Archives for October 2006

I made it a point to watch two things yesterday on our local television station (must have been in a sado-maso mood!):
(1) the MBC 7.30 news bulletin
(2) the nomad no limit challenge show

It turned out to be quite disastrous for the following reasons:
(1) I was highly unsatisfied with both
(2) Avi scowled at me for imposing the nomad show viewing
(3) Anya & Kyan were in a ‘rioting’ mood and almost broke each other’s neck with their reckless acts 😉

Remarks on the 7.30 news ‘boulletine’ (comme dirait l’autre):

– I missed the very beginning but I did see the end of the first report featuring a philatelist + the Yvan Martial interview by Faycal Caunhye. Yvan Martial is a seasoned journalist who is apparently also a historian. I don’t want to criticise him but the title is a bit overdone; I’d rather use the expression ‘témoin de l’histoire’. Being able to delve into archives and recall some old stories for the masses doesn’t make you a historian…

– There was a ‘défilé’ of ministers; Min Valayden is at the top of the hit parade (appeared at least 4 times in the very same bulletin – must have been very hectic for him yesterday dealing with all those cameramen and reporters!). Seebun came second with two appearances (can someone advise her to be a bit more sober in her dresscode like for instance Sonia Ghandi? She looks a bit too much like she has just popped in back form a Chowthari).

– There was also a ‘défilé’ of pujas, prayers, and preaches. Grandiloquent words like ‘sacrifice de soi, cheminement de la vie, code du devoir, valuers familiales’ were poured into our ears accompanied by sad and grim images of utterly bored people attending those ceremonies.

– Old people seem to be forever equated with free meals + official speeches + sega dancers. The cocktail did not seem to inject any more life in them… Anyone ever thought of asking them to actually do the speaking and the dancing themselves. Might have revived them.

About the nomad thing:
– Though the visual look and filming is much better than the MBC productions, there is definitely a big LACK in this show: there is no serious stuff going on!
Viewers did not get any information on the Internet challenges (that’s what it was supposed to be all about, isn’t it?) and so, the whole process was completely obscure and the announcement of the results by Ben Javed totally artificial.
At least in StarAc, the participants get to sing and be evaluated on their performance. Same goes for A la Recherche du nouveau machin-chouette (whose codes were copied by Circus). I was not expecting much from the show but this level of vacuum is particularly astounding.

Apart from La Sentinelle naming its ‘mediateurs’ last week, there is not much news about the activities of our local media and their endeavours to set up associations, write codes of ethics and track down initiatives to stifle freedom of the press.

This can be mainly attributed of course to the fact that our local political figures in govt have paused their threats, presumably either because they have ‘d’autres chats a fouetter’ or are too busy touring the world to put Mauritius on the international map.

A note on the setting up of ‘La Sentinelle Complaints Committee’:
Readers have not really been empowered so far as it is unclear how they are supposed to proceed in order to get their complaints registered. I guess we need to give them some more time to figure out how to communicate about this particular part of the process…

Also, given the good implementation of the website for L’express, I would suggest that a corner be set up to receive and accommodate readers’ complaints, as well as give free access to one and all and enable online viewing and follow up of discussions.
Another suggestion could also be the inclusion of forums on the paper’s website to open up space for sensible and free discussion of the articles that have been published, like on Le Monde’s website.