Page 154 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

The Sonic Architects of a New Babel 139

Like elsewhere in the affluent West, media play a vital role in people’s
understanding of belonging and the capitalist dynamics operative in their
societies. Unlike other parts of the West, however, TV and newspapers are
not the main conveyers of local public moods. SXMers grow up on CNN,
BBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Canal +, BET, Tempo, BVN, Deutsche Welle,
and other such channels broadcasting from the mainland West. For just 45
U.S. dollars a month they get to choose between 55 international TV
channels. Local TV is virtually nonexistent, as competing against these big
budget production companies is financially suicidal. The same can be said
for local newspapers. These have had to package themselves as regional
papers catering to other islands such as Saba, Saint Eustatius, Anguilla,
Saint Barthelemy, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, to remain lucrative. An addi-
tional factor is that few SXMers take the time to truly read through the
newspapers. Newspaper reading is primarily a middle-class practice. The
working classes will swiftly browse through the paper to read the sports
columns or a newsflash that captures the eye.
Radio is thus the main local media on the island. And as all media,
radio is privately owned on SXM, the owners are usually wealthy business-
men and women. To protect their interests, which is the tourist industry’s
image of a bounty island inhabited by bountiful people hailing from the
four corners of the globe, SXM as a modern day Babel that works, a de
facto censorship exists. Religious or ethnic fundamentalism is strictly pro-
hibited. Those who wish to go against this prohibition are either not hired
or fired. Radio disc jockeys may be critical of the establishment, but must
always promote a Christian-based ecumenical politics of tolerance for eth-
nic and religious diversity. The way of the Lord must be the way of the
tourist industry.
In choosing a Christian-based ecumenical politics of tolerance, these
disc jockeys imitate and therewith enhance the role of public Christianity,
which is the role of the privileged metalanguage in the public sphere to
speak about and promote an all-inclusive politics of human belonging. As
a metalanguage, which one encounters in school curricula, campaign
speeches of politicians, advertising ploys of businesses, manifestoes of civil
societies, and everyday speech, public Christianity mediates and simulta-

neously alleviates existing tensions between groups and individuals. It is a
politics that also seeks to go beyond ethno-religious and class distinctions
promoting a theological notion of elemental humanity that binds all
SXMers. The devout Ganesha worshipper easily adopts a Christian tongue
when she feels the need to assert her right to be rich. “In God’s kingdom
there is also room for the wealthy.” Similarly prostitutes speak Christian to
countercritiques of middle-class Catholics. “Didn’t Jesus accept Mary
Magdalena by his side?”