Dear Editor,

There are many problems plaguing our country at this point in time, however we should be grateful that a handful of dissenters still exist in this country.

Can you imagine how successful Jamaica would be if we had more people like Michael Dingwall, Mark Clarke, and new kids on the block like Keiran King and Orville Higgins, who would actually use their brains? But then again, most people get their information from the media, so we shouldn’t expect high-quality discourse.

These days you can’t even make a distinction between a newsman and an entertainer. For many years Cliff Hughes presented himself as a serious journalist, and we believed him, until he started to discuss political sound bites on his evening radio show. Who really cares about the episodes of the Warmingtons or Roger Clarkes?

The matter became even worse when dancehall artistes started to appear frequently on his televised programme Impact, previously known for producing quality work. Now, how is a feud between Lady Saw and Macka Diamond important to any of his viewers?

It became apparent that Cliff wanted to win entertainerof the year when he invited two charismatic preachers on his show to discuss obeah. Well, at least he didn’t do an exposé on bleaching.

In a society like Jamaica, where cheap commentary sells, we can’t be too surprised that our leading pundits have become village lawyers overnight. However, those who know better must uplift the masses and not imitate them; subcultures of vulgarity and crassness are not symbols of national pride. This is why we need to praise those who have refused to engage in cheap commentary, maybe Jamaicans would think more if they weren’t fed a diet of garbage by jokers posing as serious intellectuals.

Lipton Matthews

lo_matthews@yahoo.com