Letter to the Editor-Telenovelas v/s Morality |17 January 2007

I wish to congratulate the parent for her courage and for finding the strength to come forward with such a view. I must point out that I totally agree with her. I myself am a father to a son. I am also a young citizen of Seychelles and I myself had the chance to discuss this issue with the management of SBC in a public debate in one of the sessions of “Laspirasyon 2013” organized by the Youth Department. When I did this, I could see that the senior officers present that day took it very negatively for some reason. I am happy that this issue is coming up again. I asked the same question but the answers given were far from credible. At a time when all parties concerned, be it, political parties, churches, youth groups are finding means and ways to better educate our young population on the good ways of life and good moral values, on the other hand we find another type of education portrayed by those telenovelas -- this is education about hatred, deception, infidelity, greed and so on.

True enough all individuals have the right to interpret those films in their own way but how protected are our children? Nowadays, school children are more familiar with those telenovelas than adults themselves. My question is simple, what happened to the “New Season” that SBC spoke so much of around the time that TV5 was about to be launched whereby more educational and morally sane movies were promised. It really hurts me as a youth to find that on Christmas Eve an announcement was made saying that the telenovela will be repeated for the benefit of people going to the midnight mass. The irony is after seeking the good deeds from the midnight mass, we now seek a bit of evil from the telenovelas the next day. Are those movies really in demand or is it just an excuse not to show anything else?

I therefore wish to once again urge members on the board of SBC to relook at the issue. We now have telenovelas in English and French, multiple episodes weekly plus repeat every time there are school holidays or even when we have a power cut. Another irony is, during school holidays, it is children who are at home so why repeat those adult movies then? For the love of Seychelles and good morality amongst our children I urge the management of SBC to rethink of their strategy. May I suggest a separate channel for those telenovelas?
Thank you.

C. A. L