A colleague who is also a columnist in this paper phoned me to ask if journalists were left with anywhere they could express their views. Writing, he said in a sad voice, had become a very risky occupation with writers finding themselves walking on a tightrope.
We discussed the matter and in the end, I told him the best thing was to quit the job and stop writing altogether. I also told him that I wanted to take a holiday from writing and he asked for my reasons. I told him frankly that like many other things, writing had become like spraying ink on a sandy beach, a futile and meaningless endeavor. The truth is that that unless we first master reading and then act in good faith, all that we do will have no effect. My friend wanted to know what we could write about in future.
I suggested that since he comes from a small town in the north, he should focus on the story of the donkey which has been the talk of the town for the past week.
The animal, according to reports, has been responsible for sending three people to hospital. The story began when, for unknown reasons, the donkey rampaged through the local market, kicking and biting everyone in its way. When everything had been brought back under control, several people had been injured with three so seriously that they were admitted to the ICU where they still are.
Go and interview the donkey, I told my friend, and ask him why he had behaved so shamefully. I also thought he should have a look at the donkey’s psychological condition in order to discover if poverty and unemployment were behind his antisocial behavior.
He could inquire of the donkey if the action were individually motivated or part of a wider plan that calls on people to be more vigilant. I told him he should go and check everything himself; he must tell the whole unadorned truth even if this meant he sided with the animal which may have been the victim rather than the aggressor.
I also advised my friend to be fully prepared and exercise extreme caution when confronting the donkey since the hospital might not be able to spare an extra bed for him if things went wrong. If he does as I advise, my colleague columnist and friend will spare us writers the trouble of writing about forbidden issues that should never be mentioned.
Arab News From the Local Press 1 June 2003
