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April 10, 2008
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The Black Flood, or, The Race between Governmental Corruption and Critique
The White Flood for Whitening the Media
White Month: A Project for Mass Media
Kurdishaspect.com - By Muhsin Adib
The Black Flood may be defined in a concrete way as the mass of writings whose black ink darkens the pages of newspapers, magazines, websites, and other publications. But there is also an abstract meaning which is evoked by those officials at whom critique and complaint are directed: they believe that the mass media only reports the ‘black’ side of the government and by not directing their attention to the good works and noble declarations of the government, they leave the ‘white’ side hidden.
In the opinion of many citizens, also, the Black Flood can mean the uselessness of the writings presented to government officials. Many citizens feel that the work of writing and critique is like the work blacksmith who works with cold iron: it has no effect, and they have become hopeless.
Maybe the opinion of these citizens is entirely appropriate. Because if critique itself were effective enough, our country would be living in a golden age. And if our officials had even the slightest inclination towards improving their work on their own initiative, we might see a fair and prosperous Kurdistan Region. But on the contrary, every day the government becomes more corrupt, and its officials become more careless! It is almost as if the government is striving to outrun the popular media in a footrace: for every step the media takes in criticizing corruption, the government takes another step to increase corruption. Every time the media cries out loud, the government further closes its ears. And as critique has become more pessimistic and more disrespectful towards a nation’s future, officials laugh all the more heartily at their caricatures in political cartoons. The more you speak of transparency, the less we are able to see. And for every word you speak about the need for term limits and rotating the seats of the government, you kill another proposal that expresses that very hope. For every word about the importance of freedom of expression, another law is drafted that restricts that very freedom. This has placed critics on the defensive and limited their field of operation; it has only resulted in the dissolution of hundreds of projects for legal reform. Does this country need laws that interrogate corruption and corrupt officials? Or does it need laws that restrict every measure of freedom?
Proof of the ineffectiveness of the Black Flood is clear: We still have not seen a single one of our officials brought to court as a result of a media report. We have not seen a single official dismissed from their post, but on the contrary, they have been promoted (there are several examples of this). We have not seen a single official resign from their post as a gesture of conscientious objection to corruption. When a country is led by conscientious people, one article is enough to dismiss a minister, one article can bring a minister to court, and an administration can crumble beneath a single report. On the contrary, in Kurdistan, newspapers and magazines have been shut down and journalists and editors have been summoned to court. (Of course, this is a normal phenomenon when the rule of law holds and does not distinguish between high-ranking criminals, and low-ranking ones, but the paradox is that we do not see one official brought to court for every journalist who is subpoenaed.
Thus it seems that the Black Flood is going awry, becoming an impotent model. According to this model, the government, its officials, and the party media offices produce as much ‘critique’ as the simple citizen or the popular media. Doubtless, given what I have said thus far about the Black Flood, it clear that such critique is entirely lacking in content, but is merely disrespectful critique. Here, logic is equated with illogic, right is made into wrong (what is wrong is called right), and consequently, all notions of right or reason are lost (just as the government intends them to be). This kind of critique is like pulling the rug out from underneath the feet of citizens and popular media. They darken the eyes of citizens and hide reality from them. And critique certainly puts them at no disadvantage. So concerning the officials’ perspective on the Black Flood, let us suppose—hypothetically, and perhaps against our better judgement—that you are correct: Until now, we have not been conscientious before you, and we have not shown the white side as it truly is.
Exasperation of the Popular Media
We need to recognize that the criticisms of popular media pick up one side of the story, and work along this side. Their work is not very systematic, but in fact somewhat chaotic. Until now, editors and managers of popular media (such as those for whom I work), do not hold meetings to examine the quality of their work and revise their common mistakes, even though they are standing before an epidemic of corruption and several other social problems. It also seems to me that even if there are many differences between popular media and certain classes and groups of our society, when it comes to acknowledging corruption, they all agree that this is a problem. Of course, no two sensible humans could disagree on this fact. Even authority figures and party members also recognize this bitter reality. This is despite the fact that much accusation of corruption comes from journalists who pretend to be critics, advertise themselves as such, but in fact they have not moral motivation at all in their work, and their goal is not to bring about positive change in reality. (Perhaps the work of such writers is one of the reasons that criticism is so ineffective.)
Taking a Stand for Self-Improvement
Thus we need to pause for a moment and take a firm stance. Should we examine the defects in our own work? Or shall we only expse the carelessness that runs deep in this government? If the black flood has had no effect, then we need to move to another level and think for ourselves about other mechanisms to deal with the reality in which we live every day. A certain moral and cultural perspective is brought to bear when hundreds of journalists and writers writer about corruption in the government, the swindling of wealth, and endangering the future of the people. These writers cry out, calling the government reckless, saying that it regards them as even less than pesky mosquitoes, taking no account of their work whatsoever. But when an American named Michael Rubin publishes a single article on corruption and the wealth of Kurdish politicians, both presidents are suddenly disturbed and begin to show signs of life. Should the government take account of its own citizens, who are the foundation of its legitimacy, or should it take account of a foreigner? (Those officials whose legitimacy in the government is secure do not complain when the ‘voices on the street’ are ignored, but those officials whose authority is less secure necessarily pay more attention to public opinion because those people are the foundation of their legitimacy.) This brings to mind the opinion of Meriwan Wirya Qana’a, who once said in an interview with Roj TV several years: “If the Ba’athist government muffled the voices of the people, the Kurdish government has made those voices worthless.”
Refreshing the Mass Media
My own opinion is that the mass media of Kurdistan needs to refresh itself and improve itself (partly because the government is showing no signs of improving itself). With this in mind, I want to put forward a proposal for the mass media—particularly those who regard themselves as ‘popular media’ or as ‘opposition,’ which is to say those who take a stand on behalf of their beloved country. My proposal contains four options for participation, only one of which can be realized by any individual media organ:
FIRST, For the duration of one month, popular and opposition media outlets will cease distribution of newspapers, magazines, websites, or radio programs.
SECOND, For one month, those media outlets will distribute their materials, but they will appear in the bazaar as a White Flood—which is to say that their pages will be white or blank.
THIRD, Media outlets will distrubute their materials as a White Flood, but a white flood in the sense that—just as the government and its officials would prefer—they present only the ‘white’ side of the government’s activities: every positive point and every good project will be highlighted, and the courageous declarations of the government will be emphasized. Of course, in this case, we will be able to see how many pages it is possible to fill with such reports.
FOURTH, All of those media outlets will distribute their materials with blank pages on the first day, and the following 29 days, they will remain silent.
In order to accomplish these goals, we will need no less than a month for preparation and advertising the project. Also during this time frame, global media, transparent organizations within the government, journalists syndicates, and those organizations that value human rights should be notified of the project so that they can partiipate in some fashion if they so desire.
Goals of the Project
If journalists and mass media workers believe that through this project, they could communicate something significant to the government, public opinon, and the international community, I can outline a few targets within reach of this project:
- We are sick and tired of the incompetence and carelessness of the government. We are ready to express our exasperation however we can: for now, we are ready to take on this experimental project, but the time is not far off when we will search for more radical ways of expressing ourselves.
- We are prepared to take drastic measures in order to disturb the calm waters—we are even prepared to stop the work that we so dearly love. In doing so, we will also prove that we do not publish our critique in order to popularize ourselves or boost the sales of our newspapers. Rather, this is a serious critique, motivated by a high moral perspective. Our intention is not at all to soil or defame the Kurdish government, as some officials have insisted.
- We are ready to follow whatever path is necessary to bring about the improvement of our government. If focusing on their works can accomplish that task, then that is what we will do. We will not only focus on the ‘black’ side, but this change of perspective will allow us to see how much there is to a ‘white’ side after all.
- More than anything else, this is a golden opportunity for journalists to return to the peaceful freedom that they dearly prize: they will have the opportunity to think of new mechanisms for change, produce more well-researched, better quality articles that can appear after the month of the White Flood.
- Such an event would be so rare in the field of global media that it would create an equally rare opportunity for Kurdsitan to be given the attention of common people, government officials, and media workers all over the world.
- It would be an opportunity for the government to improve itself.
- Most importantly, by means of this project, we can show the international community that the Kurdish people are self-aware. Apart from the politicians, there are other groups and classes which represent a different aspect of life in Kurdistan. We will be able to show the international community that Kurdish people and Kurdish intellectuals are not a blind flock of sheep following after their shepherds’ political thought.
I know that this is a new notion, which many people may find shocking. Some may think that it is impossible, and some people may write it off as useless. But we should not forget that the paths history are often directed by very simply notions. We tried several methods that have proven useless, so let us now try this mechanism and so avoid hopelessness.
We need more than a Black Flood. We need a White Flood. And I hope that the readers of this article will enrich this project with their comments and feedback.
Note: While some of you may think that a month is too long, I have made this suggestion for a few reasons: 1. Many of our newspapers are issued on a weekly basis. Thus if the project were to last for only one week, it would draw very little attention and we would not reach our goals.; 2. A month is necessary for journalists to take a breath and refresh themselves. In fact, this project aims as much to refresh, revitalize, and improve the work of journalists as it does aim to change the government.; 3. Were it to last for less than one month, we would not reach the goal of grabbing the attention of people and media workers all over the world who would report on this event.
This is a translation of an article that was recently published on the websites of Hawlati and Awene, and was published as an editorial in Rojnama earlier this week.
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