Foreign Correspondent
(By: Gomin Dayasri)
 It's a stopover in paradise for a Foreign
Correspondent to live majestically on his overseas allowance. Such
comfortable digs are not in the market in the recession stung home
country. There is exotic food and groovy watering holes at affordable
prices. NGOs' provide the freebies and rolls the red carpet.
Evenings may be dull but there is fun around-sun and
surf, safaris and misty mountains within easy reach. Surroundings are
ideal to prop a savings account for a rainy day. It's an earn to save
assignment; where on most days the drink and dinner is free with
invitations galore. Many sophisticated hostesses desire to declare that
they call the local BBC /CNN man by the first name. They pass unquoted
quotes, to display their importance.
It's a comfortable station to report a war with no
hazard to life or limb-the possible menace being the cancellation of the
visa and a deportation order. Foreign correspondents live in Iraq or
Afghanistan, Sudan or Somalia with death beckoning.
English is understood by those who matter and the
girls in the NGO circuit provide the information and entertainment. News
is at the door step with LTTE agents in attendance. Cultivation of news
sources is not a requirement as there is a free flow.
So laid back is life with much free time to read the
book that requires the time to read. The constant irritant being the
need to attend press conferences where Ministers narrate stories which
the editor will not bother to read. Yet a convenient platform to meet
the tribe to exchange a few yarns to embarrass the government.
To win the holiday package you need the war to obtain
the assignment. If the guns are silenced the return ticket will arrive
to pack the bags. War is a must and it must go on and on and on for the
good life to continue. Otherwise Sri Lanka is not a resident base for a
Foreign Correspondent. The event will be conveniently covered by the
Delhi bureau with a periodic visit to Colombo.
To keep the war on track LTTE presence as a fighting
formation is paramount. To beef the LTTE, arms and ammunition and ships
and planes are alone not sufficient-pen and ink are equally vital. To
win the hearts and minds it is necessary to usher the propaganda war-so
enters the Foreign Correspondent.
Most Foreign Correspondents arrive with a neo liberal
agenda peddled by their editorial staff. Sri Lanka is often an early
posting and a stepping stone to the cosmopolitan world of
journalism-many in Colombo are seen later in hotspots around the world
dispatching reports. For upward mobility writing must calibrate with
thinking of the news desk and editorial opinion which is to romanticize
the war with a strong tilt to the underdog. That is breaking news and a
visa to a more prestigious posting.
Their insights on arrival had been choreographed by
the NGOs and provided with a hand picked list of contacts from the NGO
seminar circuit. They take over with a dinner date in a local
atmospheric caf‚ with sophisticated small talk in attractive company. A
traveling urbane companion is provided to map the Colombo strategy. To
the credit of the foreign correspondent many are not soft bunnies and in
their whimsical western way enjoy the goodies laced with their typical
suave cynicism. Still, there is much common ground to tread hand in hand
with the Colombians.
LTTE churns out television footage from their sources;
so does the government. Watch on BBC, CNN, Al Jazzera - always on
display is the LTTE coverage hardly ever from government sources. If so
slanted to sympathize, with the LTTE. Is this balance presentation or a
tilt towards the favorite son? Certainly reporting from Colombo, the
television Foreign Correspondent is more balanced in his presentation
than the anchor person in the studio. This is media manipulation at its
prime, supporting the philosophy of western stalwarts like Hillary
Clinton, leaning towards the terrorist outfit. The local based foreign
minions have to toe the official line, from editor to statesman, for
their future enhancement.
The print media are the foot soldiers of the LTTE; the
dispatches that please the editor are those that discredit Sri Lanka.
Having supported the LTTE relentlessly for over 25 years, to be defeated
in a cause they peddled, is to have egg on the face. Westerners can
never take defeat gracefully when inflicted by Easterners. It was
visible from Dien Bien Phu to Saigon, from Baghdad to Kabul. It is
unbearable to watch terrorism being defeated with minimum facilities,
while the west gropes with jealous green eyes, the east achieving
success as they understand better the aspiration of the peoples' local
power.
It is a wonder why the west has been unable to fathom
the reason the CIA is a permanent loser in the final chapter?
These media mercenaries treat with contempt those in
conflict with their culture- it a handful that have the sophistication
to understand cross cultures. What ever is alien to their value
structure, is blasphemous. They carry chips on both shoulders; mocking
both the NGOs that nourish them to the government they abhor. At least
at this point there is no discrimination. It is a complex in reverse,
stupid!
With the LTTE gone where will they go? After few more
horror stories to demean the Security Forces and back to the bonnie of
the west to face the shock treatment of recession. War is an investment
relief to the Foreign Correspondent. The order will soon come to pack
the flack jackets and return to a not so sweet home and to wait
patiently for a call to another exotic destination?
To be fair, the Foreign Correspondent deserves
sympathy-he is his master's voice. The master placed his bet on the
wrong horse and made the work horse sounds dim and daft.
The Foreign Correspondent will now jet to another
destination to write a story to please his master, provided he is
pleased. Left to himself he would be more objective, but he has to find
a destination-so he remains obliged! Related
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