It is universally accepted that there are certain things in life that we cannot live without; no one in soundness of mind would argue contrary to the incontrovertible fact that without food, drink and sleep we would eventually just curl up and die. However, we do hear from time to time such sentiments expressive of an inability to continue with life without such items as television, radio, cars and the Internet. Of course, this is an exaggeration, we all tend to have our pet things that we “cannot live” without. I am no exception in this respect. I would feel there to be an awful blank in my life were I to be deprived of my daily dose of Arab News. And this should not be surprising considering that I have been reading this newspaper every day for the past 22 years — only eight years short of the age of the daily itself. I’ve even contributed to the Letters to the Editor column and managed quite successfully to rub all and sundry up the wrong way.
For 18 of those 22 years, I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, so my local newsagent knew that his life would be miserable if he ever forgot to reserve a copy of the hallowed green pages for me. When I moved to Jordan, I realized that the only way I could read Arab News was on the Internet. The problem was — I didn’t know how to use it. However, before I finally expired due to a psychological scurvy caused by a lack of the Green, I was one day hauled kicking and screaming into a mysterious place called “an Internet cafe” (and thus into the 21st century), pushed onto a chair in front of a PC and shown how to use this marvelous contraption. In the early 1980s my letters were sent at first by Saudi Post, and eventually by facsimile. I was also shown by my “abductors” how to send communications by a system called “e-mail”. I’ve never looked back.
Yet, look back is what I would like to do at this auspicious moment — the 30th anniversary of the Middle East’s most well-known daily. I’ve dealt with the press in one capacity or another since I was in my teens, and if there is only one thing, and one thing alone that I’ve learned in all those years, it is that there is never a dull moment in the newspaper industry.
Over the years I’ve crossed swords with anti-imperialists, multiculturalists, pro-European Union supporters, high pooh baas of political correctness, Sinn Fein sympathizers, Americans and a lot more besides. So many have been the worthy contributors that I have argued with that it would take up more than my allotted space to mention all their good names; however, two stand out — Monsieur Raul Dandurand and Dr. Abdul Gaffar Khan. One piece of wisdom I remember Raul giving me in one of his letters was that “there is a thin dividing line between innocent fantasy and stark raving insanity, and you Francis Andrew have crossed it”. Dr. Khan informed readers that “apart from being a racist, a two-faced bigot and a hypocrite” I was really a not too bad bloke. And what can I say to such attributes but that these are great compliments — no one has ever said anything so nice about me. In the newspaper business one develops a pretty tough hide, it’s so necessary for survival.
Now, have I noticed any change in the past 30 years of the life of Arab News? Yes indeed (apart from the fact that I’m getting a bit senile) and a change for the worse it is! Where have all the insults against me gone? Where is the invective? Where are the hot words? Where is the name-calling? Does nobody out there in that big wide world love me anymore? As I say, a tough hide is what it takes. Once I remember at the offices of Aberdeen’s dailies The Press and Journal and The Evening Express a reporter who constantly used the most foul language imaginable. The problem was that Ron was seldom sober — you might say a conventional employee of Aberdeen Journals! I once phoned Ron at his home to hurry him up on an article we were supposed to have ready quite soon. His long suffering wife told me he was out — out for the count that turned out to be! Later, I phoned back and he told me in a very gloomy voice that he wasn’t too well and could I therefore phone back tomorrow. Well, I phoned back the next day and he was worse than ever! Another time on the phone I told him that what he needed was a bit of military discipline, to which he replied in the broad Aberdonian dialect “awa yi ****t.” (Go away you ****t.)
In contrast to some of the staff of Aberdeen Journals, the Arab News staff at the paper’s HQ in Jeddah are models of sobriety, temperance and reserved modes of parlance. Yet, the pages of Arab News are the most lively and vibrant that you’ll find in any newspaper anywhere in the world — and what section best represents that thrilling cut and thrust? The Letters to the Editor of course. What else?
