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Ayoon wa Azan (What a Pity! Such a Fleeting Happiness!) |
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Friday, 23 January 2009
By Jihad El-Khazen
What a pity! It was such a fleeting feeling of happiness that was soon taken away by a hostility-sowing raven.
This raven is innocent. It is another scapegoat we blame for our mistakes and sins.
Last Monday morning, I decided to write on Barack Obama's entry into the White House the next day with the intention of opening a new page with his administration, solely holding it accountable for its conduct.
I knew that my article would coincide with the Arab economic summit in Kuwait. But I said to myself that I would write about the two-day summit with the release of the final communiqué. Thus, I would keep my focus on the start of a new administration term in Washington after eight hard years spent with George Bush.
However, the Kuwait Summit was inaugurated with a stunning, equally surprising Arab reconciliation. After giving the matter enough thought, I eventually decided to comment on the most prominent international news, intending to exchange congratulations with the readers on the Arab reconciliation the next day.
Thus, my comment on Obama was published on Tuesday, January 20, and I wrote in the morning the next day's comment on Arab reconciliation. I spent Tuesday afternoon following American celebrations and collecting material on the oath taking in order to discuss the issue on TV in the evening.
On my way to the TV station in the evening, I called my colleagues at Al-Hayat to inquire about the Kuwait Summit communiqué. But - to my surprise - reconciliation ended up flawed or a half one.
Is this logical? Is the Gaza tragedy not enough to be compounded with fresh Arab disagreements? Can we say the disagreements resurfaced when they had hardly stopped?
I leave it to people to make their own judgment as I am an employee and I have additional reasons for complaint. I am a journalist, a profession I did not choose but it rather chose me as I was unable to join the faculty of engineering. I did not even try to apply due to my old and deep-seated hostility towards figures, algebra, fractions, and physics.
I ask - for myself and my colleagues at home and abroad - for a misery or torment bonus. It is because we are practicing a tormented profession whereby news is not published unless it is bad.
My request may seem weird, but I have enough evidence to prove the plausibility of my idea, even if it comes from a journalist questioning the soundness of his mind simply for having chosen journalism as a profession.
In England where I live, there is something called "unsocial hours," such as night work or work during the weekend, on Saturday and Sunday.
Workers at such times earn what is called "time and a half" or "two times," i.e. they are paid 50% or 100% per cent extra to make up for staying up at night and working during the weekend.
In the world of diplomacy, there is something similar called "the hardship post," i.e. appointment in a country ravaged by a civil war, or in a very hot desert area, or in a polar area covered with snow most of the year.
Appointment in Rome or in Paris is different from that in Wagadogo or Kabul. Western diplomats sent to hardship or impossible areas receive an extra salary to make up for Spanish steps or the Champs-Elysée.
Gone are the days when foreign diplomats give up promotion to extend their service in Beirut. When the war broke up, they started earning an extra salary to stay in the risky place named Lebanon.
I guess my words are clear. Arab journalists are in a hard position bringing about nervousness; for this reason they cannot be dealt with like lawyers or doctors.
If Arab journalists cover a war ending in a loss, or if they cover a battle or an assault, this and that end in a loss. If they report on a summit conference, they face leadership disagreement when all go by the John Foster Dulles principle according to which those who are not with us are against us - later quoted by George Bush. If they cover Palestinian news, they end in a double loss. If they support one party, they are attacked by the supporters of the opposite party. If they are boycotted by both parties, their supporters accuse them of cowardice and of being unable to take a position.
Not having a position is a position in itself. But regardless of the position taken or not taken by Arab journalists, the result is another loss because we only know how to lose.
Working for the Arab press brings about psychological disorders for those working in the field. I am afraid that pressure leads them to deviances and to committing mass murder or serial killing. The best way to keep the risk away is by paying an extra salary or a torment bonus to working Arab journalists to make them forget Arab losses and that they are Arabs. God loves philanthropists.
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Friday, 23 January 2009
Al-Hayat
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