He also correctly appealed to parents to guard their children against negative values which flourish on television and urged parents to encourage their children to look at programmes that are informative and educational.

It has been generally acknowledged that television is a powerful tool and could be used for both negative and positive purposes.

It is a medium that could be used for educational purposes and for manipulation of the minds of people in a direction that the manipulator wishes and in many instances it is for destructive and negative purposes.

In North America, long before TV became a reality in this country, psychologists recognised and articulated the negative impact on children and society as a whole. In fact they pointed out that because of the violence and killings and the glorification of this on TV, many children committed many murders and gruesome violent acts within their minds before they became adults.

Therefore, when they became adult criminals, it was just an extension of the values that were internalised.

In Guyana, that stage has not been reached but the responsible authorities should not wait until that happens to start taking corrective measures.

Education officials have been pointing out that excessive exposure to TV has been a significant contributor to a decline in the ability of children to read, because it has discouraged the habit of reading which was once a favourite pastime of Guyanese.

The Chief Librarian of the National Library recently told this newspaper that the advent of TV has definitely resulted in a lower interest in books.

The President described the situation very lucidly when he said, "If you absorb dirt then you are going to put out dirt."

But a great responsibility rests with parents if this situation is to be corrected.

The present state of affairs demands greater parental supervision of children and monitoring of the time and kind of programmes they view on TV. These days too many parents are divorced from the welfare of their children and are too engrossed in their own pursuits, which have nothing to do with the development of the children.

It is accepted by society that children are the ones who are responsible for the future, but it must also recognise its responsibilities to inculcate the right values in children to properly equip and prepare them for the future.

However, while the greater onus is on parents, owners of TV stations must also acknowledge that they have an important role to play in this process and therefore they should be selective in the type of programmes they air.

Of course some would contend that in a democracy one should be free to air whatever programmes one sees fit.

On the other hand it can be argued that the true essence of democracy is that freedom carries important responsibilities to ensure the preservation and development of society.