've breathed it; until they've seen it with their own eyes. I am a new person, with a COMPLETELY different outlook on life. I will do my best to help you understand what its like to be humbled by the face of a dying culture.

DEREK GOES TO AFRICA (3)

A group of Americans have travelled half way round the world to Swaziland to paint a church, build a chicken coup and fence off some gardens … and to report on television how they are giving Swazis ‘the hope that they deserve’.

Here is the third in the Derek Goes to Africa series. In the two previous reports Derek Van Dam, a man who reads the weather forecast on a local television channel NBC25, told viewers how he and a group of missionaries from a church in mid-Michigan state in the US had been preparing for a trip to Swaziland.

In this latest report broadcast in America in July 2007, the group have actually arrived in Swaziland to work at the El Shaddai orphanage.

This item, which was broadcast during NBC25’s evening news programme describes Africa as a land of ‘poverty, disease and hunger’. Derek (pictured above with children in Swaziland) tells viewers, ‘The words cannot describe, convey, something of this magnitude.’

These television reports and others like them are important because very little about Swaziland gets covered in the foreign media. This is even more so when you look at countries outside the continent of Africa. Because of this people know very little about the kingdom. What little they do know they learn through the media.

Unfortunately, Derek knows nothing about the context of what he is experiencing. Swaziland is not one of the poorest countries in the world: it is not even one of the poorest in Africa. Swaziland’s economic problems stem from the way wealth is distributed within the kingdom and that unequal distribution is why about 70 per cent of the population live below the poverty line

Derek lists the things he and his group have done since arriving in Swaziland. They include making fences to keep cattle off crops, painting a church and fencing in property.

The report and all the others in the Derek Goes to Africa series lack self-awareness. There is really no reason for people to travel half way round the world to perform mundane tasks like this group have been doing. Swazi people are quite capable of doing things for themselves. The misguided belief that inadequately trained people can assist people in communities which are totally unknown to them is patronising.

I don’t want to be critical of people who probably have kind hearts, but the people in Derek’s party, and many more ‘missionaries’ who come to the kingdom on similar trips contribute very little to Swaziland.

Derek gives the game away a little when asked about his experiences. He says, ‘It has changed everybody’s life.’ He means the lives of the missionaries. He is particularly emotional when reporting that the orphanage took in two children who had been orphaned by AIDS. What did he expect an orphanage to do, especially in a country with the highest rate of HIV in the world?

You can see the report which lasts about four minutes here

DEREK GOES TO AFRICA (2)

Here’s the second in the series of filmed reports from the United States, Derek Goes to Africa.

A TV station called NBC25 has been following the exploits of Derek Van Dam, who is the man who reads the weather forecast on the station’s breakfast time news show.

In a series of reports that the station has called ‘Derek Goes to Africa’, NBC25 follows Derek and his church friends as they prepare to travel to Swaziland to visit El Shaddai orphanage and then it reports on what happens to Derek when he gets there.

These reports and others like them are important because very little about Swaziland gets covered in the foreign media. This is even more so when you look at countries outside the continent of Africa. Because of this people know very little about the kingdom. What little they do know they learn through the media.

This item, which was broadcast during NBC25’s evening news programme, follows a diverse group of people; they are described as young and old, as they embark on team building exercise before setting off on their journey to Swaziland.

Dale Woods, a pastor at the New Covenant Free Methodist Church, one of the trip’s organizers, says ‘as Americans we are part of a culture that is incredibly selfish.’

But they want to see ‘how can I put someone else first.’

Woods says El Shaddai orphanage has a ‘desperate need for help.’

When they get to Swaziland the group will build fences to keep livestock off the crops. Crops will be harvested to feed the hungry. It’s not made clear why a group of people need to travel half way across the world from America to Swaziland to perform tasks that Swazis are perfectly capable of doing themselves.

Perhaps Derek gives a clue when he says, ‘Our spare time will be spent embracing each of the Swazi’s needs.’

He also tells us that each of the participants are wearing bracelets on their wrists as a constant reminder of why they are going.

Perhaps this trip isn’t really about helping Swazis so much as giving a group of Americans a chance to ease their own consciences a little.

Make up your own mind. The clip which lasts nearly three minutes can be seen here.

DEREK GOES TO AFRICA (1)

I have been writing over the past few weeks about how foreign television stations cover events in Swaziland. I’ve also written about how some people living overseas see it as their mission to come and save Swazis.

One local television station in Michigan, United States, has managed unwittingly to combine these two themes. A TV station called NBC25 has been following the exploits of Derek Van Dam, who is the man who reads the weather forecast on the station’s breakfast time news show. In a series of reports that the station has called ‘Derek Goes to Africa’, NBC25 follows Derek and his church friends as they prepare to travel to Swaziland to visit El Shaddai orphanage and then reports on what happens to Derek when he gets there.

The reports give a fascinating insight into the way Swaziland is viewed in America.

These reports and others like them are important because very little about Swaziland gets covered in the foreign media. This is even more so when you look at countries outside the continent of Africa. Because of this people know very little about the kingdom. What little they do know they learn through the media.

Even the title of these reports ‘Derek Goes to Africa’ is faintly patronising. It reminds me of the stories we used to read as children in the UK 40 and more years ago, which featured people from England going to the Dark Continent to bring enlightenment to the savages.

In this first piece that was aired during the station’s evening news programme, Derek talks about why he is going to Swaziland with a group of residents of the mid-Michigan area (the area the NBC25 station covers). ‘We have been given an opportunity to help people who really can’t help themselves,’ he says.

Later Derek talks about the high rate of HIV AIDS in Swaziland and seems to blame Swazi parents for the number of children who have died. ‘They simply couldn’t take care of themselves or their families. It’s no wonder that 30,000 children die in Africa every day from malnutrition or starvation.’

The piece fails to put the HIV-AIDS-poverty crisis into any context. Instead, for Derek and his missionaries it is simply a case of presuming to know what is best. One missionary interviewed in the programme talks about the El Shaddai orphanage that the Americans, who are members of the New Covenant Free Methodist Church, intend to help. ‘We want to help supply the orphanage with a safe place to live and to learn and to go to school and to be fed and we’re working to get water into that community.’

This is stated as if there are no government policies in place in Swaziland to tackle these kinds of problems. Nor is it quite clear how Derek, whose job is reading the weather forecast on local television in the US, has the skills to solve health and education issues in Swaziland.

Also, erroneously the report and the others that follow state that Swaziland is one of the poorest countries in the world when it is not. It is not even one of the poorest in Africa.

You can see the report which lasts nearly four minutes here