Desmond HenryTREASURE BEACH:
ALONG WITH others from the region and here, I was a guest of the Sandals Group at a recent weekend gathering in Ocho Rios, participating in the eco-journalism awards which the group sponsors each year. The title of this year's exercise was 'The Media a catalyst for environmental change in the Caribbean'.
The presentations were excellent, as too were the discussions about the general levels of awareness in the Caribbean, concerning the lurking threats to our environment, resulting from backward practices. After all was said and done, I did not get the impression that as a region we were being fully informed about either the presence or the perils of environmental neglect. The presenters were abundantly aware, but not so the listeners. One of the main arguments, for example, was whether or not the media should start developing eco-specialists, or merely have this most important survival issue, covered by generalists. The obvious answer is a combination of both.
News is news, and depending on the nature of its origin or depth, will determine the levels of its treatment in either the print, verbal or electronic media. Unless and until our media sets out to position environmental issues in a life-and-death context, the overwhelming majority of our citizens will continue to see it as 'no big thing' and proceed with their wanton destructive habits.
I left the conference with the ominous memory of a rural wielder who, when he was asked why he so brutally cuts down so much of the hillside vegetation, promptly replied, "machete mek fe chop." It also reminded me that that was the same kind of illiterate ignorance of another Jamaican, who when asked his opinion of women replied, "woman mek fe breed." Both attitudes might seem somewhat farfetched, but in terms of the market with which we have to deal, they are truly representative.
The truth is that we continue to do a poor job in our levels of news reporting especially in separating events from issues. A great many of our journalists are events reporters, concentrating almost entirely on the immediacy of what's happening, and far less on the causes or consequences of the occurrence. And in a society preoccupied by the events of poverty, murder and disorder, more of our journalists will have to start extending their craft and themselves so as to help others grasp the other dangers at hand, including those to come. This is even moreso in a society, which is highly illiterate, and in which events and occurrences appeal more by impulse, than by logical reasoning.
Our schools and minds of learning will have to be fed far more images, pictures, visuals and graphic portrayals of both good and bad ecological practices. Young eyes that constantly see - day in and day out - nothing but garbage, disorder and squalor in their backyards and on their highways, will grow up believing that these are normal human habits. They are neither provided with contrasting loveliness of a clean and scenic ride into downtown Nassau from their airport.
Let an entire new curriculum in civic-eco studies be developed for our schools. Challenge our children to produce highly competitive projects in environmental awareness through the offering of funded scholarships, tuition fees and travel prizes as part of their scholastic rewards. Let us establish and reward, highway and community examples of responsible environmental management. (I still like our South Coast message - Clean and green, and fit to be seen). But somebody must lead the way in the absence of recognised public leadership, consciousness or vision. That 'somebody' has to be the media.
Embarrassingly
deficient
It will call for alternative new training and responsibilities. All news reporting, like marketing, is about finding new communicative angles to do new things. Some angles which are straight and direct, are reported as 'hard news.'
Others are developmental or tangential angles such as features, personality stories, special events, investigative, and follow-ups. Some are entirely pictorial, most editorial and others a combination of both. In terms of the environment, we are embarrassingly deficient in our media treatment of it.
Ask any environmentalist, here or anywhere, and they will tell you that the threat to human existence resulting from environmental degradation is real and alive. But the messages are either not being prepared or are not getting through, or both. What is now being called Environmental Justice, is being described in world forums as: The commitment to see that everyone on this planet enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards; and has equal access to the decision-making processes, which ensure a healthy environment in which to live, learn and work.
Sandals is leading the way in bringing attention to these critical issues. But Sandals neither trains nor teaches mass communicators. That is the business of our colleges and media houses. Someone must begin to envision, anticipate and train the new communicating angles. If not, the view that 'machete mek fe chop' will be true not just of trees, but of everything standing.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The flower in the vase no longer smiles, it is beginning to grimace.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St, Elizabeth.
