José Latour

Con­tem­po­rary soci­eties require pro­fes­sion­als in thou­sands of dis­ci­plines, includ­ing those that enter­tain people.

In the last few years we’ve been intro­duced to born singers, amaz­ing dancers, cre­ative chore­o­g­ra­phers and other artis­ti­cally endowed peo­ple some of whom shared with us absolutely heart–rending sto­ries. These indi­vid­u­als might’ve remained unbe­knownst to mil­lions were it not for sev­eral shrewd entrepreneurs.

We should thank them for reviv­ing the idea of devel­op­ing, pro­duc­ing and arrang­ing for broad­cast a num­ber of highly enter­tain­ing and extremely pop­u­lar tele­vi­sion shows of the Idol, Got Tal­ent, and You Can Dance kind.

The con­cept is not new. Where I come from (Cuba), 71 years ago a radio sta­tion launched La Corte Suprema del Arte (Supreme Court of Art). On this pro­gram plain folks sang and acted; judges and the audi­ence rated con­tes­tants. A bell rang, too.

Nowa­days, in North Amer­ica, the U.K. and other coun­tries mil­lions tun­ing in to tal­ent shows are given the option of – this is a real stroke of genius – choos­ing the win­ner. Such pos­si­bil­ity increases view­er­ship and, as every­one knows, the most-watched shows charge the high­est rates for com­mer­cials and turn into very lucra­tive businesses.

Apart from fame, win­ners and some runners-up are gen­er­ously rewarded. A few have launched careers and earned more money in a year than all they had earned in pre­vi­ous jobs. That is excel­lent and well-deserved.

Such for­mi­da­ble con­cept should be enlarged.

I don’t think that any­one would be offended by the notion that some pro­fes­sions are more indis­pens­able and impor­tant than oth­ers. Most or all indi­vid­u­als expe­ri­enc­ing chest pains will hurry to see a physi­cian, not a come­dian. Few if any would call an enter­tainer when their house is burn­ing or they are vic­tims of a crime.

Every time we watch the man­gled remains of a vehi­cle it would be appro­pri­ate to reflect on the nei­ther famous nor rich para­medics, nurses and sur­geons spar­ing no effort to save one or sev­eral lives.

If a vac­cine is to be urgently mass-produced or the space sta­tion needs to be repaired, nobody in his right mind would call a pro­ducer, a com­poser or a dancer to make the vac­cine or unclog the astro­nauts’ toilet.

But it seems as if a con­sid­er­able num­ber of young peo­ple who idol­ize enter­tain­ers are more dis­posed to seek fame and glory through artis­tic pur­suits than by excelling at less glam­orous yet extremely impor­tant occu­pa­tions. This is a cause for concern.

Young­sters might rightly point out that nearly all pro­fes­sions are bor­ing, unemo­tional, unchal­leng­ing, risky, unpleas­ant and poorly remu­ner­ated. None of their rel­a­tives, neigh­bors and close friends makes mil­lions or is famous.

Who would they want to emu­late? Those who overnight won national admi­ra­tion and recog­ni­tion in a TV tal­ent show or those in their imme­di­ate surrounds?

For ado­les­cents blinded by the glit­ter of Hol­ly­wood I would like to pro­duce some tal­ent shows, for instance: Who will be the next top neu­ro­sur­geon (or astro­physi­cist, or marine biol­o­gist?) Who is the most tal­ented civil engi­neer (or air­plane designer, or com­puter pro­gram­mer?) Who is the most coura­geous police­man (or fire­fighter or paramedic?)

In my opin­ion those pro­fes­sion­als deserve to be rich and famous too. Let’s parade them to the world, make them com­pete with each other, allow view­ers to vote, and give fame, glory and money to the win­ners. That might tempt young­sters into fol­low­ing their steps.

Who will be the next Nor­man Borlaug?

You don’t know who Bor­laug was or did? My point exactly.

Inter­ested net­works, please con­tact me. I’m sure we’ll be doing some­thing worth­while and of the essence. Shrewd entre­pre­neur I’m not, so I can’t guar­an­tee we’ll make money.

But what the heck, money isn’t every­thing, right? Right? Hello? Hold­ing my breath here.

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