Awful media offerings

The Editor, Sir:

I've been in retirement for just over three years now. Occasionally, when I am not reading something about the history of Jamaica or the world or something knowledge-based, writing down my thoughts or engaged in the many other pleasures of life, I turn on the tube to see what is being presented by the TV stations.

I don't have cable TV for specific reasons and the only reason I would venture into subscribing to it is because I am an avid sports fan in general. The internet, listening KLAS when I visit friends or go to an actual game is enough for me.

Anyway, back to the point that motivated me to put pen to paper. Have you ever turned on your TV between, say, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., actually the time of day when young minds are being captured? It does not matter whether it is TVJ or CVM. The general programmes that saturate the airwaves are so ridiculous I literally want to scream! I eventually turn off the tube but sometimes curiosity gets the better of me. Other than the occasional good Hallmark adventure, fictional or docu-mentary, the occasional video-clip fillers, and the educational quiz shows after 6 p.m., the first thing they try to show is something educational like Sesame Street for the preschoolers. Then they get into the cartoons and the superhero cartoons, what for, sole entertainment?

I really don't know but I would rather sit down with my grandson and watch some knowledge-based programme that I can appreciate and guide his young mind to know more about the world we live in and the way it will impact his total being later. The next thing that is presented immediately after is some series of young actor running forwards, then the technicians rolling back the film to create the illusion that he or she is running backwards, flying, appearing and disappearing at the flash of a light and commanding miraculous things to happen at the point of a finger. It is amazing! Why not present something that demonstrates how these dynamic cartoons and fictional illusion are created to give the above, validity and meaning for presenting them?

bombarding

What are these television stations trying to accomplish here? Are these things deliberately contrived to convolute the young minds of our children? No wonder bleaching cream is in such demand in Jamaica. It reminds of the era when they were bombarding us with Tarzan of the Apes, Superman and other white superheroes. This seems all very subtle to me but it resembles the same bombarding of our young children's minds with these myths of Caucasians perceptions of themselves.

What ever happened to National Geographic and other general knowledge-based programming? We need more of that instead of some of this garbage. We should be more discreet in our choices and selections for our young children's minds, it is very essential to our future and the general programme mix should emphasise a more tangible educational weight.

I am, etc.,

FRANK HILL

Figuteme1@yahoo.com

Red Hills

St Andrew