SO DE HEADS of government had a big pow-wow in St Kitts recently and so much ole talk that ah can’t deal wid all of it in one week.
Part of de ole talk got to do with de need fuh a regional electronic media house to inform and educate the people of de Caribbean bout CARICOM and de (lack of) integration movement. That sound real good, nuh! One leader even talk bout de days of Radio Antilles and how dem used to inform the whole Caribbean and de need fuh a station like that. That too sound real sweet, nuh!
Another statement had to do wid de loss of BBC Caribbean. Oh loss, cuddear, yuh mean we lose BBC Caribbean and de whole 25 minutes of Caribbean material dem use to produce each day, fooling people in de region that they had a whole service dedicated to dem?
Could the Secretary General of the CBU, Mr Patrick Cozier, please confirm fuh me that de Caribvision channel still exists? Can Mr Cozier confirm that this channel is a 24-hour channel of Caribbean content and that it pun cable channels in 22 Caribbean countries? And that included in de programming is a Caribbean news bulletin nightly?
Can he confirm iffing pun MCTV de channel got a permanent slot pun de grid? And iffing de answers to dese questions (except de last one) is yes, would Mr Cozier please issue a communiqué to de heads of government advising dem that their prayers have been answered and, like manna from heaven, it fall into their laps widout a penny of taxpayers money?
While yuh at it, Sir, yuh might tell dem not to lament de loss of de 25 minutes of news de BBC produce under de guise that it is a Caribbean channel becausin OCM (One Caribbean Media Ltd) launch a 20-hour radio station that in seven countries so far and in less than three months pun de air already producing 50 minutes of Caribbean news daily, plus a one-hour top-class current affairs show pun a Sunday, Checkpoint Caribbean, produced by noted Caribbean journalist David Ellis.
Mr Cozier, tell dem that the Caribbean Super Station does also produce a hard-hitting regional sports programme on Tuesday evenings called Mason And Guest, featuring respected Caribbean cricket commentator Andrew Mason. Giv dem de frequency fuh muh; in Bubbadus um pun 97.5 FM.
Mr Cozier, iffing de heads of government realize that de private sector answering de call fuh regional radio and television channels, at no expense to de governments, then perhaps dem same governments would invest some of de CARICOM funds in de same media and lend someting other than ole talk to dese efforts at regional broadcasting.
After all, we spending millions ah hard-earned taxpayers money pun CARICOM but nuff ah we don’t really know exactly wha it is that dem does do in G.T. and is only de media that could get dah message out to de people.
If dem really serious bout de integration thing and want a Caribbean Single Market and Economy, then common sense say that they gwine have to get de message out to de people who got to live it day and night, we de taxpayers! But ah wouldn’t hold muh breath!
I, Market Vendor, gone fuh now. You have a blessed and a wonderful day, yuh hear?
