Role of media in environmental education

By MADHAB PRASAD ADHIKARI & RAM PRASAD SAPKOTA 

Sustained interest in environmental conservation is possible only if a long- term programme of education is instituted at all levels of education, even at the kindergarten and elementary levels. What is required is sensitivity training in environmental issues and perhaps a dash of what Schumacher (1973) calls "Buddhist Economics" which emphasizes the important of right livelihood and reverence for life. In higher education, an interdisciplinary trend is needed. Elementary and secondary education programmes must rely on other aids of communication and teaching like radio, television and cinema to bring novelty and interest into an otherwise dull routine. Any resource outside the preview of formal education must become involved in the task of increasing environmental education and concern among people. In this context, the potentiality of the reach of mass media can be effectively utilised to evoke concern and a positive attitude towards environment among the viewers. This is essential because it is not just the student who must be educated about the environment. We cannot wait for our student population to grow up and save our environment. This sort of environmental education is necessary right from the preschoolers to adults, since the involvement of the whole community is necessary to improve the quality of the environment.

Communication support for environmental education: Communication media offer a tremendous potential in making people aware of their environment and the associated problems, not only in schools but in all walks of life. The elements of media have reached millions of people with messages concerning environment preservation and improvement. They are also most effective in teaching
the out-of-school population. Media can foster environmental awareness and encourage people’s participation in issues of its conservation. It has the potential to create community forums on environmental issues. Local projects, national trends and the latest communication technology, all can set the pace for better understanding of the environment.

A communication campaign for environmental education could involve the following steps in the formulation and presentation of the programme:

Environmental interpretation: Any programme for environment should involve a deliberate explanation of the environment and its components and the concerned issues to the receiver. Tools include television, radio, print, media, even displays, leaflets, labels, films and talks. People must get familiar with their environment and the conservation issues involved. The aim must be to promote a proactive, ecologically sound, conservationist type of interpretation. Emphasis must be on encouraging the receiver to find things out in a more personal way.

Reintroduction: The next step is to reintroduce people to their own familiar environment. Whereas environmental interpretation introduces people to new environments, reintroduction seeks to explain to people details of their own inherent environment, which will help them to appreciate it better. The objectives are to create a bond between the residents and their environment, to prevent any nest fouling and to encourage positive action towards conservation of the immediate neighbourhood.

Sensitivity training: The third step is to enable people to develop a sensory awareness of the place and a feel for the environment. Stress here should be on emotional appeal to the aesthetic issues in environment. The goal is to increase awareness and provide a foundation for personal growth as well as for descriptive, analytical and experimental activities. This sort of a campaign can be effectively pursed by the various environmental centres set up to promote greater awareness on core issues. The public Broadcasting Environment Centre in the United States was set up in the seventies as a non-profit organisation for that very purpose.

Such organisations solely devoted to the cause of promoting environmental education through media is the need of the hour. In the long term this crusade towards the establishment of a nationwide environmental classroom through media may lead to the development of an environmental religion which will involve recognition of non-economic environmental issues as factors in development and nurture of human identity. For those who think it best to sacrifice the environment and live in "God’s own junkyard" these nuances of environmental education must be applied only more rigorously. What is needed today is a whole lot of dedicated "environmental communicators" who can help shape attitudes of the people towards conserving the bountiful nature and prevent its many hazards.

(Concluded)

Name does matter

By SARITA BAHETY

Shakespeare once said: "What’s in a name"? But, a few days back the experience I had at a birthday bash has left me with a totally different philosophy and I sit to ponder yet again on this classical saying.

I happened to attend the birth ceremony of one of my newly born cousins. The couple was very happy holding their bundle of joy and whoever saw the baby posed the question, "What’s her name"? To this, newly blessed parents would parrot that they’ve not thought of it yet. But according to the astrologers and horoscope, her sun sign is so and so. And coming from the horse’s mouth, "A name conforming to her zodiac would bring her brighter luck," they said in unison. "As of now we are still looking for a nice name which is a select string of auspicious alphabets", and didn’t forget to request, "if you had one in your mind for the little doll". As a person who used to love nick naming school and college friends, I came forward with a few interesting names which did start from the said alphabets. But, much to my dismay, the young mother told me that they didn’t want to name their kid after a popular film star, or a pop diva or even a tennis star, lest she became the butt of innumerable jokes later on. For, if you call your daughter " Anna ", people won’t be far behind to ask if her surname was "Kournikova". Or worse still, the name should not sound anywhere similar to that of politicians (for the reasons well known!)

As I went to propose a few more names, this time the new-born’s father cut me short and told me that whatever I offered should invariably have the initial alphabets of names of the couple. This restricted me to the theory of permutation and combination of mathematics. As I sat churning out newer names whilst enjoying the delicacies at the party, I came up with a few exciting ideas. Overjoyed when I turned to the baby’s mother, who by now was basking in the afternoon sun, simply overlooked the list saying that the name should have some literary meaning and should be unique. "My daughter can’t be any Tina, Mina; the name must have substance in it."

Soon after, the party was over and I left the scene. But, this name game was still making the rounds in my mind. My grey cells were working overtime to chuck out a name that would somehow satisfy the parents. An idea clicked and this time I took help of a mouse to ‘virtually’ tour the world and to find out what the Net had in store. The search engines worked instantaneously and lo! I landed upon a myriad of sites, which contained a mind-boggling number of lovely names. "Finally!" I said to myself that this time around I’ve something that would hit the nail on the head! With a winner’s smile, I went to the couple once gain and presented before them a humble research work that I had done.

Slightly pleased they looked at the list and then looked at each other. I thought that at last my labour had born a sweet fruit. But, as the luck would have it, that was not to be. This time the trouble was the complexity of the names! They defended themselves by saying that the names should be easy to pronounce by a toddler and she shouldn’t mess it up at her interview for the admission in Nursery (which of course would be after three years from now!) and also the old grandparents would be able to call her without twisting their tongues.

Another restraint came up: the name should have an equally sweet nickname too, so that in her school days, her friends will not be able to toss up a few nasty names for her. That would save her from undue embarrassments considering the repute of the school going kids who prefer to calling names instead of calling by names! And imagine if the child tormented by it ends up asking her parents to change her erstwhile name that they had kept after much research!

Once again I let my otherwise dull grey cells work overtime. After much deliberation I came up with the panacea of this game. "Eureka"! I exclaimed, "Anamika" would do the needful. The moniker literally means a " nameless dame"; is elegant, uncommon, has initials of the couple in question and a nickname can be easily coined! The parents had not restricted the number of alphabets in the name so there was no major hurdle any more. Today the girl is officially known as Anamika and fondly called Anu!

Misleading market capitalisation

By L D MAHAT

Market capitalisation refers to the total market value of securities issued by a company and is calculated by multiplying the number of shares issued by the market price per share. Market capitalisation may be determined for a company or for the stock market as a whole. Some stock market players attempt to gauge the price appreciation potential of a stock by relating the market capitalisation to the company’s turnover.

Out of total market capitalisation of the Nepal Stock Exchange of Rs 39,000 million in November 2001, shares of three banks, viz., Nepal Standard Chartered Bank, Nabil Bank and Himalayan Bank account for 42 percent of the total. These three banks represent only 14 percent of the paid-up capital of the listed companies. It is interesting to note that market capitalisation of Nepal Standard Chartered Bank (NSCB) alone is more than that of 60 manufacturing, trading and service companies including Nepal lever, Nepal Lube oil, Bottlers Nepal, Hotel Yak & Yeti, Taragaon Regency Hotel, etc. whose paid-up capital together is nearly 10 times of it’s paid-up. A question arises whether this fact is correct.

Basic theories of investment analysis will state eloquently that current market value of a security can be defined as the present value of future cash streams i.e., the intrinsic value of a share is equal to the present value of the benefit associated with it which is justified by the assets, earning power, dividend policy, company prospects and the competitive advantage created by the company.

Price earning (P/E) ratio shows the relationship between market value per share and earnings per share and is computed by dividing market price of a share by earnings per share. It reflects the investors’ expectations about the growth in the firm’s earning. This ratio, often known as multiplier, is often used by the investors and analysts to determine the upward potential of a share by comparing its multiplier to the industry as a whole. The P/E ratios of the top three banks, which were in excess of 25 one year ago, is now close to 11.

From the perspective of an investor, P/E ratio of 11 can be interpreted as his willingness to pay Rs 11 for every rupee earned by the shares of the banks which could be explained by the future growth potential of their shares. This situation can be analysed by another angle also. We can obtain earning yield as inverse of the P/E ratio. The earning yield shows the earnings made out of the shares compared to it’s market value. When the NEPSE index reached the peak in November 2000, earning yield of some of the company having high P/E ratio were below the risk-free Treasury bill rate. This sounds strange and illogical to the rational investors

An argument in favour of equity culture is that the capital market serves as a reliable guide to the performance and financial position of companies, and thereby promotes efficiency. It values firms accurately and ties up manager compensation to stock values and thereby provides incentives to the managers to maximise firm value. It helps to align the interests of the owners and managers and thereby spurs efficient resource allocation and growth.

But the argument regarding stock markets tying up the interests of managers and owners hinges on a very big ‘IF’, viz., it results in the correct valuation of stocks. Actually, the stock market valuation of equities is often incorrect because it is not related to the fundamentals, and is highly influenced by the speculative activity or trading. The efficient market hypothesis enshrined in the textbooks on finance is far from reality.

The relationship between the stock market activity and the economic growth is very weak indeed. The activity on the stock market and the share prices are determined by excessive speculation; they have little correspondence with the fundamentals or real performance of the economy. This fact can be substantiated by the growth of NEPSE index by almost cent percent within nine months in the year 2000. It was on November 22, 2000 when NEPSE Index recorded 545 points with market capitalisation of Rs 67,670 million. With the sharp decline in the share prices in the recent past the market capitalisation has come down to Rs 32,951 million at the end of February 2002 despite the entry of more shares in the market. But it will be injustice to say that the company worth rupee one fifteen months before is worth less than 50 paisa now.

A question also arises as to why market does not assign a high P/E ratio to other stocks which have been growing at the same pace like the banks. It was strange in case of the Bottlers Nepal Kathmandu whose shares were valued at only 75 percent of the net worth in 1999 while the shares of NSCB were valued at 365 percent of the net worth. Does it mean that intangible strengths of banks are more valuable than other high performing companies of the other sector?

The answer lies in the fact that the prices in the Nepalese capital market are determined by the factors of demand and supply. To that extent the functioning of the Nepalese capital market is similar to any primitive capital market in economics where demand and supply are the sole determinant factors of price. Unlike an efficient market the price has little relation either to the revenue generating capacity, or to the economic value or future potential of the company.

Market capitalisation has a unique talent for thriving on itself. Higher P/E ratio leads to higher market capitalisation. Since market capitalisation is seen as a barometer of value creation, it creates an impression of being a shareholder friendly company practising high standards of corporate governance. This in turn leads to the company commanding a higher P/E ratio.

The truth is that the market capitalisation alone is an inadequate yardstick for measuring value. A high P/E ratio is not a sign of value creation. Instead it is a sign of heating up and overpricing of assets. Rapid growth in market capitalisation is not just a sign of rising value, but is a warning to the companies that the corporate growth has to keep pace with the expectations of the market.