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Uncle Sargam
steals the show:
By far the most enjoyable part of the event was the performance by Uncle Sargam and his group of zany puppets. Each puppet, with his/her distinctive character formed during years on television delighted the crowds with their witty and comical critique on childhood, education, society as a whole and its peculiarities. The combination of puppets and live actors proved an excellent way of bringing forth the lighter side of society’s role in nurturing children.
The man behind Uncle Sargam, the famed Farooq Qaiser, has been entertaining viewers for more than 20 years. His puppets have also helped him win the coveted Pride of Performance.
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Technology, Media and Childhood:
Prof. Nisar Ahmed Zuberi and Prof. Abbas Hussain made back to back presentations that raised huge concerns in the audience in relations to the impact of media and technology. According to them overexposure to technology, such as computers, video games and television has a very detrimental impact on the intellectual, emotional and moral strength of children. It can easily result in stunted creativity and imagination, impoverished language and literacy skills and deficit in attention span. Moreover an exposure to violence, pornography, bigotry, and other material that is devoid of ethical and moral context can lead to social isolation, weakened bonds with family, lack of self-discipline and self-motivation, commercial exploitation, deprivation of relationship with nature and the real world.
Under this theme several key questions were also raised:
What are the implications and influence of media & technology on children’s learning, their health and their relationship with the environment?
Does media & technology serve to homogenize cultural groups or, on the contrary, to maintain diversity? And who gains and who loses in this media rich society?
Heavy TV viewers, by watching readymade images, are less imaginative, more aggressive, and are more likely to have attention problems, and become aggressive later in life.
Mr. Arshad Mehmood, as part of the panel, debated that satellite and electronic media have become a powerful force in our lives today as they shape our
attitudes, desires, priorities, relationships, values, sense of identity and modes of reflection. Prof. Shoaib Hashmi, however, highlighted possibilities by stating that media can be a very powerful tool for supporting dynamic and diverse forms of learning. Mr. Amar Jalil, Mr. Farooq Qaiser, Mr. Rashid Sami and Ms. Haseena Moin, however, believed otherwise by explaining that very few opportunities for creating a truly ‘liberating media’ exist.
Globalization and Shaping up of Childhood:
All the speakers and panelists were in absolute agreement that the word ‘globalization’ means different things to different people. Ms. Stella Jafferi and Ms. Zubeida Mustafa stated that one notable affect of globalization that is cited is the enormous growth of urban slums in developing countries leaving families with limited resources which consequently pulls in children to join in the survival struggle, depriving them of the true joys of childhood.
Mr. Karamat Hussein stated that in the process of creating a global village, the children and everyone are told that the world is being united by virtue of the fact that everyone will soon be able to indulge their innate human desire for a westernized, urbanized consumer lifestyle. So the childhood which was once marked with innocence, freedom, joys and sharing is being reshaped for children and they are avidly becoming consumers and acquiring characteristics such as greed, self pity and dissatisfaction. He continued by explaining that this is also achieved through disrupting traditional cultures. The end result is that young children are being made to feel that their own language, their own skin color and their own way of living is inferior.
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