Ulanism

Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made… And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.

President Obama

I love this discussion and feel it is a very important one to have. Bravo!

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Heard on Talk of the Nation

March 18, 2010 – NEAL CONAN, host:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I’m Neal Conan, in Washington.

Longtime adman Tom Burrell argues that the longest-running, most successful propaganda campaign of all time is for black inferiority, from posters that advertised slaves for sale to the New Yorker’s radical Obamas cover, unrelenting, powerfully persuasive efforts to promote what he calls the brand of black inferiority.

Even today, for every positive image of African-Americans, he finds 100 negative stereotypes, too many of them perpetrated by blacks themselves.

After more than four decades in the ad game and induction into the Advertising Hall of Fame, Tom Burrell founded the Resolution Project, a nonprofit that promotes community-based media campaigns, and he has a new book out.

So how do these images play out in your life? Tell us your story. Our phone number: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our Web site. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Later in the program: How does productivity in your office change with the advent of March Madness? And also, the creator of “Dilbert” will join us. But first, Tom Burrell is with us from the studios of Chicago Public Radio, founder and former CEO of Burrell Communications and the author of “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority.” And it’s nice to have you with us today.

Mr. TOM BURRELL (Author, “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority”): It’s great to be here.

CONAN: And your book is both descriptive and prescriptive, and we’ll get to that second part in a bit.

Mr. BURRELL: Right.

CONAN: But you bring special expertise, I think, on the imagery. I did not know, for example, that slave auction posters are amongst the earliest ads in American history.

Mr. BURRELL: Well, you know, advertising came in many, many forms, including any form of communication, such as the Bible, text, posters, placards, and we could even consider the caricatures of African-Americans and salt and pepper shakers and banks as a part of advertising.

They’re basically images, images and words. They’re very powerful. Images and words are very powerful, and they conveyed and carried out this whole idea of African-Americans being less than, not as good as: the myth of black inferiority.

CONAN: And the concomitant myth of white superiority.

Mr. BURRELL: And the concomitant myth. We were all sold a bill of goods: the myth of black inferiority. That was a myth that had to be created in order to justify slavery within a democracy. These two contradictions had to be reconciled, and the only way that they could come up with to reconcile it was to declare and then substantiate that these slaves were not human. So then you could say all men are created equal and move ahead.

CONAN: A paradox contained in the single individual of Thomas Jefferson.

Mr. BURRELL: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, he said all men are created equal, and then he said Africans, by their very nature, are inferior to whites.

CONAN: And I wanted to ask – we’re asking our listeners to say: How did this play out in your life? And growing up there in Chicago, how did this play out in your life?

Mr. BURRELL: Well, I grew up in the era of the New Deal, and we were very much subjected to learned helplessness. I mean, the idea of our inferiority was played out constantly by reinforcing the thought that we could not take care of ourselves. And that was played out in the media as we grew up, as I grew up with characters in movies who were buffoons, characters on the radio, whether they be Beulah or Amos and Andy, who were basically servants and clowns. We didn’t see ourselves portrayed in a positive and powerful way growing up, and we basically heard that we were not as good as white people.

CONAN: But was there a moment for you when you said, hey, wait a minute? When did the light dawn?

Mr. BURRELL: Well, I have to say that the images had been so powerful, I was probably 40 years old before I realized that the whole thing was a sham. You know, what you do is you kind of fake it till you make it. And you think, well, maybe either I’m the exception to the rule. Or you think that, well, maybe I’m not as good or as smart as people think that I am, and maybe I’ll just keep trying to fool them.

Then it comes – it dawns on you at some point in your life, perhaps, if you’re lucky, that wait a minute. This is a myth. Of all of the images that I’ve been fed, all of the concepts that I have been taught to accept are false. It’s false advertising.

CONAN: And by that time, you’d been in the advertising business for a while.

Mr. BURRELL: I’d been in the advertising business for almost 20 years. And, you know, the whole thing is that both for blacks and whites, this whole myth is internalized and some people live with it for their whole lives.

CONAN: There were any number of – well, let me ask you specifically. In those first 20 years before the light dawned, are there, looking back on it, any ads that, well, you’d regret, in retrospect?

Mr. BURRELL: That we created?

CONAN: Yeah.

Mr. BURRELL: Well, we were very fortunate that when I started the company in 1971, halfway through my career, we were assigned to the African-American consumer market. So I basically had to study the African consumer market.

So what we did that was totally unique, coming out of the black power movement of the late ’60s, which sprung out of the civil rights movement, is we concentrated on what we call positive realism. I had come up with the phrase: Black people are not dark-skinned white people. And that was related to the idea that we came to this country in a way totally different from any other group, against our will and into servitude and into vilification and enslavement. And that shaped a lot of how we behave as consumers.

CONAN: Give me a for-instance.

Mr. BURRELL: A for-instance is we spend an inordinate amount of money, of the money that we make, on goods and services, primarily goods that we really don’t have to have. We – and goods that are usually depreciated from the time that we get it, they start depreciating, especially automobiles.

CONAN: Oh, so high-end automobiles or things like that.

Mr. BURRELL: But – so you asked the question, well, why is it that we spend everything that we have on things that aren’t going to appreciate for us? And the answer lies in the fact that when we came to this country, we were stripped of everything. We were stripped of our name, of our origin, of our language, of our religion. We lost contact with our families. We had nothing.

And we lost our status as human beings because we came here and were deemed to be property, less than human. We were put on the auction block, and we were sold like cattle, okay?

So in our attempt in a materialistic, capitalistic society, to gain somebody-ness, what do we do? In a materialistic society, we try to do it through getting stuff and owning stuff. And it’s not a matter of buying things that we can’t show off. It’s all about things that we can show off, that basically are saying here, look at me, world. I am somebody.

CONAN: Some people might point out that emancipation happened in 1865. The great civil rights legislation of 1965 ended the era of Jim Crow, at least legally. Things have changed a lot, yet you say the stain of that experience in slavery continues many generations later.

Mr. BURRELL: What we have to understand is that we aren’t talking about ancient history. You know, we have slave narratives that were written in 1933, people who lived in slavery. So this whole idea that we’re talking about ancient history, we’re talking about a few generations ago. And these traditions, this inferiority that was drummed into us through the media, through propaganda, has passed down from generation to generation just like a favorite family recipe.

So we haven’t – you know, if you don’t address issues, if you dont – if you have a cancer, if you have a tumor, you can’t just wait for it to dissipate. It doesn’t just go away. It gets passed down. And you have this illusion of progress, you know, or even a delusion of progress, that just doesn’t take away the fact that after all of the efforts that have been made, we are still, as a people, at the top of just about every bad list and at the bottom of just education, income, incarceration, out-of-wedlock childbirth, teen pregnancies, HIV, childhood obesity, infant mortality. I mean, just go through the list.

And so you say, well, why is that? Well, it’s because of the fact that we bought into the fact of our – the myth of black inferiority, and everybody else bought into that, as well, as well as the myth of white superiority.

CONAN: Let’s get some listeners in on the conversation. 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. James on the line calling from San Antonio.

JAMES (Caller): Yes, I’m about 26 years old, and I remember even as a kid, for me, most of – in the media, specifically TV and film, I mean, you have things like “The Kenan and Kel Show” and the Fat Albert remake and “Family Matters,” and I agree with the gentleman that it seems like most of the black figures are kind of dumb or outrageous or buffoonery. And the Tyler Perry, you know, it’s not politically correct to say, but I see the same thing there. And you sometimes have to look to white shows, if they decide to include black folks at all, they’re a little bit more not cartoon characters. And…

CONAN: Well, maybe you were too young, but “The Cosby Show” certainly portrayed a different image.

JAMES: Yes, yes, “The Cosby Show.” And that was a show run by – I wonder if some of these shows are run by white executives and trying to show something that maybe white people in Hollywood think blacks are. That’s all I wanted to say.

CONAN: I think Bill Cosby ran that show. But anyway, thanks very much.

Mr. BURRELL: Yeah, Bill Cosby did run that show, and that’s why it came out the way that it came out – very positive, you know.

CONAN: We’re talking about the myth of black inferiority. Tom Burrell’s book is titled “Brainwashed.” More of your calls in a moment. How does these images play out in your life? Tell us your story: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org.

Stay with us. I’m Neal Conan. It’s the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

(Soundbite of music)

CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. Im Neal Conan in Washington.

Tom Burrell writes in his new book: The marketing of black inferiority and white superiority as building blocks for the founding of America is a chicken that has finally come home to roost. His book is “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority.”

You can read an excerpt at our Web site about the aspects of American culture and media that endorse, reinforce and promulgate what Tom Burrell calls African-Americans’ most self-destructive habits. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

How do the images that focus on negative stereotypes of black Americans play out in your life? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. And you can also join the conversation on our Web site. Thats at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

And let’s see if we can go next to this is Patricia(ph), Patricia calling from Walnut Creek in California.

PATRICIA (Caller): Yes, hi.

CONAN: Hi.

PATRICIA: I love this this show really makes my head think. I need to think about this, because, Mr. Burrell, I think I’m brainwashed. I’m 55 years old, and I’m a product of a military family. I was raised in born in St. Louis, raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, and in San Antonio, Texas.

And as I grew up, the images that I saw were very I mean, I was totally embarrassed, totally angry. You know, forgive me, Buckwheat, Stepin Fetchit – I couldn’t stand any of that.

So I think I need to read your book because what happens for me when I see Tyler Perry and Madea, they make me laugh. You know, my mother is 84 and a product of the Mississippi segregation. She enjoys him, you know, immensely. And I’m thinking this show today is really going to be part of my discussion today at lunch with my girlfriends as we talk about this because this is troubling if indeed it’s true that, you know, these sort of images that are self-destructive to us.

I mean, I loved “The Cosby Show,” but then when I was growing up, too, I mean, we never saw many blacks on TV that used hair products or brushed their teeth. And when they finally did in the 1970s, we were so excited.

I think by the time “Good Times” came around, what is it, the one with the bigot. I can’t remember his name right now.

CONAN: Oh, Archie Bunker, “All in the Family.”

PATRICIA: “All in the Family.” We were excited to see black folk on the TV. We were excited about that. So now, I think we’ve come full circle from this, and like I said, Mr. Burrell, I’m going to have to read your book, because either we’re missing the boat or not. I mean, I love Tyler Perry. I love his movies. I support them. I have in the past. So what am I doing?

Mr. BURRELL: Well, I hope you don’t mind if I agree with you, that you may be brainwashed.

PATRICIA: Yeah, probably.

Mr. BURRELL: Here’s the deal about brainwashing. What brainwashing does, and you know, I’m speaking as a person who was in that business for 45 years. What that brainwashing does is get you to a point of being so insensitive or desensitized that you become unconscious to what is going into your head and what you’re seeing and hearing.

You also become a party to the brainwashing, or black people become a party to the brainwashing. But see, that’s the nature of brainwashing, that you join in and become your own victimizer.

And so what has happened is that you have bought into this whole idea of it not of it being harmless, you know. And it is not harmless because what it is, it is reinforcing all of those negative things that you get back when you were Stepin Fetchit. But if you look at it objectively, you see very little difference between Stepin Fetchit, Mantan Moreland and then Tracy Morgan…

PATRICIA: Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Black Sambo. I hated that.

Mr. BURRELL: Yeah, but moving forward to Tracey Morgan, Tyler Perry and the Madea character and so forth. It’s a straight line, it’s just that it’s put in a different kind of context that gives it a kind of air of respectability.

CONAN: And as you point out in your book, this is done by black entrepreneurs with black people behind the camera, black people writing the script and African-Americans running the company.

Mr. BURRELL: And then we buy it. You know, and what it is, is that we are more capable of carrying out or executing this than the people who basically indoctrinated us to do it in the first place. You know, it has more credibility once we grab it.

And, you know, like for instance, we have a chapter called neo-coons that talks about comedy. You know, in the old days, when we started, you had white comedians putting on black cork and basically humiliating and ridiculing black people.

Fast-forward, you get this thing called progress. Then black comedians came in and says hey, you guys don’t have to do that, we’ll do it. We’ll take it over. And they have taken it over to the point where, like in the use of the N-word, for instance, white people can’t even begin to say it as fast as we can say it and with such conviction. And we own it as if we are being empowered by it, when in fact what we’re doing is we’re continuing to damage ourselves with it. Because if…

CONAN: Patricia Patricia, I just wanted to say thank you very much for your phone call.

PATRICIA: Oh, I appreciate your candor.

CONAN: We wish we could go to lunch with you today. It sounds like it’s going to be an interesting time.

Mr. BURRELL: Right.

CONAN: Let’s see if we can go next to this is Denise(ph), Denise calling from St. Paul.

DENISE (Caller): Hi, this topic really touches a nerve. I have to tell you, the question of capability, and your guest Mr. Burrell is absolutely on point. I mean, we only have to look, nationally, at what has happened with the president’s social secretary, Desiree Rogers, the questioning of her abilities and her subsequent stepping down.

I worked for a company and reported to a white woman who constantly questioned my I think my right to be in the company. She would look at my work, which in comparison to my colleagues, I felt I was on par. But she often questioned in a way that wasn’t direct, but she would say well, you don’t just quite fit. You’re not like the others.

It completely undermined my confidence, and of course in most organizations, there aren’t the systems for black people support systems for black people to go and have an honest conversation and say, you know, what is going on here?

CONAN: And would you say, Tom Burrell, in this situation she’s describing, basically both people had been brainwashed.

Mr. BURRELL: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, both people basically have been brainwashed. And it gets to a point where people become accustomed to where they are. You know, Carter G. Woodson, a famous black historian, talked about the idea that African-Americans have been basically conditioned to go around to the back door, and if there is no back door, we will insist on one.

Whites, on the other hand, are comforted by this whole notion of white supremacy, especially given the fact that there is some fear factor there, as well, because underneath, there is this feeling that maybe their ancestors did something wrong.

So they look for reassurance that they’re okay. And if you can get a black comedian to show up on a late-night talk show and just act the clown, it’s comforting to those people who say, you know, yeah, they are a happy people. You know, they are they’re okay. You know, it’s just like going up to a dog and saying, boy, you know, I hope it doesn’t bite. And if he starts wagging his tail, you know, you say oh, that’s great. I love it, you know.

So yeah, it is a perfect kind of toxic mix, the idea of white supremacy, white superiority, and black inferiority. It kind of goes together, and people get comfortable in their roles, and they accept their roles.

CONAN: Denise, we wish you the best of luck. Thanks very much for the phone call.

DENISE (Caller): Thank you.

Mr. BURRELL: Thank you.

CONAN: Here’s an email we have from Kate(ph) in Portland, Oregon. I was struck 40 years ago with this issue when I was in high school. I knew a young black man who wanted to be a doctor. His parents could not afford to send him to the school he wanted to go to for pre-med, so he was focused on getting a scholarship. That meant a 4.0 GPA, National Honor Society, a host of extracurricular activities.

What impressed me was that at 15, he was able to accept the rejection and derision of his peers for, quote, trying to be white, unquote, and pursued his dream in the face of it. I was disturbed that he had to make that choice at all.

Mr. BURRELL: Yeah, we have a chapter calls “D’s Will Do: Why Do We Expect So Little Of Ourselves and Each Other?.” And there are several reasons why that happens. I mean, there is lower expectations means fewer disappointments. You know, if you are taught that blacks are inferior, then you set up your own substrata of – for performance. The other thing is that you basically become comfortable with negative behavior, so then being smart gets interpreted as acting white. Because to act – to be smart, is also to be different. And to be different means that you try – you’re trying to be better than we are, those who aren’t striving.

So I mean, there have been cases – I mean, I had my own situation when I was in grade school. I was doing pretty well in fourth grade, but I saw myself being moved away from my peers who were basically into the-D’s-will-do category, and they basically started to reject me so I had to dumb down in order to fit in. And we get that phenomenon going on all the time. What we want to do is we want to change that model so that being smart becomes acting black, you know? That’s what we have to overcompensate for what has been in existence.

CONAN: I did want to ask you about one thing in the book. You wrote that the only comparable campaign of inferiority was that waged by the Nazis against the Jews in the ’30s and ’40s. And you said, but that was only 12 years.

Mr. BURRELL: Right. And that’s being liberal, being 12 years, because some people would argue that it was four years.

CONAN: And some people would argue it was 2000 years, that pogroms go way back and that this is not new. And why did you feel the need to say ours is the worst ever when the Jews and the Irish and the Kurds and the Palestinian, any number of groups would pick a fight with you?

Mr. BURRELL: Well, I’m talking about the fact that we have – we’re talking about one country, basically, and we’re talking about a particular form of slavery called American chattel slavery. That didn’t exist anywhere else because there was no democracy anywhere else. It wasn’t the slavery that was the main problem. It was the need to justify it by building up the myths, so that after the myths – after the slavery was abolished and the chains were removed, the psychological chains remained.

But getting back to the idea of – I’m not into a contest to see who, you know, who suffered the most pain. The only thing that I wanted to do is put American chattel slavery into some kind of perspective. The comparative is that we’re not talking about slavery in Jews. We’re talking about Hitler. We’re talking about Nazism and Jews, versus America and blacks.

CONAN: Different but not necessarily worse or better. Anyway, the book is called “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority.”

You’re listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

Author Tom Burrell is with us from Chicago. And let’s see if we can go next to Shadiqua(ph) in Tallahassee.

SHADIQUA (Caller): Thanks, Neal. How are you doing?

CONAN: I’m well. Thank you.

SHADIQUA: I have – I wanted to ask the (unintelligible) about what to do with our young black children today. I’m in an interracial relationship. My first son is – he’s all black. But in any event, a lot of people call them out the ’40s and the ’50s. And I want to know what can we do about it right now?

For instance, one day, we were at (unintelligible) and we were on our way to the dentist office. And my stepson, he said – his father is white. That’s who I’m with now. He said, well, is the dentist going to be white or black? And my son said, oh, no, he’s going to be white. I mean, if he was going to black, he’d be like a rapper or a basketball player or something. So it was time to turn off the radio.

CONAN: And that’s when we get to the prescriptive part of your book. Go ahead, Tom Burrell.

Mr. BURRELL: Yeah. But before the prescriptive part, you have to understand that it is the media that is feeding that information to these young kids. It’s in the form of lyrics. It’s in the form of images and the video games that feed into that.

Now, as far as the prescriptive is concerned, we have a wonderful opportunity, now, to turn around these 300 years of negative images into positive images with one weapon, and that is a library card. A library card…

SHADIQUA: We go to the library. We go to the library. I have doctors in my family. I have lawyers in my family. And I tell them that all the time. That’s one of the reasons why we can’t watch a lot of television. I tell them that, of course.

Mr. BURRELL: Right.

SHADIQUA: But it’s – well, I don’t know if it was this program that Neal said – or another program was talking exactly that, that the media – I’m like, I’m just one voice, if you will, and these 24/7 images that they have.

CONAN: Mm-hmm.

Mr. BURRELL: Right. Right. And what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to turn those images around. We have got to start to come together. We have a chapter, also, on unity, how we need to – how we’ve been taught the concept of individualism instead of collective thinking, collective gathering as a collective mass. And we have got to say we aren’t going to take that from our kids.

If you read the book, you will not go away being as – you’ll be much more conscious of the cues that your kids are getting every day, reinforcing this whole idea, because I’m afraid that there are some things that are getting into his head that you are not necessarily seeing – because they get so subtle.

But anyway, the antidote is the new technology where you can have a movie studio in your computer, and you can have a recording studio in your computer, and we can use the creativity that has caused us to survive all these centuries to start creating positive images, to offset the negative ones. We can also, through stopthebrainwash.com, which we have set up, setup a watchdog kind of coming together where we can basically point out those culprits, point out those instances where we are being fed toxic material and discuss it.

SHADIQUA: But even the family member makes it hard for us. Because like – my children can’t really watch too much Disney, even “Hannah Montana.” Not many black people are in there…

Mr. BURRELL: Of course. Yes.

SHADIQUA: …(unintelligible). They’re in, you know, they’re either servers or whatever. And my mom and other family members are like, there’s no harm in that. You’re too this, you’re too that. How can you be so pro-black and you’re in an interracial relationship. And, you know, even family members think I go overboard when I don’t let them watch, you know, television, that it’s just not a black man that has a reputable position on that show.

CONAN: That’s…

Mr. BURRELL: Well, I hope you can get him to read the book.

CONAN: Okay. Shadiqua, we wish you the best of luck. It sounds like you’re up against it. But good luck to you. Thanks for the phone call. And Tom Burrell, thanks very much for your time today.

Mr. BURRELL: Thank you.

CONAN: Tom Burrell’s book is “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority.”

Up next, quick, turn off that basketball game. The boss is coming. How does the tournament change your office? This is NPR News.

I am stunned at the quality of this product. A few things that stand out for me:

1) The depth of field

I love that the background is present but not in focus. This makes you feel like you are in the White House with him – not in a staged studio. Backdrops should imply where you are without being loud and distracting. Your eye is led to focus on what is important, President Obama, while still presenting enough visual data to keep you interested. Backdrops are meant to entice you deeper into the video and this out-of-focus background accomplishes the task nicely.

2) The staging

The background is formal yet comfortable. You see an empty chair next to a small round table all of which is in front of a fireplace and obscured by a corner. The chair is facing towards the corner hinting that another chair is hidden by the flag. Two people (you and the President) could be sitting together working out the details of government. The room is big enough to hold many while still allowing for an intimate chat. And of course there are the ever-present symbols of patriotism – our flags.

3) The lighting

The lighting contributes to the focus on President Obama’s face. The lighting is darker with an almost fireplace orange glow on the chair. The wall behind the President is lighter but still quite soft. The Presidents face is brighter on the left yet there is no shadow on the right. All of this contrast helps to bring the focus forward on the words he is delivering. It is almost like a cartoon where the only thing moving are the lips. There are no distractions.

4) The sound

I really like how President Obama has been recorded. His voice is extremely present yet it has depth. I feel like his is speaking in a room that matches the size of the video (instead of in a flat post-processed studio). There is the hint of an echo. His highs are just below clipping and the lows do not sound muddy. While the audio is not completely natural, the processing does not seem overdone or jarring.

5) Captions

YEAH!!! I simply love this feature!!! It is great to see them use it.

6) HD option

Everything shot should be high definition. It is great that YouTube has enabled videos to use it (along with captions).

7) Downloadable MP4 podcast

YES!!! All media should have the ability to be used on any compatible device. In addition to downloading video, they should also allow (straight from YouTube) audio-only downloading. But hey, I am happy they are finally allowing straight video downloads instead of forcing folks to steal the Flash file and convert it. YouTube should enable this by default for all videos.

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Given who made this and the fact that government is traditionally clueless when it comes to marketing and branding issues, I find this to be just about the best podcast I have ever seen. I will work hard to emulate this result in the assets I produce. I find it amazing that the Obama Team has been able to produce something of this quality so quickly after taking office. These guys really do get the power of the internet.

The next 4 years are going to be full of surprises. My task is to help others take advantage of the good changes. This is an example of a good one.

I really enjoy finding stuff like this. Thank you Dan for sharing the link.

This statement speaks volumes to the fundamental nature of change. If we want to make a better world, we must begin by altering our course.

This video is a localized version of a excellent Argentinean political advertisement The Truth.

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Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

I find this editorial fascinating.

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And Then They Came For Me

No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.

I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader’s 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.

Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.

But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.

The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.

The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.

Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic… well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you’d best stop buying this paper.

The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let’s face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example,  we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka’s ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.

Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that – pray excuse cricketing argot – there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing expos‚s we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.

Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.

What is more, a military occupation of the country’s north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering “development” and “reconstruction” on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen – and all of the government – cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.

It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government’s sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.

The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President’s House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.

Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.

You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.

In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.

Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.

As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.

As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I – and my family – have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am – and have always been – ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.

That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be – and will be – killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.

People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of  Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

First they came for the Jews

            and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists

            and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

            and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me

            and there was no one left to speak out for me.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted.  Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.

Busy Signal released this song a while back but I am just now hearing it. Found a Daddy and Hypa Remix and a raw version video on YouTube and it made a big impression on me. Below are the lyrics (with translation). Enjoy.

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Busy Signal – These Are The Days [Daddy and Hypa Remix]

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Aaaahhh..Yea gotta stay conscious
Gotta get ma bread gotta keep ma head up…

These are the f***ing days
When the gal dem in dem teens hav the f***ing aids
[When the the girls are in their teens and have AIDS]
Nuff yute nuh have degrees but dem have the grades
[A lot of youth donot have degrees be have the smarts]
Picture dis and try fi see it wid yu f***ing ears
[Picture this and try to see with your ears]

These are the f***ing times
When yu sneakers ain’t yu only nines
[When your sneakers ain't your only nines (ie: 9mm = guns)]
Some weh call pon Jesus a dem commit the crimes
[Some will call upon Jesus while they commit their crimes]
Nuff illiterate and still a read between the lines
[A lot of people are illiterate but can still read between the lines]

Those are the f***ing dudes claim!! dem a yu fren n want yu f***ing food
[Those are the dudes who claim they are your friend but steal your food]
Then some a dem a rob while some a dem rape while some a dem kill while some a dem shoot is like we need a
[Some of them rob while some of them rape while some of them kill while some of them shoot]
rated R pon the f***ing news

These are the f***ing days when yu caan trust police wid dem dutty ways
[You can't trust the police with their dirty ways]
Juvenile a run the streets wid the f***ing Kssssssss
[Juviniles run the streeds with their AK-47's (ie: guns)]
Yow Yuh caan even rest in peace in yu f***ing grave aaaahhh
[You can't even rest in peace in your grave]

Everyday the same shit different gal, same dick
Different flow, same spit, different drugs, same ship
[Meter of the song is different but the message is the same, different drugs but they come into Jamaica on the same ship]
Same Busy, different hits
With different messages reaching out to everyone in ALL different communities

Yea These are the f***ing things that make a f***ing DJ wanna f***ing sing
Mi caah belive the baby madda dash the pickney in the thing we pissing in,
[I can't believe a mother will wash her child in the same bowl we piss in]
Baby fadda beat her wid the thing a glistening aaaahhh
[And her child's father beats her with the bowl glistening]

These are the f***ing days yu affi hustle in the street like a f***ing slave
[You have to hustle in the streets like a slave]
Then the boss a work the least get the f***ing raise
[The the boss, who works the least, gets a raise]
Yuh nuh see say di leaders need fi step up the pace aaaahhh
[We have to tell our leaders to pick up the pace (ie: we want change)]

Listen to these f***ing facts
Who nuh hav a Smith n Wesson hav a f***ing Glock
[The person who does not have a Smith&Wesson (gun) has a Glock (gun)]
Coppa whistle somebody missin when you here it stop
[The guns whistle when they fire and someone is dead when the sound stops]
Anotha madda bawl while she suffer the lost
[Another mother cries while she suffers at her loss]

Welcome to the f***ing streets
Chalk line, white sheet regular we see it
[Chalk line, white sheet (of a murder scene) is a regular sight]
Less fortunate get treated like sum refugees
But don’t get fed up keep yu head up stay on yu feet aaaahhh

Right now we are at a f***ing stage
This day and age is like we locked up inna f***ing cage
A me a tell yu they say di system need fi rearrange
[I'm telling you we need to rearrange the system
Its kinda strange mi waan fi buy a range but the price outta range aaaahhh
[It's kind of funny that I want to buy a stove but the price is too high]

Watch how yu f***ing move
Killers in the street always got sumn to prove
[Killers in the streets always have something to prove]
Watch yu step yuh betta watch the f***ing way yu choose
Be careful how yu live yuh life cah dem will out yuh fuse aaaahhh
[Be careful how you live your life because the killers will put out your fuse]

These days at the airport dem waan yu tek off belt kick off airforce
Tek weh cologne, Roll on, toothpaste weh dem hear bout
[They take away your cologne, roll out your toothpaste]
Mi feel woulda pull mi f***ing hair out! aaaahhh
[It makes me want to pull my hair out]

These are the f***ing days when yu affi sing say these are the f***ing days
Yo mi caan believe these are the f***ing days
While mi sing daseca please play the f**ing phrase aaahhh

Gotta get ma bread gotta keep ma head up
Stay focus gotta keep your head up
Gotta keep ma head up stay strong
Yea saviour
BUSSSSSSSSSSSYYYYYYY