Media Awareness
March 2015 Monthly E-newsletter
Media Education in our Communities
A community based workshop under its Media Education program was held in Lautoka at the Tanoa
Waterfront Hotel from 18th to 20th March 2015.
A total of 35 participants comprising of women and youth from the nine villages were from Lovu Hart, Fiji
Muslim League Nadi Branch, Catholic Women's League Lautoka, Soqosoqo Vakamarama Ba, Namaka
Multiracial Women's Network, St Vincent De Paul Lautoka, Lautoka District Council, and Lautoka Women's
Club.
One of the main focus areas of the workshop was to It was stress that it was of importance to know your own story or
how you identified yourself, as that became the starting point where you become appreciative of the differences in
family settings, culture, upbringings and traditions. It is from that point where we begin to open our minds to the
differences in others that we need to embrace and understand how they have a contribution to the world that we live
in. The workshop also encouraged participants to use their knowledge of handicraft skills as a medium of
communication and also as a means of earning an income. Possible activities for Media Education Centers within the
communities were introduced, where these centres could be a place where community members could read the
newspapers or use a computer to send emails. These media centres could also be a place where people received basic
computer training, taught by volunteers. In the current social media landscape where technology is continuously
changing, parents especially, need to equip themselves with knowledge their children are exposed to a certain level in
terms of preferred methods of communication today. Other activities that took place within the workshop focussed on:
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Leadership in the Community: How do we disseminate information in the community and
Leadership in the Home: How do we exercise Freedom of Expression in the home
The group mostly made up of women were asked to create a simple ‘drama’ or ‘skit’ to illustrate leadership and how it
was communicated. The workshop, although simple in nature, emphasised the important role women played in the
home as leaders within their households and the extra task of guiding the next generation through the colossal of
information that their children are continuously exposed to through social media. The workshop also aimed to help
participants understand their role within the context of Freedom of Expression and our ‘human rights’ which are there
to guide individuals, families, communities, and nations to live out our lives with dignity. The recently bereaved and
much loved patron of FMW, Father Lawrence Hannan, stressed that in life, as in the work we do, that it was not the
‘work’ itself that mattered, but the spirit in which we carried out our work and relations. FMW continues to use these
messages and through workshops with women, youth, community leaders and church leaders to promote Freedom of
expression and the Right to information within the context of their everyday social environment.
“Others words and actions are a projection of themselves, and not a reflection of you” - Annonymous
Group photo – Women and friends from the different community groups in the Western Division attending the Media
Education Workshop..
Movie Review - The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Starring: Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, David Strathairn, Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Richard Gere,
Ronald Pickup.
I am a little biased in selecting The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to review this
month, but I thought it would be a great movie to promote. To be quite honest, I
have only seen the first ‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ which I thoroughly enjoyed, not
only for the refreshing British humour hardly seen on the Silver Screen anymore, but
also because the movie had ‘Lady’ Judi Dench and Dev Patel, from SlumDog
Millionaire, and a happy reminder of a trip to Bangalore, India some time back which
was filled with awe, shock, and wonder and the most beautiful fruit juices I have
ever tasted. Maggie Smith, who plays Muriel, was hilarious in the first part. I did
think the movie captured the feeling of riding in a rickshaw quite well – the traffic in
India can terrify if you’re not a local. If you enjoy experiencing other cultures or enjoy
reading Indian or Asian cookbooks, or just watching something where the setting is
not Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, California for a change, you may just enjoy
watching the original ‘Exotic Marigold Hotel’ and its Part II which now includes
Richard Gere!
Read the Review below by: Bilge Ebiri: www.vulture.com
Chances are, if you liked The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, you'll like the second best one as well. The original packed a
thousand old-person-in-a-foreign-land clichés, but tempered them with sweet insights into old age and some fine
performances; the new one does pretty much the same. It’s more predictable, sure, but predictability is part of its game.
Maybe the word we’re looking for isn’t predictable; maybe it’s comfortable.
The sequel picks up the Anglo pensioner inhabitants of this charmingly rundown Indian hotel nine months after the
events of the original. Everybody's settling in nicely; whereas the first film was about the culture clash of aging
Westerners in India, now they’re slowly integrating. Muriel (Maggie Smith), once a bitter xenophobe, is now helping
hotel proprietor Sonny (Dev Patel) try to expand his operation. Madge (Celia Imrie), who was an unrepentant single in
the first film, is now seeing two wealthy Indian men, each of whom wants to pop the question. Evelyn (Judi Dench), who
once found herself becoming increasingly replaceable in both life and work, has just been offered a job as a textile
purchaser; meanwhile, her relationship with once-married Douglas (Bill Nighy), which gave the first film an adulterous
kick, remains unconsummated, to both of their bewilderment and frustration.
The first film skirted the boundaries of good taste with its one-dimensional depiction of Sonny, its lone Indian
protagonist. But now, Sonny is preparing to marry Sunaina (Tina Desai) and thus has a bit more to do than run around
acting like an idiot, though he still does some of that, too. (The film is structured around the three main parts of an
Indian wedding ceremony, which thankfully also gives the rest of the Indian characters something to do.)
Ol Parker's script has quite a lot to juggle when you think about it: Not only does it have to integrate the wedding into
the plot, it also has to perform this movie's version of fan service: Give each member of its cast of heavyweights
something meaty to do. (These are, after all, some of the finest actors in the known universe, and you can’t just have
them stand around.) It also has to handle the introduction of a new character: a somewhat enigmatic author played by
Richard Gere, who Sonny is convinced is a hotel inspector despite all appearances to the contrary (a subplot that recalls
a classic Fawlty Towers episode). It could have easily become a dog’s breakfast of subplots and wacky-old-person
shenanigans. But the proceedings remain dignified and smooth, thanks to the game cast, some decent romantic tension
(particularly between Nighy and Dench, as well as Gere and Lillete Dubey, as Sonny’s mother) and John Madden’s
elegant, patient camera. The title says it all: This is second best, so don’t expect much. But for those who adored the
original, it’ll do.