Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Media Credibility A media worker told me one time that the media sets the agenda. She was always pushed me to be careful. To be careful not only about when the issues I was concerned about did not get into the media, but to be careful too when people might seem to 'support' the things I support. I am a citizen who checks headlines and reads some stories daily, and shares some stories. I do not bother with some news outlets which might have nice stories from time to time , but who tell stories in ways which I do not agree with. I use the print media mostly to share opinions.  I actively engaged the media between 1997 and 2016 or so to support the advocacy work of organisations and groups with which I was involved. One journalist and I had personal problems and he told me he would not report any story in which I was involved. I would like to think he wanted to avoid unconscious bias, rather than a way to silence me. I ensured that I stayed away to avoid any lack of reporting. Ano...

The Guyana Press Association and the British High Commission held a workshop on reporting to prevent suicide. The GPA held a similar workshop in April 2016 at a time when Guyana was becoming famous as the suicide capital' of the world. The workshop was held on 20 July, 2019. The GPA invited me to participate in the workshop in a collaborative session with Dr Paloma Mohammed around the impact of media reporting. I was not able to present or participate properly due to my own mental health issues. In thinking back about the workshop and the discussions, I felt that I would have done a presentation with a title 'Moving from suicide reporting to telling stories about mental health and wellness in Guyana'. I agreed with a journalist in the session who said there was no need to report on individual suicides. I have noticed a drop in the reporting, but there are still problems when the reports are done. The GPA is working on guidelines. I had written the following...

  Horses There is a herd of horses which roams around Subryanville. It is nice to see them. I am cautious around them as they might jump and run.  I have a feeling they would run from me more than running towards me. The only annoying thing is when they leave their droppings in the middle of the bridge. That is about as much I could write about horses in Guyana. Not many people would write about horses in Guyana. Nikita Blair though, wrote (and photographed) about observing the empathy of horses near where she lived. The story of a dead horse and the surviving foal might not have been published anywhere else except on a blog. Moray House Trust hosted an event "The Fifth Estate : a sample of blogs in Guyana".   A kind of offline event about writing online. Four bloggers shared some of the things they wrote. Nikita shared her piece on horses, with an additional treat of a slideshow of beautiful photographs.  Sara Bharrat read about an old man's tired e...

The man, a fish vendor,  is blowing the conch on the video and I rejoice. The students did an assignment around fish and fish vending. One of the students lives outside of Georgetown "in the country". I have a memory , when I was in the 'country' of  a man on a bicycle blowing the conch to sell  fish.  This vendor though is in a car, but still using the conch. I suggest to the students that they bring some of the 'country' to their assignment.  I am not a journalist and the teaching of the multimedia journalism course has meant pushing the students to go and find different stories (Video done by Julianne Gaul, Nathifa Punch and Simone Moriah Phillips , students of the University of Guyana ) Pandits blow the conch, the sanka/shanka, during puja. It is an art  to blow the conch. I have puffed my mouth swollen my cheeks and pushed out air and just got a wheezing sound. The students probably thought it was mundane, everyday.  Conch...