THERE is an old saying in the newspaper business that goes, “When a dog bites a man, that is not news. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.” Certain events are newsworthy and some events are not. However, this is the 21st century, when something that is “factual” does not mean that it is true. It is all about the spin.
The international news agency Reuters published an article this past week that was licked up in the local media. The title was “Move over, Manila? Congo call center gives glimpse of what might be,” written by Aaron Ross. The story is about a 10-year-old call-center company—the Congo Call Center (CCC)—located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Started in 2005 by two women who received a grant from the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., the CCC currently has about 350 call- center agents and is primarily French speaking, as the DRC is a former French colony. It also handles some of its 8,500 calls each day in the local African languages of Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba and Kikongo. The company hopes to expand to 600 agents within another three years.
The article is an interesting examination of the outsourcing business in a nation that ranks 184th out 189 countries for “ease of doing business”. The fact that part of the initial funding came from a World Bank program to encourage and help facilitate small businesses in poor countries is also worth noting.
But the reality is that the DRC has been involved in either a regional or civil war almost all the time since 1996. Mobutu Sese Seko was the military dictator and president from 1965 to 1997. President Joseph Kabila has been in power since 2001, taking office after his father—the former president—was assassinated. Kabila’s legal term of office is supposed to end in November with elections, but he is claiming that the voter rolls are not accurate and elections should not be held any time soon.
As you might be able to tell, the DRC is not on the top list of foreign investment destinations for call centers or otherwise.
With the Philippines now being high on the list of global stories, Reuters included “Manila” in its headline to attract attention and readership. Of course, Manila and the Philippines are not mentioned even once in the body of the article.
Because of the way the headline was able to “spin” the article, certain Duterte detractors jumped on the article as an indication that the Philippine call-center business is in a desperate situation, thanks to the President. But maybe they are correct. At its current growth rate, the CCC would overtake the Philippines in about 9,854 years. But who is counting? It is the spin that matters, not the facts.