My e-mail inbox nearly exploded last Friday, when overzealous feminists (many not even living in Trinidad) wrote me rudely demanding I protest the primetime airing on TV6 of a video of a 13-year-old child being raped; and I really don't see what they're upset about.First, the video was not even particularly graphic, not by modern standards, even less so by Trinidadian standards, and certainly not by the standards of the show on which the video was triumphantly presented. All you saw, apparently, was the child's face contorted in pain and terror; and you heard even less, just a few tormented screams. What kind of prude gets upset over something so minor? It's not like there were any double penetration or forced fellatio shots.Second, the video was not even of good quality, so you hardly saw anything properly. I'm amazed the presenter of the show, who all discerning, UNC-voting citizens recognise as Trinidad's newest Messiah, even allowed such low-tech images on his show. It was far below his normally exceedingly high standards of excellence in depicting human suffering; this is a guy who deals in buckets, not drops, of blood. Compare that blurry image of the broken child with, eg, the video he broadcast of the several body parts of the woman, run over on the highway and literally torn limb from limb. That, I'm told, was in high-def and full colour, and the camera lingered on the severed head, arm, torso and legs. Not even Final Destination Five was as good, and that was in 3-D.
So, although he's adopted the correct public relations pose and pretended to apologise for showing the video (while simultaneously boasting that an arrest was only made because of it), it's clear that the only thing he really should have felt sorry for was the bad video quality-and even that was not his fault. The film, you see, was not shot on the high-grade equipment usually employed in the top show on local TV, but on some poor innocent rapist's cell phone camera.But we shouldn't judge Trini-dad's new saviour too harshly. Perhaps he persuaded himself the video was acceptable, given the limitations under which it was shot, namely that the criminal assault was actually taking place and the perpetrator/cameraman must have been strongly excited over raping a child. Consider how little camera shake there is and you might see why the showman might decide to let the video air; if you know in your heart you could not rape and video simultaneously so smoothly, then do not cast the first stone.
The new Messiah should actually be complimented for lowering his very high professional standards briefly, so that Trinidad could benefit from the image and, more important, the public acknowledgement that such an image is what we want to see. This is a showman convinced of his own star appeal, and with very good reason, because his is the most watched show on TV, just as the Gladiator's radio show was the most listened to.And for the same reasons.Consider this: he is actively being defended on all the UNC blogs.All Trinis want to be just like the TV show-man. Who wouldn't want to show children what a child being raped looks like, so they could prepare themselves for their future? (How lucky they would be if their own rape was broadcast live, with perhaps an autographed 8 x 10 glossy of the show-man presented during a live interview.) Who wouldn't want to wear a tight-fitting bulletproof vest over his rolls of fat and a faux-Mohawk haircut instead of a three-corner hairline? He is the best man ever to bless T&T since Patrick Manning lost the Prime Minister's work and the nation needs him just as much. The only reason media people would want such an admirable human being removed is because they jealous him bad-bad-bad.And they should.This great journalist has actually shown the face of a child being destroyed, in the very moment of destruction. The world has not seen an image as strong since Eddie Adams' 1968 picture of the Viet Cong rebel being shot in the head on the streets of Saigon; in Adams' picture, you can actually see the bullet frozen as it's leaving the man's skull, just as, in the image this man showed to children on TV, you can see the moment the little girl's soul vanishes.
Like the country's.
Feminists in "foreign" don't grasp that the Trinidad they left no longer firetrucking exists. There is no one left in Trinidad to be outraged at a child being used in the most savage way for the petty advancement of a publicity-seeking charlatan. If you want to unify "respectable" Trinidad in condemning a video, don't look to the open, shameful, criminal abuse of a minor that should result in someone going to jail. "Decent" Trinidad doesn't care if a 13-year-old child is raped on TV, but only let her put on a grey-haired wig and post a comedy video on YouTube telling Kamla "bout she" mother and you will see how outraged Trinidadians get. We don't mind child-rapists and their TV champions, but we cyar stand Granny Quilla.
Perhaps we could solve all the problems by calling the show what it really is: Trinidad's Funniest Home Videos. And die fire-trucking laughing. I look forward to the day a hotshot presenter of ugly crime on TV gets sent to jail himself; and, with a bit of luck, gets raped, and gives himself a whole new video to air one evening. For the good of the country.
BC Pires will not use some words because they are justtoo filthy; including somepresenter's name. Read more of his writing at www.BCraw.com