I wrote and submitted the article to TODAY, (Singapore), and they chose to run it as a letter (unpaid, sadly). They even chose a title for my letter...certainly not one I would ever have chosen, because it's sole intention was: to provoke a response.
Indeed…you make one mistake and people lambaste you for it, publicly, on the internet, in their blogs. And they forget the dozen times they have read your work and agreed with what you said.
Why is it that when people agree with what you say, they often remain silent. They don’t write anythign about you anywhere. But the moment they disagree, they are writing and posting all over the internet for all to read.
Does that give a fair judgement of the person they are judging?
I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Except that they’ve completely misunderstood what I wrote. Completely. Utterly.
I wrote the letter using tongue-in-cheek humour, which is common (daily) in NZ (yes, I’m a NZer…and fanatic All Black supporter!). I never occurred to me that what I wrote would be taken literally. I thought the tongue-in-cheek was blatantly obvious. But…it is so clear to me now that tongue-in-cheek humour is not understood in Singapore (probably not even known in its embryonic stages).
And yet, the comments about me stand for anyone who searches my name. It’s disconcerting to be ignored for the good and bashed for one simple misunderstanding.
Does it make me scared to write for TODAY in Singapore again? Well, yes, it does actually. It someone disagrees and feels free to send me abusive emails and write their opinion of me across the internet…that doesn’t exactly make my day! It makes me think twice before saying anything.
And I am most likely not the only one. How many people, in and out of Singapore, have had similar experiences? How many people have been abused to the point of refusing to ever again take a stand or make a statement?
Even if there is only a dozen of us, that means that viewpoints are being suppressed. And not by the governement, at all, by the readers! The society, the readers, do not want to be criticised, and yet are eager to spread criticism themselves. (Ironic…or hypocritical? …I’m really not sure–and too scared to decide).
How can we have free press around the world when there are people who will not just voice a reasoned disagreement, but resort to written abuse, slander, and threats because they did not agree with what we wrote?
Is there truly such a thing as free press? Or are we all under the ‘gee, if I say this I might regret it’?
The letter I wrote is old news now…old news! But the abusive comments are still up on blogs for all the world to read.
Why did I write the letter in the first place? Simple: they pay! It was intended to be an article though, not a letter, and I wrote it for the income — because that’s what writers do, we write for money.
Singapore never used to scare me…but after the threats and abuse…it does now. I deleted all the emails I received from one ‘human’…but I will never forget the feeling of reading the abuse. (It’s almost hilarious that he called me a racist bigot, because I’ve been in an interacial marrial for 23 years!)
