TT chooses cure over prevention

THE EDITOR: It was sometime around  1993/94 that TTT’s Issues Live programme hosted a discussion on juvenile delinquency and crime. Among the panelists were, then Attorney General Keith Sobion, then Opposition Chief Whip Ramesh Maharaj and also the late Professor Beaubrun.

Professor Beaubrun made the point that “ if you leave a child at home, with the television as company, what you have done in effect is to leave  that child in the care of a stranger who can teach that child anything.” During that said programme, calls were made for national referendums to be held on matters of national importance, and I can still clearly recall the response that came from the then AG, which was “that while referendums are good, they (the Government) prefer to deal with those matters through responsible parliamentary debates.” I  prefer that you be the judge as to whether or not we have been getting responsible parliamentary debates.

I want to focus on the point made by Prof Beaubrun as it relates to crime and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Our leaders have proven over the years that they possess tertiary grades in winning the right to govern, whilst at the same time  they have elementary grades in governing, so that they are unable to provide their subjects (people) with the leadership required for the people to look inwardly. Hence the reason that Carnival after Carnival, you get calypsonians singing about the foreign influences over the nation’s youths. It was so easy for Government to (quite rightly) introduce legislation to deal with maxi taxi drivers, who were prepared to turn their maxis into rolling discos for the sake of the mighty dollar, even if it meant the destruction of the youths many of whom were yesterday’s victims but now, today’s problems.

One wonders why the same approach is not adopted for television, when TT  had one television station (TTT)  there was in place a censors board. Does that board still exist? What clearly exists is that desire to top the MFO polls, so that, at the end of the day, while a few shareholders benefit, the country is held under duress. The same businessmen that cry for action against crime are the said people who prefer to sponsor foreign violence over our screens instead of sponsoring shows like Issues Live,  Chat Room and other current affairs programmes that will help to eradicate the backward mindset that affects too large a percentage of the population. How many of us remember the serious injuries (some fatal) that were suffered by youths, who were influenced in the early days of Kung Fu? Yet we pretend to be alarmed at the sophistication of the crimes being carried out.

Again, the spread of HIV/AIDS can be traced to the well loved soap operas and the many gay-related shows that occupy prime viewing time on TV. Many influenced youths think that its okay to make up and break up  and next week go back to your original partner and make up and break up just like in the operas and some just don’t seem to have the sense to realise that they are not cartoons. In fact, we even follow the foreigners in producing the morally catastrophic Westwood Park. TT at this point has found itself with more money than it ever had before, maybe that is why our leaders operate in a manner that suggests that there is no need for prevention, TT has enough money to pay for cure.

URSUS DANIEL
Arima