Recycling not required

Some weeks ago, most of us received a You Tube clip in which the doppelganger of Silvio Berlusconi appeared to be doing an uncouth thing in between sips of his ristretto. But that was before the story of the necklace given to his young friend broke.

In Malta, the best we can hope for is to see a certain presenter of Family TV gnaw at his cuticles while awaiting a caller's reply to yet another inane question, as she consults (loudly) with the other members of her household.

I guess this has more entertainment value than Wednesday's late night programme on Calypso Radio. This person might just as well have been a robot - if not for the fact that he addressed most of his diehard crowd of regular callers by name.

His monosyllabic comments did nothing to pique anyone's argumentative sides - it appears his policy is to agree with one and all, even if they say diametrically opposite things.

However, the annoyance I felt at this does not even begin to approach the disgust I felt upon watching one of the acts in the Puttinu Cares for Children campaign telethon.

Is it acceptable that to garner laughs - and donations - we have to sit through a base, racially prejudiced diatribe? Certain stand-up comedy acts are suitable for independent venues. I draw the line at having this type of xenophobic so-called entertainment rammed down my throat.

This continues to be one of the symptoms of overnight media stardom syndrome - the mythical condition that people believe they have achieved when they are 'on radio' or 'on television'.

The same mistakes are repeated again and again, and no one seems to want to stem them.

Every time an incident happens where a print news item contains the word 'falcon', I wince. For I know that sure enough, the word will be pronounced in the American way because (a) it resembles the way we say it in Maltese and (b) no one bothers to look up the correct pronunciation each time I comment about the wrong one here.

It's the same with the digit zero. Each time a telephone number or an address contains it, the chances are that it will be transmogrified into 'o', which is a letter, and not a number.

Meanwhile, the obituary announcements, news bulletins, newspaper commentaries and magazine programmes are still littered with words such as 'familjari' and 'jinvita'. Occasionally, whole phrases in English appear in Maltese language advertisements, giving them a bizarre flavour.

The people who write news scripts in English, moreover, do not always have a good grasp of syntax - and here I am not alluding just to the fact that they think 'that' and 'which' are interchangeable.

• One of the silliest and most misleading adverts currently appearing on (Italian) television is for a brand of floor disinfectant.

It has a boy rolling about on the bathroom floor, in between using the toilet rim as a runway, and 'aerodynamic' kitchen foil wings as stabilisers, for his toy car. The boy is safe, or so the blurbs tell us, because 99 per cent of germs are annihilated by this product. Ah! But what if the alive and kicking one per cent of germs is lethal?

In Malta, the advert of a locally-based international manufacturer of clothing will have to suffice. The man of the house returns home with a smirk - because he has made yet another purchase from this factory outlet. Yet, despite being a regular client of the place, he cannot figure out how the prices are also competitively good when compared to those of other establishments.

His wife knows it all. And so she explains it to him in words of one syllable until he gets his ah-ha moment.

• Now that the Broadcasting Authority has granted Calypso Media Communications a licence to provide a digital terrestrial television broadcasting service, the launch date has been confirmed. This licence is valid for one year from the date upon which the agreement was signed, viz., until the April 20, 2010.

Calypso Music Television will go on air next Sunday at 4 p.m. There will be a special inauguration programme presented by Twanny Scerri and Angela Agius. The channel will broadcast on Channel number 107 of the Go network. Nothing has been said about options for subscribers to Melita should they want this channel.

As from tomorrow, the only live programme until the full schedule is launched will be broadcast. The Calypso Breakfast Show will be broadcast daily between 8 and 11 a.m. It will be presented by Twanny Scerri and Eleanor Cassar.

• This morning's Ħaddiehor (Net Television, noon till 1 p.m.) tackles an interesting topic. It asks whether the premise of following one's conscience is enough. If it is not, ought we to plump for confession? Is that not embarrassing and mortifying? Incidentally, this topic was also dealt with in detail by Louis Camilleri on Lilian Maistre's Radju Malta magazine Familja Waħda last Wednesday morning.

This marvellous programme is presented by Marthese Brincat, along with resident guests Fr Marcello Ghirlando and Mark Xuereb, and other guests on the panel, including Fr Joe Inguanez.

As usual, Ħaddiehor will also incorporate several features, including a reading from the Holy Scriptures and features.

television@timesofmalta.com