Our news media has become a stage where actions of our out-of-tune politicians have become a series of dramas. It was too good a morsel for them to pass up . Look how they have been chewing it for the past four days …bringing drama to the news, turning the news articles into stories and episodes with a plot, actors in conflict and colourful details on what “Piti” said and what “Papa” did not deny….You should see the blaring headlines about Popol being “emmerdé” about the big pictures of “Papa” with some extra parliamentary political leader and the eye-catching analyses from our traditional over-exposed so-called political analysts.
This is the same media which have been lecturing us on the fact that we have to quit ”…les palabres de clocher et suivons celui qui nous apporte le développement”….They have been hammering it to us that we should not focus on leaders/personalities/tickets but on their programme , on their commitment for change while they, our hypocritical press and radio channels, continue to focus on facades, manipulators and manipulations rather than inform the public about the more complex but priority issues of policies and development projects.
Our news media has failed to do what it claims to do, what it should do, and what society expects it to do.
The Environment Bill has been introduced in the National Assembly on the 2nd of April and has been covered extensively by Rezistans ek Alternativ's (ReA) in its press conference . Such a crucial Bill which has been thoroughly criticised by ReA has barely been covered in our press or taken up by our radios, more interested about events that are emotional rather than rational, immediate rather than considered, and sensational rather than informative.
ReA has argued that the Environment Bill is "pathetic" and just a cover up -an attempt at greening the facades, the obsolete present system - to maintain the status quo at the level of all the ecological issues. For e.g it maintains the status quo as regards the citizen's right to bring a case before the environmental court. “It is a legal shield for the establishment and other agencies(EDB among others) to continue their attacks on our eco-system”.
There is no ESA Bill but a mere committee that will be dealing with issues concerning the wetlands..There is no assessment of the cumulative impact of the projects on the environment; there’s a strategical environment assessment which is being proposed , but it is not applicable to the real estate projects , thus the real issues are not being addressed.
In the plan 2020-2030, mention is made that compulsory acquisitions of ESAs are not possible because it will need constitutional changes which ReA has denounced as being false because in our Constitiuion , Section 8.1 , there are provisions for a compulsory acquisition ….as proposed by ReA in the case of Roches Noires…
"Dan sa Bill là , peina volonté politik pou address problem ESAs par met li dan domain publik...
Li pa address gentrification, sa deux lil Moris là pou continué, enn koté gated communities, embourgoizment lor ban la cote, lot koté enn population ki bizin tras enn la vie ….bétonnage dan lil Moris pou continué rêgne en maitre avek sa BIll là…."
In short, the Environment Bill has missed the opportunity of introducing meaningful changes to the current framework. There’s no strong basis to address the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation ! Just greenwashing !
Is it deliberate on the part of our news media diverting our attention by blowing up a charade of events that serves their own interests and the interests of their corporate backers/masters intentionally misleading us into the sequence of dramas and dramatic events whose real importance are minimal, thus sacrificing the substantive issues presently facing the country? . Why ?
Because the news media and their corporate backers/masters will not be providing a platform and support to politicians for whom maintaining the status quo-economic and political - is no longer a viable option .
