COMMENTARY: Student media should help tame the chaos in Dominica

Journalism and news reporting is chaotic and often times not an orderly job.  I learned that fact at the Dominica Grammar School (DGS) during my senior year in 1978 when I was the editor of the school’s magazine, ‘The DGS Clarion.’ My staff and I accepted the fact that we were Media and went about the task of covering our ‘school world’ and the issues that were affecting us in an unbiased manner.  At the Clarion, we ran and supported our operations by selling advertising spaces to Roseau merchants and from magazine sales. Of course there were no smart phones or the internet at this time.

We even gently tiptoed into the forbidden, punishing, unforgiving and chaotic world of Dominican politics.  But real and authentic journalism is a tough business that requires hard work and courage.  We understood in a very fundamental way that that is the duty and responsibility of all organized forms of journalism to attempt to bring an understanding of the issues that concern people and our country. The DGS Clarion began the process of our understanding of this seemingly impossible task of responsible journalism in Dominica.

During high school we always looked forward to reading the publications of all the operating high schools on the island. There was the St. Mary’s Academy ‘Marion Messenger’, the Convent High School ‘Touch’, the Portsmouth Secondary School (PSS) ‘Bombo’, the Sixth Form College ‘SifoCol ‘Courier’, the Wesley High School ‘Eek’ and of course, the DGS ‘Clarion’. We learned many important and encouraging lessons from these student publications during those defining years.  Indeed this period was a golden era and renaissance of student enlightenment.

Our high school universe was small and we dealt with the challenge of trying to tame it. We reported on teachers who gave too many demerits and detentions. This was a problem especially for students who traveled daily to school in Roseau from as far away as places like Grand Bay and Points South and the west coast as far as Colihaut. Often times they arrived late to school and were punished for tardiness.

Being late on Monday mornings was also a problem for students who hailed from the far rural areas who went to their villages (homes) on the weekends. This was a frequent experience for me due to the fact that I either went home to LaPlaine or visited my grandfather and cousins in Jalousie, Castle Bruce on some weekends back east. At early dawn on Monday mornings the 3- ton passenger trucks departed the villages arriving in Roseau long after the 8:00 a.m. school assembly. The terrible conditions of the pothole mountainous roads in the rain forests which lead to the east contributed to the lumbering trucks’ late arrivals in Roseau.

We also reported on teachers who were tough graders, who won the debate competitions, who got promoted in the Cadet Corps and who excelled in the GCE exams. We covered the celebrated, competitive, colorful and popular DGS Sports Day, the junior carnival calypso king and queen competitions. We would conduct investigative reporting on the conditions of the school bathrooms and the DGS sports grounds.

But as enlightened and diligent academically focused students, we viewed ourselves as the future leaders of Dominica and we used our platform (the Clarion) to get slightly involved in the hot button political debates and issues of the day. We quickly found out that reporting on political events in our island home was (and is) and maybe will always be complicated and challenging. That daunting task can be best described as an attempt to package chaos, confusion and nonsense. The real challenge lies in trying to organize people, government and opposing sides, ideas, positions, and actions.

The big divisive issue in Dominica from 1976-1978 was Dominica’s political independence from Britain. In August 1976 at the Labour Party 21^st annual convention in Salisbury, Premier announced the declaration of political independence. This was also the position of one of his nemeses, the left-leaning (Grand Bay-based) pro-independence Popular Independence Committee movement headed by comrades Rosie Douglas and Pierre Charles. Mr. Douglas and Mr. Charles went on to become Prime Ministers but met their unfortunate and untimely deaths while in office.

Premier John’s other nemesis, the Opposition Dominica Freedom (DFP) Party which was led by Ms. Eugenia Charles, called for a referendum on political independence for Dominica. The Labour Party leader’s third nemesis was the Trade Union Leader of the Civil Service Association (CSA) Trade Union leader Charles  A. Savarin. Mr. Savarin would go on to become the Leader of the DFP. DFP ‘s position was that whilst Dominica should get its political independence, Premier John and his Labour party were incompetent to guide and rule Dominica as an independent nation. Do you remember the bumper stickers that read: ‘Independence No: Referendum Yes’? Our island home achieved its political independence on November 3rd, 1978.

The significance of political independence to us was self-determination, realization and development for Dominica and our people. Whether we have achieved that noble goal is another question. The Clarion’s editorial in May 1978 was entitled, ‘Today versus Tomorrow: Independence must Come’. A few days after edition was released, the regional and well respected Barbados Advocate carried a story on its front page with headlines: ‘Students support Political Independence Movement in Dominica’. This acknowledgement by a respected publication convinced us that we were contributing in a progressive way to a highly sensitive and politically charged debate in our land.
Of course, the state radio (DBS) announcers who were political appointees and ‘spin-doctors’ for the government got some political mileage at our expense and efforts. We were unable to convey to the radio that we were nonpartisan and were only contributing to the public discourse in the most professional and respectable manner. Has anything changed today with that radio station since 1978?

Today our Nature Isle is in a state of utter confusion and pain on a much greater scale than it was from 1976-1979. The recently held general elections where Labour party won added more controversy, questions, chaos and quagmire.  The Opposition United Workers Party has filed a lawsuit challenging that the December election results were not free, fair and people voted or (not) in fear with heavily armed foreign troops on the ground. That task of packaging that chaos is a long, and uphill climb. Now is an opportune time for future leaders (today’s students) to step up and make their invaluable contributions as we did some four decades ago with our student populations.

With the availability of computers and the Internet, there may not be any excuses for all the high schools not having any publications such as a student electronic magazine, online blog, and radio or television programs. Does any high school have a ‘student’ Facebook page, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter account or other social media platforms where students can debate and discuss these big issues facing our nation? It is imperative that our best and brightest young minds write, debate and publish on the various troubling and vexing controversies dealing with their school world and governance issues that are threatening our island home.

When young citizens of a democratic nation communicate (and engage) with one another in a respectable, intellectual and responsible manner, something simple but magical happens. We begin to see each other as human beings and not as mere political objects repeating what politicians and their die-hard supporters and operatives bellow out. They will begin to understand that we are all Dominicans and there is no need to fight each other for political reasons. The most invaluable lesson they will learn is that in politics there are no permanent friends or allies, just permanent interests. The Trade Unionist who became a journey-man politician, Charles A. Savarin, went on to be the President of Dominica in a Labor Government is a living poignant example of that fact.

Such exercises will leave an indelible mark on our young minds (as it left on me) that political winners and losers are part of the process but the most cherished civic duty should be conducted in a fair and equitable manner following established democratic laws, rules and policies. Give our high schools’ youth the guidance, space, intellectual and professional journalistic nourishment and support and they will do their best to address our island affairs and its complex, yet solvable issues. In the end, they will be progressive and active participants in the development of our country. This we cannot afford to ignore because our future as a people depends on it.