Stink or swim

Picking up from where I left off nearly three summers ago, I watched the brilliant Dr Sandra Dingli being interviewed by Analise Ellul last Monday, on E22AM.

For the uninitiated, Dr Dingli is at the vanguard of the Institute of Thinking Faculty of the University of Malta, and this series is meant to take us outside the box, the triangle, the oval, and any other form of enclosed, stifled ways of looking at life.

A couple of phone calls, however, elicited the fact that whereas some PSD teachers in state secondary schools correlate their lessons with the literally thought-provoking exercises such as CAF, PMI, and so on, in some schools the topic is considered anathema, because "the new curriculum is already full to bursting".

Evidence, if any were needed, that some people just don't think. I will not say in which year this happened; but when I asked the boy who had placed first in the Common Entrance examination what he would have thought about a lone sheep in the middle of a highway (another 'exercise' which will no doubt make its appearance later on), he simply stared at me as his jaw dropped.

His friends, meanwhile, came up with several suggestions, including a time warp, a witch's spell, and a stuffed toy explanation. It is, meanwhile, amazing that in the new E22 schedule, the tried-and-tested ingredients have once again been realigned for the delectation of the tinies, and this topic has not made an appearance.

On Tuesday, then, a very optimistic member of the Assocjazzjoni Kunsilli ta' l-Iskejjel was - mistakenly - gushing that of late, no parents are going hell for leather to schools to have it out with teachers. This person must be living in a very sheltered community; although, let it be said, it takes two to tango, and some words by misguided educators have often added needless fuel to already smouldering fires.

The media have long been fascinated with themselves; there was the hysterical Not the Nine O'Clock News; the Candice Bergen vehicle Murphy Brown, the series Lou Grant, and several other attempts to show us what life is 'really' like in the press or television. Sejjahtli (Super One), another of the programmes with a sketch the better to get its message across, recently joined in.

The producer of a socio-religious programme (like the parent programme itself) called his two potential presenters into the studio for a planning session. He indicated that his would not be a populist programme, but one that remained on the straight and narrow. The young lady was all for this; yet the young man vaunted his 'modern views'. Although he was not fired on the spot, he has accomplished his goals; a phone call later we discovered that this was to protract the launch of the programme for as long as possible.

One of my favourite voices of all time in local broadcasting is that of Anna Bonnet; it was nice to see that she is back as a newscaster on Radio Calypso. Look out for her on Bla Agenda on Saturday nights.

Meanwhile, Super One Radio appears to have become the audio version of Smash television - Alfie Fabri is moving there (along, no doubt, with his audience) with Buzz FM and the M'Intix Wahdek series will recommence on radio, hopefully without the bookmark girls who, although as lovely as they come, are not really pertinent to this genre of programme.

Meanwhile, I wish there would not be such a fuss, on radio or on television call-ins, when somebody from Gozo is on the line.

And I wish that, across the airwaves, the same policy with regard to prizes being given, were adopted. Some stations, or better, presenters, allow punters to change their answers; others practically signal it to them; others will not take even a wrong word in an answer.

The new signature tune for Super One News is reminiscent of the title track of Fame - but since the newsroom is peopled mostly by twentysomethings, they would be more familiar with Paso Adelante.

I do not like it when, inadvertently or not, a clip on a news bulletin shows the number plate of a car involved in an accident, or even, on occasion, personal belongings of a victim, strewn along the road. These are easily recognisable by the person's family, who might not have yet heard the news through conventional channels.

In the same way, I shudder to think about what effect re-enactments of fairly recent crimes will have on those who have not yet come to terms with their losses.

Some years ago, Super One Radio dragged bleary-eyed children out of bed and to the breakfast table at 6.30 a.m. with a Qumu Tfal Ghax Sar il-Hin series of lovely stories, which have now been replaced by mini-lectures on classical music, nonetheless interesting. Those who preferred television could watch repetitive cartoons.

Unfortunately, I have not come across any programme inserts catering for children on radio, of late, and the slots on television go out when some of them would already have left for school if they use minivans.

The fact that television may be bad for you was brought home ironically and literally this week in Italy, where most news bulletins reported the death of a five-year-old child when the set exploded. She was at home with two of her siblings, while the parents had gone to the grandparents' house to fetch the other two. She was burnt to death when her soft toys added to the conflagration. The parents, already overcome by such a tragedy, have now to answer to the fact that they left under-age children home alone, which is a crime in Malta too, if I am not mistaken.

I did have time to nimmoniterja the atrocities committed in the name of broadcasting this week, too, and I wish that izjed 'l quddiem is never used again as "before", or ghall-ahhar made interchangeable with ghal kollox.

Something else that caught my attention is the use of variants of a person's name, or the use of a nickname, according to the light in which the newsscript writer would like him (or her) to appear. We either get a formal name, a pet name, or the countrified name of a person, each of which helps us form a different mental image. The use of a nickname either elevates a person to folk hero status, or else denigrates him.