March 2008 Archives

How many times have you heard or seen a youngster that isn't doing well in education? One who doesn't want to work too hard or too long to succeed? Or, in line with current trends, is banking on starring in a reality show which will fast-track them to fame and fortune.

Well, these attitudes do not apply to all young people and I'm a great believer in giving credit where it is due.

A few months ago I was asked to give some help and advice to an aspiring media professional by her older relative - a request that has been made of me on many occassions. However this time, I was not approached half-heartedly by someone looking for the quickest way into the business with the least amount of effort or who froze at the thought of hard work, as has happened in say 70% of cases. Sephrah Anderson (pictured) has helped restore my floundering faith in our young people.

Sephrah spent several days working with me and showed an ambition and thirst for knowledge that I haven't seen for a long time! She brought with her a timely reminder that, despite the many of the negative stories we come across, there is hope for the future.

Now - enough of the warm sentimentality!

I, like many of you, didn't have anyone around who was capable of giving me much professional guidance. Nowadays, most of us either know someone in the legal profession, education, social work, IT, law enforcement, health care, media, etc or at least knows someone who knows someone who does. That means all of us can either do something to help steer the youth on their way or link them up with someone who can.

I for one am tired of the excuses made for the lack of progression and ambition amongst some of our youth. None of us can help all the youngsters coming through but we can each do something. Not being able to totally remove a problem is not an excuse for not doing anything about it.

To borrow from a line from Janet Jackson, what have you done for youth lately?

Anthony, thanks for your comments tagged onto the 'Briishness Scheme Really Bugs Me' debate.

My views on this subject, as they are on many things, are quite controversial.

I agree that there should be a representation of as many cultures, religions and creeds on any advisory panel, particularly one which deals with the very real and dangerous realities of gangs and guns.

We know that there are still forces out there who do not want to give 'other' people any kind of influence at all, but as a child of the late 70s/ 80s, I believe the days of wholesale community action for improvement are gone, if not over all together.

As a media professional of some years, I've seen too many people, including Black folks, sitting on committees, banging on about 'the issues' to anyone that comes near them and holding court at conferences discussing what needs to be done - often without genuine interest in seeing positive changes made.

Sometimes the real issue for them is to make themselves sufficiently visible and audible in time for the next round of funding.

I think that if Black folks or anyone else wants influence, this needs to start with, as the song says, the man (or woman) in the mirror, making sure they are positive, law-abiding person who is making a valid contribution to society. It should then move to caring for their families; making sure their siblings, children, nephews/ nieces are doing the right things too, and move on from there.

Too many of us, particularly as Black men, have moved away from their own sphere of influence in their own families to try to build the community. Don't get me wrong, that is good in itself, but what real value would I be to my own son if the only time he saw my fatherly nature was is in some committee meeting?

It might take a generation for the effects to be visible but this current climate didn't occur overnight either. Since 1981 I've personally seen the cycle of discontent, riots, insufficient governmental action repeated over and over again. If we want this done, we've got to do it ourselves.

Anthony, we need brothers like you to keep pushing for Black influence at decision-making levels but we also need to keep encouraging our own people to do all they can where they can whether or not these opportunities become available.

So the government want schoolchildren to swear ... their allegiance to the Queen as part of radical new shake-up to increase our sense of Britishness, the media reports.

You'll find plenty of swearing in schools across our nation, but I can't quite see this type taking off. Neither can I see this being tremendously popular with us grown folk, including some of the asylum seekers and refugees who've come to the UK without their manners and common decency.

Once again, the ruling classes are flouting their responsibilities to the nation; this time believing that we'll all feel better under a painted-on, pseudo-hippy ideology that we are all one big happy country.

May I suggest that before ex-Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, the man who reportedly put this 'thought' forward, goes any further, perhaps he could suggest an idea which will make Britain a place that folks genuinely want to pledge allegiance to?

Where crime is punished adequately, opportunities for improvement exist for anyone who wants to study and work toward them and consumers are not scammed because they have the audacity to use gas and electricity in their homes and fill their motor vehicles with fuel.

Lord Goldsmith, you get zero out of ten for originality.

I'm sure many of us would pledge allegiance to Bugs Bunny, if he could help make this country a fairer place.

Am I wrong?

That's all folks!

At last, we've got a TV channel to be proud of, BET- Black Entertainment Television! It's been going for ages in the States and now it's here. I was channel-hopping the other day, which I'm kind of prone to doing, when I reached Channel 209 on Sky. Fantastic!

There have been a number of attempts to launch Black-orientated channels here in Britain with varying degrees of success, but none have been able to handle the challenge of consistently broadcasting a good variety of programming.

I don't follow the music scene as avidly as I used to but there are plenty of debate-based shows on BET to float my boat and I'm told, there are movies, serials and general programming to come.

Check it out. What do you think?

Does it annoy you that this channel is American or just glad to have some competitive programming on air?