Eternal vigilance

My compliment came from a young man who I admire greatly for the work he has done as a social activist. He told me that he found my writing accessible and it was the best compliment I could receive because, honestly, that is what I have aspired to be in my writing.

Some people believe that with two degrees under your belt you should be writing highly intellectual, academic and esoteric articles that allow you to be read and admired by a few and not understood by many.

When my lecturers at the development institute in The Netherlands where I did my Master’s Degree in gender studies asked me what I wanted to do with what I had learnt there I did not give the obvious answers of lecture or academic research. I said I wanted to make what I had learnt there about gender issues accessible to all people because I found no challenge in preaching to the converted. Making fresh or controversial or relevant issues accessible to the people is a necessary part of societal development. My criticism came early on when I started writing this column when it was suggested that I was focussing too much on issues like coffee shops and “coolies” and not enough on current issues. I appreciated the comment and widened my writing after I had indulged my burning personal concerns. I don’t totally agree that people don’t want to read about the romance of the coffee shop but I could see where I needed to expand my reach. Bitchiness or hostile responses based on the desire to wound have also come my way. Someone told me in cutting tones recently that I was “really a very boring writer”, apparently with nothing interesting to say that was worth reading. Hurt was followed by sympathy since I realised that the statement came from a desire to create friction and cause pain and was really a reflection of that person’s personal devils. It’s not that I don’t believe I would be boring to some readers, it’s just that there was no constructive intent in that statement.

On this World Press Freedom Day I could not help but see a reflection of my personal experience with compliments and criticisms on the national scale, at the political level. We all find it easy to accept a compliment, we bask in the glow of praise and approbation. And it would be nice if we could spend our entire lives being praised for our wonderful character, good work and commitment to doing our best.

When faced with criticism, however, many of us are remarkably thin-skinned. We are so fearful of the slightest remark against us that we fail to be able to separate a balanced and well-meaning critique from an attack on our character. Many politicians, for example, see any critique as a character assassination. For them it’s either you are with us or you are against us — and we know how far George W Bush got with that particularly juvenile argument.

United Nations secretary General Ban Ki-moon notes that “free and responsible news media are essential for good governance and to promote confidence and trust between leaders and the public”. He argues that governments that hinder this are acting against their own best interests and that of their societies.

In Trinidad and Tobago we do not necessarily face the kinds of press restrictions that are seen in countries like China or Sri Lanka but there has been a disturbing trend towards punishing media houses for daring to be critical of Government entities. It is a reflection of the thin-skinned nature of a Government that believes that only complimentary things should be written about them and those who don’t hear that will feel the wrath of their control of the coffers.

It is my hope that ministers and their collective, known as Government, will take some time to think today about the meaning of the words “freedom of the press” and will try to appreciate the old saw that the price of liberty is, indeed, eternal vigilance.