[AAACE-NLA] third world countries

[Virginia Tardaewether]

I would love to think that literate people don't believe what they see on tv but when I hear from Rotary Exchange professional people from India, Pakistan, Brazil, etc. that they are amazed and overjoyed to find that we have families here that stay married, that have adult children involved with each other as well as grad children...well it makes me wonder where they got the opinion that our families are all divorced and that the members of our families don't care about each other.
Va

-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org]On Behalf Of
bonniesophia at adelphia.net
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 7:06 AM
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: RE: [AAACE-NLA] third world countries


I would add to this debate that, as I heard pointed out in an International
Week event, the formats for DVD, VHS et al. are different for different
countries (not to mention the current voltage), and it's virtually
impossible to find in the US players that will play all international
formats. I suspect that this situation might result in a kind of censorship
not just of what media developing (and other)countries receive that
purports to represent us, but the media we have ready access to in the US
representing other countries. Thank God for the Internet, where we can at
least access international publications. That access would, of course, only
apply to "literate", and computer-literate, at that, populations...
Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D.
English Language Institute, Writing Center
Post University, Waterbury, CT

Original Message:
-----------------
From:  ttweeton at comcast.net
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 05:10:07 +0000
To: dwyoho at earthlink.net, aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: RE: [AAACE-NLA] third world countries


  "Entertainment tells us something about a culture, but it is not who we
are.  Literate people know this."

But that is the point Debbie, much of the world is NOT literate and will
intrepret all this TV  garbage quite literally.  People who are poor cannot
travel and know little to  almost nothing of the world and  are going to
believe that this is how we live and  this is who we are. As Edna St.
Vincent Millay said" How do I know unless I go to Cairo or Cathey whether
or not this blessed spot is blessed in any way........" 
Censorship? Well I don't know. But there are choices, other choices that
could be made. Why is it that the worst of the worst is chosen to represent
our culture?  "I Love Lucy" instead (just one example) has managed to 
charm much  the world. No smut, just lots of  genuine laughs. I, frankly
would much rather that "Lucy " represented me, instead of the other, with
which I  myself cannot identify and I  live  here! 
I am of the opinion that the government should have SOME  say about what it
wants distributed to the  the world about who we really are. Are we really
Baywatch? I can just imagine that this program must be offending a good
part of the rest of the world. Do we want our image tarnished like this?
When students are able to come to the states to study, of course they see
that we are quite different from how we have been represented. Thank
heavens for all the  Student Exchange programs!

Tanya Tweeton
ESOL and GED Program
Fort Lauderdale, Florida


-------------- Original message -------------- 

Tanya, nothing "can be done" about cheesy US television overseas nor should
anything be done about it.  This smacks of censorship.  The essence of
literacy is the ability to put things like Bay Watch into perspective and
not jump  to conclusions based on what Hollywood finds marketable. 
Entertainment tells us something about a culture, but it is not who we are.
Literate people know this.  

For the Cause! Debbie

Deborah W. Yoho
Co-moderator, NIFL-Health Listserv
Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council
Past President, SC Adult Literacy Educators
2728 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205
803-765-2555 Fax 803-799-8417 dwyoho at earthlink.net

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bbie

Deborah W. Yoho
Co-moderator, NIFL-Health Listserv
Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council
Past President, SC Adult Literacy Educators
2728 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205
803-765-2555 Fax 803-799-8417 dwyoho at earthlink.net

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