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UNC and Media Hypocrisy

By A. H. Hotep
October 7, 2000

Having listened to government ministers and some media hosts trivialize the minister of education poor conduct on the election platform, I feel compelled to remind them of their obvious hypocrisy.

The larger issue is not about the sexist statements of the minister but the fact that they are engaging in the same type of behaviors for which they condemned others.

We must be especially critical and stern with people who condemn others and repeat the same wrongs. By their condemnation, they were telling us that they were above such practices.

From all appearances, the ministers were drunk, having made a strategic alliance with Mr. Johnny Walker. Mr. Walker seems to be in charge of their tongues for this election campaign.

Every time the public speak-out about the wrongs, they go into history and show similar acts of indiscretions that were committed by former politicians. They always stop short of telling the public how that makes their wrongs acceptable.

Their reflective exercises show that they should have known better. When they were in opposition, they condemned the indiscretions and corruptions of former governments. They were continually beckoning the public to look at the wastage, cost overruns and 'jobs for the boys'. Today they are doing worst, and leading supporters of this government are arguing the opposite. I actually heard their most vocal supporter from Santa Cruz telling a radio host that people should look at the roads and bridges the government built. The host told him that all governments build roads and bridges but how things are done is important. Santa Cruz replied that he does not agree with that, what is done is more important than how it is done.

The condition of the Queens Park Savannah today is as a direct result of Carlos John's paving exercise that also paved the truth. Today the Savannah is in the worst condition ever with no resources forwarded for its maintenance. This exemplifies the importance of examining how things are done. All attempts to divert the public's attention from the cost of the paving exercise and the corruption in how the contracts were awarded still could not cover up the deterioration of the savannah which will end up costing taxpayers millions more to correct. Mind you, more millions to go to the same friends and families of the government so the corruption will continue.

I am sure all the ministers who were involved in paving the way for that corruption have no problem maintaining their own lawns.

I must also add that Yugoslavia had roads, bridges and schools; the government there even proved how efficient they were in rebuilding some of them after the UN bombings. Today we can clearly see that building roads, bridges and school buildings on their own do no make good government.

People should understand that most people who condemn wrongs only do so because they are not financially profiting from the wrongs. It is mostly about their personal greed. Certainly, this has proven to be especially true for this government.

People are unable to adequately discuss these corruptions, enough so, to realize solutions. This is as a result of who owns and manages the mass media together with the clique of personalities they present to the public to distract from serious discussions.

Some public personalities feel, and quite rightly so, that their public personas and jobs would be in danger if they allow good sense to prevail.

In their vain attempt to maintain elitist images, they trivialize legitimate public concerns and criticisms.

Case in point was on Power 102's call-in program, a caller, commenting on the crude statements of the Education Minister pointed out the obvious double standard of the hosts because they were trivializing the issue while in the past they forcefully condemned calypsonians for doing the same. They simply responded by saying that they do not accept what the caller was saying. They did not say why they were not accepting the caller's point of view.

Nevertheless, that is nothing new, I can remember having a discussion with Dale Enoch, following a show on which I was a guest. I asked him if he knew that all humans came from Africa to which he angrily responded; "I will not accept that; People will not accept that, so I will not accept that."

With this poor response, I knew there was no need in pursuing the discussion. I was only trying to stimulate an enquiry in him. To continue a discussion with someone who simply believes that right and wrong can be left up to popular consensus is an exercise in futility.

It is in this manner that some hosts dismiss the legitimate concerns and comments of callers if they believe that their social position may be threatened.

These problems in understanding will continue for those who depend on media controlled by partisan private interests and political parties. People will have to lobby for control of their media and continually monitor and maintain their interests.

People must stop leaving their mediums for accessing and disseminating information in the hands of fools.

In the short term, the only political party that concerned citizens should endorse is the party that clearly shows that they are going to allow the state media to be managed by a board derived from an amalgamation of all the various interest groups in the country. While governments and businesses should spread their propaganda, they should not control all the media. This will not solve all the problems, but it is a good place to start taking control.

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