Xarabank’s “Random Acts of Kindness”, featured on March 17, provided yet another good reason why I consider this programme as falling below the standards of what good journalism should all be about – informative, educational and interesting.
While I will not criticise the intention behind the deed, the act itself would have surely irritated the many health-conscious watching the programme and the educational campaigners who in recent years have worked hard to raise awareness of the need for a healthy diet.
According to recent reports by the World Health Organisation, the Maltese are among the most obese and overweight in the world. The results are even more serious when placed in a European context, where Maltese women are the most overweight in Europe and Maltese men place second only to Greek men. In the light of all this, Mark’s “act of kindness” on Xarabank was characterised by first distributing doughnuts, or the ridiculous Maltese-version of “downats”, to random people working around the island.
The question immediately comes to mind: could he have distributed fruit instead of the high-calorie, frosted doughnuts in his bid to do good to others and at the same time setting a good example?
He then proceeded to enter a local shop that sells the Maltese pastizzi and buy for two for himself, followed by a glass of sugary tea. His “good” deed was to offer free pastizzi to a number of people who flocked to the shop after him.
If this was not enough to raise blood pressure and clog arteries due to the high amount of saturated fat and cholesterol levels, Mark’s “act of kindness” was concluded by entering a popular junk-food drive-through establishment. His choice of meal fell on a burger, fries and yet another sugary drink, again with the intention of donating to the person behind him another free meal of the same kind, asking them repeatedly to share this ‘act of kindness’ with others.
Surely, there are plenty of other wiser choices of “act of kindness”. Donating blood and why not, thinking of our fellow creatures by helping out in a dog sanctuary – even the simple deed of taking one of their dogs for a walk would surely have set a better example and would have provided a better opportunity to inform and educate the public.
Obesity is a serious public health problem, as it significantly increases the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and certain cancers. It should not be taken lightly.
The media especially, which has a stronghold on public perception, should be extra sensitive to people who are obese or overweight and struggle every day physically and emotionally to fight off excess weight.
Xarabank’s “act of kindness” fell short – it surely did nothing “kind” to the health of individuals.