Forget the death of advertising. Try the advertising of death

Sometimes, here in Guyana, you have to pinch yourself and remember this is not Alice in Wonderland. Or is it?

Take the economics and output of one station broadcasting here: CNS Channel Six. The figurehead is Chandra Narine Sharma, a five-foot-something former fridge repairer turned Poujadist. 'Sharma', as he is known to all, is the self-styled people's champion, appearing each and every day on their screens on their behalf. He and his family have got very rich in the process.

Let's take the revenue side first. Much of the advertising income comes from a single source: death announcements. Yes, death announcements! For an hour or more every night scrolling across the screen are pictures and dedications to loved ones from relatives far and wide. And there's music: Indian music for the Indo-Guyanese dead, soul music for the African-Guyanese dead. Some tributes for dead relatives even come from long-dead relatives. Sharma has discovered that death is a gold mine.

But then he doesn't just sell commercial time on his channel: he also sells the programme time. You can buy half an hour of prime-time TV for US $100 - and rant and rave at your leisure.

One of my acquaintances - a Russia-trained lawyer popularly known as 'The Rambo' - last week gave the nation the benefit of his views on a hydro-electric scheme and Georgetown's roads.

Another of my erstwhile pals, himself a TV station owner, used his half-hour of purchased fame to accuse a prominent public figure of being a convicted murderer who had changed his name to hide his past. That matter is now before the courts. Sharma's defence for airing it was that his operators put out the wrong version of this 'commentary'.

And Sharma himself takes time on his station to become 'The Voice of the People', in which he travels to communities and takes on their just (or otherwise) causes, and calls 'pon the relevant authorities' (his words) to act. He is journalist, judge and jury on the case.

Then there are Sharma's political ambitions. He will undoubtedly be standing for president for the fourth time later this year. His 'Justice for All Party' vote, though, is likely to achieve no better than the 0.76% he got in 2006. Fame on TV does not equate to political power here.

But there's still the never-ending flow of money made from death to tide him over that disappointment.

See what I mean about Alice in Wonderland?

John Mair is a senior lecturer in broadcasting at Coventry University. He is spending May as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Guyana, where he was born. He also wrote about his trip here.