{"id":8241,"date":"2014-06-04T17:41:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T21:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=8241"},"modified":"2014-06-04T17:42:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T21:42:53","slug":"british-high-commissioner-media-making-pornography-out-of-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=8241","title":{"rendered":"British High Commissioner: Media making pornography out of crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Geisha Kowlessar
\nJune 04, 2014 – guardian.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

British High Commissioner Arthur Snell<\/a>The media in T&T could be a voice for change but instead they make pornography out of crime, says British High Commissioner Arthur Snell. Snell, a member of the Rotary Club, was delivering the feature address at the club\u2019s luncheon at Goodwill Industries, Fitz Blackman Drive, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. Focusing on the topic, Taking Responsibility, Snell also zeroed in on the issue of childhood.
\n
\nHe referred to nine-year-old Jadel Holder, who was murdered with his brother, Jamal Brathwaite, 15, at their home at Coconut Drive, Morvant, on Sunday. Holder and Brathwaite were made to lie down and shot in the head at point-blank range. Snell said: \u201cWhat does it mean to be a nine-year-old boy? \u201cThat\u2019s a transitional age. You are a little child but you are now becoming aware of the adult world. Maybe you are just discovering that your parents are not always right.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you ask them a question and they don\u2019t have an answer. The nine-year-old boys that I know still like a really cool toy that does something clever.\u201d Before shock, outrage and horror could be expressed over the incident, he said, it was important to note how it was reported. He quoted media reports in which people who were interviewed shortly after the murders said sooner or later they were bound to happen. One neighbour reported the boys kept bad company while another described Holder and Brathwaite as \u201cterrors.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSo the message here is pretty simply, \u2018Yes, it is sad but it was their fault. It\u2019s not our responsibility…\u2019 Blame the kids, blame the mother, blame the absent father and if that fails, blame the police. \u201cDemand they take tougher action, arrest more people. Don\u2019t worry there is no evidence, this has never worked\u2014just do it again. It\u2019s not our responsibility,\u201d Snell said. <\/p>\n

Saying taking responsibility was something people were not very keen on, Snell said it was his belief that Holder\u2019s murder was the responsibility of everyone, including Rotarians and other citizens. \u201cIt\u2019s too easy. It\u2019s too convenient to say that these boys got into bad company. \u201cI want to know what\u2019s happened to a society where a small child who gets into bad company ends up shot in the back of the head. So who\u2019s taking responsibility for that?\u201d Snell asked.<\/p>\n

He also referred to an instance in which a daily newspaper published a front-page photo of a man\u2019s severed head on a table. On what impact this could have had on young children. Snell said his daughter, who was five at the time, was upset by the photo. \u201cPerhaps Jadel Holder saw that picture and perhaps it taught him to value human life a little less. How many other children saw that image? What is the impact of this on young minds? he asked.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI am not questioning the sanctity of freedom of speech. I am questioning the sanity of the editors that decide to put these images on the front pages. \u201cThere is a very simple word that describes degrading, exploitative, sensationalist vulgarity in the pursuit of commercial gain. That word is pornography,\u201d Snell added. Snell then turned his attention to those whom he termed his \u201cown people\u201d\u2014 diplomats.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe come and spend a few years here. We have our little vanity projects. We compete between the different embassies… who has got the best media strategies, who has the fanciest party. \u201cWe inhabit a little exclusive world of self-congratulatory circularity. We occasionally make carefully planned forays into pre-sanitised so-called \u2018hotspots\u2019 before we retreat behind the high wall of our embassies. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how many of us diplomats can honestly say we have done anything to change the world that Jadel Holder was born into?\u201d Snell asked. He said it was far easier to bemoan the state of the nation at dinner parties and then simply move on.<\/p>\n

No escape for politicians<\/b><\/p>\n

On politicians, Snell asked what example they were setting and to what extent responsibility resonated with the political class. \u201cIn the Westminster Parliament, we used to talk of political decisions being made behind closed doors in smoke-filled rooms. In this country it seems that a different sort of activity goes on in smoke-filled rooms,\u201d Snell said. He said he had lived in T&T for just over three years and had devoted a considerable amount of time understanding the politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I am genuinely unable to discern any distinctive policy of any major political grouping in this country beyond \u2018when we are in power we look after our people.\u2019 As far as I can tell that seems high on the manifesto,\u201d Snell said.<\/p>\n

Source: guardian.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Geisha Kowlessar June 04, 2014 – guardian.co.tt The media in T&T could be a voice for change but instead they make pornography out of crime, says British High Commissioner Arthur Snell. Snell, a member of the Rotary Club, was delivering the feature address at the club\u2019s luncheon at Goodwill Industries, Fitz Blackman Drive, Port-of-Spain, … Continue reading British High Commissioner: Media making pornography out of crime<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,677,1,5,178,8],"tags":[916,44,1015,49],"class_list":["post-8241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-england-international","category-general-tt","category-international","category-media","category-violence","tag-arthur-snell","tag-crime-in-tt","tag-politics","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8243,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8241\/revisions\/8243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}