Christina Meetoo

On Media, Society and Mauritius

Society

Is no news good news?

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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.

Participative democracy

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Heard on France Inter this morning a report about how Segolene Royal (candidate for next year’s presidential elections in France) is trying to promote and use the concept of participatory democracy in her region Poitou-Charentes, and will most probably lay the foundations for it to occur at a national level.

Now, what is participatory democracy? Yet another nice hype-laden expression? A rhetorical find? Maybe or maybe not. In fact, it all depends on how it is really implemented, as for all nice concepts that hold wonderful promises.

Wikipedia provides the following definition:
“Participatory democracy is a process emphasizing the broad involvement of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems. While etymological roots imply that all governments deserving the name “democracy” would rely on the participation of their citizens (the Greek demos and kratos combine to suggest that “the people rule”), traditional representative democracies tend to limit citizen participation to voting, leaving the main work of governance to a professional political elite. Participatory democracy strives to create opportunities for all members of a political group to make meaningful contributions to decisionmaking, and seeks to broaden the range of people who have access to such opportunities.”

How does Segolene Royal do that? Well, she has set up a programme in her region called ‘budget participatif des lycées’, whereby students, parents, teachers, school administrators and region officials meet and discuss on a regular basis the various ways of using the budget allocated to schools and arrive at forms of consensus. These meetings are complemented by online forums for continuous dialogues.

The underlying principle of the programme is that end-users are the true experts (in a collective way of course) and that each euro must be used in an efficient manner.

It will be interesting to follow how the experiment unfolds as there are definitely some interesting ideas in it.

Alack! When will our local decision-makers ever try similar experiments instead of carrying on with their stupid antics?

Sur notre ‘pauvre’ éducation

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Lors d’une session de formation à l’intention de volontaires pour le travail social, j’ai fait une observation qui me semble assez symptomatique de notre incapacité à faire émerger des jeunes dynamiques, intelligents, créatifs…

Il me semble, en effet, que dans la majorité des cas, nos jeunes qui ont traversé 6 années de scolarité au niveau primaire et 7 ans au secondaire (soit 13 années de leur vie) n’ont probablement jamais eu l’opportunité de faire une présentation orale sur un sujet qui les intéresse! Et je ne parle pas ici de ces débats hautement artificiels que l’on organise parfois pour les ‘best speakers’… Lorsqu’ils arrivent sur les bancs de l’université, on voit bien qu’ils sont décontenancés si la parole leur est donnée de manière libre et adulte!

Un jeune habitué au savoir livresque, soumis au monopole de la parole par le ou la prof, souvent brimé ou frustré… voilà ce que nous produisons dans nos écoles et collèges!

Debate sparks hope for mature democracy

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Radio Plus hosted the former PM Paul Berenger and the current Finance Minister Rama Sithanen this Saturday for a debate on the Budget speech.

This turned out, to my surprise, to be a ‘civil’ debate as none of the guests indulged in the usual futile verbal feuds we had been accustomed to. Opposing views were put forward in a sensible manner with seemingly rational arguments on each side. Of course, the divergence of views was very much present but there was, more importantly, respect for the adversary and thus respect for the audience.

Could it be that our politicians can behave in a mature way and lead the way to the formation of a mature people and democracy after all?

‘Da Vinci Code’: a foolish controversy

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Recently, one of our ‘not so honourable’ members of parliament purposely asked the PM whether the ‘Da Vinci code’ film would be shown in Mauritius without any prior consultation with the Church. Clearly, he wanted it either banned or censored on the basis of not hurting religious sensibilities in Mauritius. Whatever that means!

Yesterday, the film was also at the centre of a debate on Radio One. The guests were the president of the Censorship board, a theatre owner and a priest. I heard only parts of the show but my general impression was one of beating about the bush… as is often the case here.

What these people have forgot to mention is that this is a film that, according to the critics, is not even worth watching. So, raising debates about it is in fact serving the producers’ interests: it can only arouse curiosity and have more people watch it than it deserves, thereby helping turn it into a commercial hit.

A disappointing book
Anyway, I didn’t see the movie but I did read the book. And I wasn’t particularly impressed. The first 70% are OK but the rest is absolute crap with a hasty finish and loose ends. I was very disappointed after having heard so much about it. I’d rather read Asimov or even a simple but solid Agatha Christie book. Even Harry Potter stories are much more finely written.

Immoral Bollywood
Also, to come back to the issue of how the film could have a negative influence on people (!), shouldn’t we be taking some time to look at the content of those Bollywood films that are shown on MBC early in the evening and that attract large audiences in our movie theatres? Those are full of almost-nude actresses dancing erotically with extremely voyeuristic shots! And the scenes of violence are so apalling! Plus should I mention the lack of morality and indecency of those lavish backgrounds in which those perfect bodies evolve?

And what about those very popular serials like Tulsi, Sindoor and Muneca Brava? Absolute sh..

I’m sick and tired of the hypocrisy and double standards. Our children are watching films and serials that do not help them understand and face the real world at all, that are intellectually poor and are completely immoral.

Talk about blinding the people!

Media and Politics in Mauritius

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Photo of Le Mauricien 05/06/2006

The Mauritian population was given the opportunity to watch the Prime Minister’s Press Conference on television on Saturday… or should I say that they were forced to… All three local television channels of the MBC were broadcasting the conference at exactly the same time after the 7.30 p.m. news bulletin!
For those who do not have access to private channels via pay TV or satellite subscriptions, there was indeed no other choice (except that of switching off their TV set of course!)

It could be argued that this was a very important ‘moment’ and that every Mauritian citizen had the duty to listen to the PM as he gave strong indications regarding drastic decisions for our economy. And, indeed personally, I think it was important that we listen to him and his Finance Minister on the eve of budget presentation (scheduled for this Friday). Yet, simultaneous airing on the only three local channels available, that may have been a bit too much…

But to come back to the press conference, the PM did a great PR job. Of course, his Finance Minister Rama Sithanen had already tested the ground with his proposals for salary compensations which had also been aired on TV. Sithanen was great at explaining clearly the reasons why. He was also very convincing on the necessity of being more disciplined, more efficient and more productive…

The PM thus took advantage of this positive reception by the media and the population at large to announce some ‘courageous’ decisions, like closing down the DWC. But he also performed some of the age-old political antics so cherished by our local politicians, i.e. the ‘put-the-blame-on-him’ song. Mind you, the other parties did it too when they were in power…

As for the journalists, they were quite ‘soft’ and ‘nice’ to the PM. They still lack that sharpness that would allow them to put the right questions to the decision-makers, questions that would really open up worthwhile debates.

For instance, no-one dared point out to the apparent contradiction between the austerity being advocated and the fact that old age pensions had been fully restored to all + bus transport made free for all students irrespective of social class and revenue….

I’d say, this means that our politicians have progressed a lot in terms of communication strategies and their implementation but our media people still have to learn to unwind those strategies in order to get to the bottom of things.