ELECTION SEASON AND BLOGGING

Aug 04, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Ever been at a scene of a motor vehicle crash? It is quite an experience. Each of the parties involved invariably has a defence. Each goes out of his way to assert that he was in the right and that the other is in the wrong.
No one bothers to wait on what the traffic authorities have to say. Each has his own opinions. More interesting is that passersby who were not privy to the accident may also join in the melee.
“You should have stopped!”
“How am I going to stop when I was trying to escape from you?”
“You should have stopped.”
“You had no right driving like that.”
“Look this is where I stopped.”
“That has nothing to do with it. I had the right away.”
And so it goes on and on. Each party has his or her opinion. Even when the investigating rank comes, it is often the case that none of the parties is willing to relent. Positions become hardened like well-cured cement.
A few days ago, there was a plane crash at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana. Fortunately, no one was killed. But from the moment the accident happened there were persons giving their opinions as to what they think went wrong, about the response time of the emergency and rescue teams and on a host of other matters.
This is always good once it is based on some informed position. The role of a newspaper is to try to cultivate informed comment. If someone has an opinion and someone else differs with that opinion that does not constitute uninformed comment. Both may be informed comment but simply arrive at different conclusions.
An uniformed comment is a comment without any foundation, without being able to justify what is being concluded. In Guyana, and especially in the blogs, there is a great deal of informed comments. There are of course informed judgments but too often persons take positions not based on reason for evidence but one what they would like the facts to be.
There are some persons who love nothing better than for the government and airport authorities to shoulder the blame for what happened. There are others who love nothing better than for some other cause to be identified.
But soon after the crash very few were waiting for the final report of the investigator. And no one should wait on that to express their opinions. The press has a right to gather as much information as possible to allow the citizens to make a man in the street assessment of what may have happened. That provides some basis for an informed comment. Expert opinion will follow.
In the hours just after the flight persons were expressing their opinions freely, including those individuals who would love nothing better than to paint the authorities and the government as having neglected aviation safety.
In some instances the government was being lambasted. But no sooner had an experienced pilot, someone who has attained the rank of captain, gave what he feels could be the possible causes of the crash, there were individuals at the ready taking him to task.
While acknowledging that the investigation is still ongoing and the report of the investigator has to be awaited, the experienced captain suggested a number of possible causes. He said that based on the information at his disposal, the cause of the crash could either be human error or mechanical failure. He has ruled out problems with the aviation control system or the weather.
This, of course, is not what some persons wanted to hear. And so they have begun to chastise the poor captain for his explanation. Some of them are even asking how it is he could be giving possible scenarios given that the investigation is not complete. Never mind many others had been giving their own opinions too, including the fact that the systems fault at the airport may have contributed to the accident.
The captain who has been involved in aviation for 35 years has given his opinion. No one has to agree with the opinion but his right to do so must be respected. He has made out a case as to why he has narrowed down the possible causes of the accident. He has prefaced his analysis by indicating that the investigation is still ongoing and that investigation will shed greater light.
But yet the captain is taken to task for simply stating what is his opinion. And why is he taken to task? Because there are some individuals for whom the only truth that matters is the truth that suits what they would like to have happened. And some individuals would love nothing better than to blame the government.
Persons have a right to express their opinions and others have a right to disagree and offer their own versions. In the end everyone’s right and their opinion must be respected.
Instead, therefore, of all the negative comments that are being made about the captain giving his opinion, those who feel differently should set out their case.
This is an election season and such hardened positions that we are witnessing will continue. But it demonstrates a real problem for our country that even on a technical issue like this, there are persons who can make derogative statements about another simply because what that persons said about the air crash is not what they would like it to be.
This is the sort of exchanges that characterize a great many of the blogs that we have going to topical issues. It is not always by any means informed comments. There is a great deal of emotional reactions. And as we know nothing spurs the emotions on better in Guyana than election season.

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