Times have surely changed, for the worse

May 23, 2010 Features / Columnists, My Column

By Adam Harris

Times have changed and rather drastically. Gone are the innocent days when people relied on the newspapers alone for the news and any information. Of course, as a boy there was an individual called the bell crier. He walked miles ringing a bell and making his announcement. People would run out of their homes to hear what was being said.
More often than not the bell crier would be announcing a meeting or a visit by the doctor or veterinarian or even a death and other details of the death. Then the people would return to their homes and whatever the announcement was, would be the talking point for a few hours.
Newspapers and the radio were big things. Not everyone could afford a newspaper or a radio so there were times when neighbours would flock to a home to hear whatever was being broadcast. Death announcement was the prime information. The men would be more concerned with boxing and cricket. It used to be a big thing when someone had a radio that could tune in to the BBC.
As if in a rush, the radio became pervasive. Transistors had arrived to replace the tubes that the radios of that period carried. I still remember people turning on the radio and waiting for it to warm up.
As newspapers became more available the bell crier died and this was only natural. An increase in vehicular traffic saw to this. If there was a special announcement people would attach speakers to their vehicles and traverse the community. In fact, this is still being done but more for political purposes.
When I entered the world of work newspapers abound. I still remember the Graphic printing about 80,000 copies daily. Sometime later when the government acquired the Graphic, the Chronicle ruled the roost with as many as 120,000 copies on Sundays. These days, newspaper owners are proud to announce that they produce 36,000 copies on Sundays.
This decline in newspapers coincides with people’s ability to read. I have commented on this in the past, but something happened this past week that forces me to revisit this issue. There was this young man no older than 22 or 23 and he could not read. There was this task of reading a script and making the corresponding adjustment on an editing machine.
I meant reading the ‘in word’ (the introduction to an insert for a television or radio newscast) then playing the voice of the person uttering the ‘in word’. There is also an out word, the point at which the insert ends. The young man found this task impossible. He could not decipher the hieroglyphics on the paper.
Surprisingly, he is not alone. I hasten to say that a vast majority of the young men on the streets today simply cannot read. I met a few of them in police custody and not one could read (a few could identify a few words).
All this means is that these people are unsuited for some of the jobs around so they turn to what they consider the easiest way to make money—stealing and robbing.
I notice that the Education Ministry is now targeting truants and will be prosecuting some parents. This is long overdue. I am now left to wonder at the nature of parents. It was a given that parents would check their children’s books for homework and would insist that they sit and complete the homework.
It would seem that parents simply do not care these days. It is as if they are prepared for the worse and the society is more than willing to provide the worse.
I got a letter via electronic means the other day from a young man who has a major issue with his father. He alleges that his father neglected him and the bitterness is there in this letter. His father is a young man and according to the son, got married three times and all three failed. This is where I suppose some of the problems of children begin. In Guyana there are many cases of fathers being accused of not being there and one can only assume that this is the root of the problems.
One view is that the advent of television eradicated the need to read, but if this is the case, how then can one explain the preponderance of cellular phones and the text messages? Those who cannot read are missing out.
However, this goes beyond the illiterates in our midst. As a reporter I have to deal with others. I am finding that a lot has changed. Curiosity is there but not for the production of news. It is as if the young people simply cannot make the connection between their curiosity and the news. A reporter needs an inquiring mind but that seems to have disappeared as so many other things.
I wish some of these changes would not be so drastic because I simply cannot seem to keep up.

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