THE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT TODAY'S CHILDREN’S TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT.

I happen to be one of those Ugandans who grow up in reverse mode when it comes to  things the majority tag as trendy for instance as most Ugandans are making the move from ardent radio fanfare to addictive television viewership am doing the reverse. This could be mainly because I watched way too much television as a child. From hours of priceless fun and adventure on Cartoon Network, the defunct Madvani owned Channel Television at the time, now inexistent Sanyu television/TV Africa among other things. We never had the luxury of Disney or Nickelodeon in Uganda at the time and the rich kids made go with the then KTV or Kid’s Television or something that always aired in the mornings at the then three channeled DStv that consisted of M Net, Movie Magic and SuperSport. So yes children’s entertainment has changed drastically from the time when I was a child. However it’s not that am pointing an accusatory finger to the broadcasters for the change or the consequences this has fostered, I simply want to lay bare some crude facts about today’s cut throat television industry and how it has to come to affect the young generation’s upbringing.
A few weeks ago we had a thanksgiving service and party at our home and on all such days got to meet and catch up with that part of the family you always forget and only remember at the next reunion or that cousin with weird manners who you have to keep on smiling at, pretending to like while counting the hours to the end of the session and struggle hard not to yell ‘good riddance’ to as they turn their backs to make leave at the end of the event. So like on all such days the children of the ‘family’ tend to also mix and ‘get to know each other’. So I actually unintentionally eavesdropped on my nephew’s conversation with a cousin’s kid who had travelled all the way from a place called Jokolera for the reunion/get together. So I heard these young future parents and leaders of tomorrow talk about everything from school to music and then to television. The country chap could narrate all the torrid details of all sorts of Hindu soap operas that have been shown on the immensely popular Vision Group owned Bukedde channel. All the stupid storylines that include dead women who hate the idea of their ex husbands moving on and remarrying after their demise(wondering what they expected the poor now lonely men to do) and so taunting their replacements. The kid then moved on to narrate other less quality Filipino shows before being cut short by my I used to think was innocent nephew who told him that he doesn’t watch those shows because those people are like the Africans. So just when I thought he was going to rub in something about the quality or other features of our African made shows he added,”Tebekuba pacha” Now I was astounded. What the hell was pacha? Well I now wish I had stayed in my ignorance. I was to later on find out that pacha is the kindergarten slang for kissing and smooching. The kindergarten slang for what? These children even know about kissing already…what the hell. And as if this knowledge of what is reserved for the privileged socially advanced adults isn’t sufficient to literally sweep me off my usually reasonably firm feet they had the luxury of choosing the shows to watch and basing that preference on the normally disgusting appearing exchange of saliva and other oral fluids while battling for an award of who defiles the others lips the most.
The other bit that beat my understanding was how detailed this young lad’s description and narration of the poor quality Bollywood television shows was. How do these children get to watch so much television? Our parents let us catch Power Rangers after school, maybe Teletubies and perhaps a Ghost Busters or Godzilla episode and the only shows we could catch in prime time were either Touched by An Angel or 7th Heaven before we were chased off to bed before Sunset Beach was aired. This is something I dreaded at the time but I have learnt to appreciate this at this time of my life. How does a responsible parent cripple their children’s creativity this way by soaking all their reasoning and creative capacity into an interactive machine that was created by the white man for entertainment purposes? How does a parent leave all their parenting to the telly? Our parents were also in a hard economy but they tried to direct how our brains grew. They taught us that people try gardening or how important reading was to us. Also how important physical games were. A toy car at least gets your child to imagine what it would be to have or cruise one. Making your child become a television junkie is the fastest way you can drive him or her to a life of mediocrity and failure.
Broadcasting houses have the challenge of airing safe content in an era where sex sells and where for all shows, music videos and even talk shows to sell they must bare a little sexual element. And I have no problem with sexual themed programs being aired but what matters is the time that these shows are aired. If the broadcasting houses do their job and the parents do theirs there won’t be a problem. Phew! Concern raised.