Mourning Anthony Bourdain In Cape Town

My first visit to the Mother City is colored with deep sadness at the passing of Anthony Bourdain, one of the few truly inspiring personalities in media. He was the rare antidote to the arrogance, insularity, insensitivity and ignorance American media often views the rest of the world with. Anthony Bourdain demystified the world and humanized so many cultures and countries we have lazily stereotyped. He possessed a unique combination of qualities we often talk about but rarely hold on to as we climb that slippery mountain of fame and fortune: compassion, empathy and humility.

He was an inspiration to me professionally. He created emotional, joyous connections with the world through food (very successfully), similar to what I was (humbly) doing with music at MTV World. In fact, he was an inspiration for Rebel Music, the series I produced about young musicians and activists fighting injustice in turbulent countries.

His death leaves our world lonelier. There are very few soldiers of love trying to make the world a more wondrous and welcoming place rather than divided and hostile. He used his platform and celebrity to champion the oppressed, forgotten, misunderstood and unsung. He was punk, he was rock n roll, he was beautiful. And he was human- taking joy and pleasure from life and giving back more than he took; troubled by darkness and demons but propelled by light and a massive hunger for love and life. What a pity that he took his own. We needed him. How selfish this is to say, but it is true, he had no business going away. We need more Anthony Bourdains in this world.

At the Addis in Cape, the lovely Ethiopian restaurant I ate dinner at last night, I was talking to its owner, Senait Mekkonen, and brought up Anthony Bourdain. She had not heard the news and became still and silent absorbing the shock of it.

-A silence some of us will feel for a long, long time.

(Photo: The Hollywood Reporter)