The Heavenly Gift 2009

I have a lot of things to do, more than I expected. When I look at the ‘November’ page in my planner, I just feel like going to sleep. Haha. Dance rehearsals for CYW Penang on 22nd Nov, trip to Singapore and everything to do with the book, people I need and want to meet before they leave & before I leave KL, uni transfer application, moving out (I hope I don’t find dead rats in my room, I already know I’m gonna find cockroaches)…so much that my target for all my last college assignments is just to do a “good enough” job. :) It’s OK, it’s OK if I can’t do it all. I’m talking to myself don’t mind me. Just read the following.

Loneliness

Did you know, it is still as real as ever to me. I need deep, meaningful relationships and I can truly connect in that way with so, so few of my friends.

As Ravi Zacharias put it so eloquently, there are depths to our hungers that the physical does not plumb…there are heights to existential aspirations that our activities cannot attain….and there are breadths of need that the natural cannot span.

But now, I’ve just come to a greater acceptance that it’s alright to be lonely. It’s OK. The sadness and self-pity has waned. Loneliness reminds us that we were created for a more meaningful relationship than can ever be found on earth.

What is a Journalist?

Many of my friends still think journalism is about writing and can’t differentiate between authors and journalists. Some don’t even know what the term means. I can understand that not everyone has good English, but this makes me very sad. 11 years of education and a person doesn’t know what a journalist is.

Recently, we discussed about the relations between PR and Journalism in class, and whether barriers between the two have been broken down. Today, I had my first journalistic experience! I interviewed Ps. Jit Pang from Kluang, Johor, over the phone for some updates about the I Love Kluang project he champions over there. It’ll be posted soon on www.changeyourworldtour.wordpress.com. I feel like a real journalist now because I talked to someone I don’t know and conducted a real conversation with prepared questions and all. : )

Haha but then, I’m not a journalist here, am I. I am affiliated to Change Your World, I am part of it. How do I, and how do my readers deal with the bias in my ‘reporting’?

I’m not really PR either, because I’m not really out to promote I Love Kluang. I’m out to FIND OUT about it. Ask honest questions and write honest updates. No one is paying me. I’m doing this because I believe it is newsworthy. (Or I believe it because I am part of the movement? Hahaha.)

Hmm. Interesting, learning all about the numerous dilemmas modern journalists find themselves in.

I’m havin a headache. Tried to rest for awhile but my mind keeps wandering back to work. I really enjoy being productive so much that sometimes I’ve to force myself to sleep and rest especially with my condition. You know sometimes I promise myself I’ll go to Adelaide and have 1.5 years of LAIDBACK living, smell the roses…I wonder if it will happen? I promised myself the exact same thing when I came to KL. That I’d just do the bare minimum to pass my course. I’m serious.

Doing some research for my Media Contexts essay and just thought I’d share this. You can’t really say it’s idealistic because it’s from someone who’s been through it all:

Carol Marin, the Chicago TV journalist who resigned her job as anchor of WMAQ when the station hired talk show host Jerry Springer as a commentator said that each journalist must define who a journalist is for themselves, but that it is a set of values and principles that make journalism much much more than a job or a business:

“A journalist is somebody who isn’t awed by powerful people, who remembers that the President works for you. . . A journalist is someone who gives the objects of his or her news stories a fair chance; makes a call; asks for a response. . . A journalist knows that the truth never dies, but it leads a tortured life. . . A journalist is someone who steps away from the table and tries to see it all, and puts away his or her views, and tries to look for the truth.”

“A journalist never underestimates the intelligence of the public. People have a lot of busy things in their lives. They have kids, they have shoes to buy, they have places to go, they have work to do. So they don’t, on a daily basis, critique the kinds of reporting that our newspapers or our televisions deliver to them, but it doesn’t mean they don’t notice and it doesn’t mean they don’t care.”

“A journalist is somebody no matter how long they’ve been in the business, who meets a new ethical dilemma every couple of days or weeks. . . A journalist has a sense of humor because it’s the only thing that’s going to save a journalist.”

“A journalist, in my view, forsakes some of the rights of being a citizen for the privilege of being a journalist. That is to say for me, I belong to no organizations. I do no fund raising. I take no stands, I sign no petitions.”

“A journalist has to prepare every day for the possibility of quitting on principle or being fired for the wrong reason.”

“A journalist is someone who loves what they do, and despite the cynicism or the skepticism, never gives up the passion.”

See, that’s why I keep telling people, I don’t even know if I want to be a journalist. When you dream you must ask yourself if you’re willing to do it.