A television interview with the Ugandan High Commissioner to Britain has prompted a furious response from viewers with many pledging to stop donating to comic relief.
The segment on ITV's This Morning came amid growing controversy over Strictly Winner Stacey Dooley's recent visit to Uganda.
The star was involved in a Twitter row with Labour MP David Lammy who had criticised her for perpetuating "tired and unhelpful stereotypes" about Africa.
The 31-year-old star had uploaded photos of herself smiling and holding a Ugandan child during filming ahead of Red Nose Day.
Mr Moto said that while Uganda was grateful for donations raised by Comic Relief, he had an issue with stars 'posting photos of children on social media'.
The Ugandan diplomat said he did not support stars like Stacey sharing photos of children online, while hosts Eamonn and Ruth suggested the star's intentions were good.
However, the interview left This Morning fans fuming, with a number of viewers saying they would stop donating to Comic Relief over the row.
She recently flew to Uganda to help highlight the country's struggle with poverty, but came under fire from a group called No White Saviours who disagree with white people spotlighting poverty in Africa.
MP David Lammy added his own voice to the criticism, and said that she was perpetuating "tired and unhelpful stereotypes".
Writing on Twitter , he added: "The world does not need any more white saviours. As I've said before, this just perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ating-15912460
Stacey was plucked and pushed into stardom after being featured in a series called ‘Blood, Sweat and T-shirts’ where she was shocked at the poor wages and conditions of people in Third World countries who were making clothes for people in the west. This youngster with a heart of gold would also spontaneously burst into tears at seeing these conditions.
It was a good idea and a novel approach putting a fresh face to old problems without the cynicism of old hacks who had been pounding this beat it seems since the beginning of time.
Stacey saving ‘Alang’ a prostitute in Phnom Penh
If things went wrong – and they did – Stacey could burst into tears or react with anger – and what better place than south-east Asia than to be frustrated.
An earlier programme she reported on under the ‘Stacey Dooley Investigates’ was about child prostitution in Cambodia, where she saved a young prostitute – setting her up in a career in ‘hair-dressing and beauty’ something which many an elderly foreigner had done before her, when an education was too expensive.
After Stacey left the young prostitute called Alang did not attend the beauty course and can now be found plying her trade in the bar concourse of the Sorya shopping mall as this picture, taken today, shows, thus proving the point that despite Stacey’s kindly intentions and it being ‘ good tv’ there is no ‘journalistic fix’.
Things also went wrong when the promised a raid on a brothel employing under-aged girls totally collapsed and none were to be found – because, of course, the brothel owner had been tipped off. Stacey announced that she intended to close down the brothel forever, missing the point that all brothels operate in Asia because police allow them to, whatever the appropriate country law is.
Stacey went on to do a programme about the Thailand and the mad drug ‘yaa baa’ and going on two raids, one a farcical raid on a nightspot in Bangkok where no drugs and no infringers were found, least of all Brits, and another with police in Chiang Mai where she also witnessed nothing being found, but was later taken to see a massive haul which had just been seized, but not allowed access to the accused, leaving the savvy viewer with the impression that this might have been old news.
Stacey ended up almost pulling her hair out outside ‘Bangkwang Prison’ after being promised interviews with Brits inside – a promise which was not fulfilled. The cameras did not show how she reacted on this occasion but she went on the programme to suggest that she had been threatened with banning from Thailand for not being allowed to tell her story properly. Good TV.
Actually, she was trying to ‘Britify’ a story which was not really British. Most Brits in jail for drugs offences in Thailand are there for the old hardies, cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin – except those who have been set up of course – because yaa baa is the easiest drug to slip into evidence.
Considering some 2,500 people were ‘injudicially killed’ during Thailand’s ‘War on Drugs’ and historically the heroin trade from the Golden Triangle, which is where the ‘yaa baa’ comes from, was traditionally controlled by rival factions in the Thai Police and Army, who banked with the Bangkok Bank bringing the bank to the fore, I was surprised Stacey did not give this part of the story attention.
Never mind, in the programme ‘Tourism and the Truth – Thailand’ broadcast in 2011 Stacey went to work as a chambermaid at a hotel in Phuket and of course could not keep up with the skills of those who had been doing it for years.
https://www.andrew-drummond.com/2017...-come-back-to/
Can anyone find that video of her being offered £10.000 by Ben Dover for the night?