Conversations (II)
Working in the media can be REALLY bad! lol.
An SMS conversation with a very good friend:-
Friend: Dear all, after xx years, it’s time to say goodbye to xmediax. It’s been a pleasure knowing you and do keep in touch.
Me: You got the job! Congrats! I’m gonna miss you so badly! Big hugs!
Friend: Actually, I haven’t yet. I just couldn’t take it anymore!
Don’t we all feel this way sometimes? But how bad does it need to be before we call it quits? How much crap can we tolerate? And how much are we willing to dish it back and tell our bosses, “Screw you! I’m worth more than that pittance you pay me!”
lol.
It got me thinking. For some, employment is a choice. For those less fortunate, employment is a luxury and a necessity.
I met up with two girlfriends yesterday. They are what I would casually term as ‘high-flying’ lawyers because that is just how I simply envision life in their famous law firms would be. Ternyata I was very wrong. Turns out they pull in six days of work in a week, late hours up to 2am to pacify demanding clients and partners. I’m sure their pay scale is easily more than twice if not triple of mine but at what price? To sacrifice personal time with loved ones, hobbies, weekend activities, hidden passion or even activism?
What needs to happen before they snap and call it quits? Or will one be enslaved into a culture where your job demands more out of you instead of the other way around? Capitalist theories comes to mind. Long live capital but how much are our souls really worth?
Another friend quit practice a few months ago and wanted to join the NGO line in working with refugees. The NGO - prominent one at that - could not afford the pay she is asking for. She did not get the job in the end. So what does this show? That bottomline, money is your master, economics is your boss. Happiness and all that jazz is just a figment of our idealistic imagination.
I’d like to think I’m a fighter. Just like that media friend of mine that quit her job. I am convince I have passions and dreams. I just need the balls to make them all come true :)
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On an unrelated not, there’s a blogger versus journalist debate out there right now. I’m unclear whether this debate deserve publicity but it is safe to say this is not the first blogger vs journo debate around.
I remember how Haris Ibrahim named a colleague of mine for a story that was allegedly misreported. Haris did so based on his source, Lil’ Hummingbird. Turns out later, my colleague’s piece was spot on and there was no misreporting. Haris apologised in the very next post. Question remains, all the harsh words used against my colleague by random commentators with random nicknames were not retracted. About 40 seemingly rude and uncalled-for comments targetted at my colleague and Mkini, were never apologised for. They remain to be seen to this day and I guess we can all judge for ourselves - the level of maturity and wisdom that my colleague, Haris, Lil’ Hummingbird and the random commentators have.
I’m a blogger and a journalist. Is it hard to reconcile? Let’s just say some bloggers do give the blogging community a bad name. But that is just like a controlled media giving press freedom a bad name. When bloggers attack journalists, I often plead for them to understand what a journalist goes through and what actually goes on in a newsroom. When journalists attacks bloggers, I then plead for them to see that it’s just conversation or an opinion and not a conviction.
When I see the two at loggerheads, it reinforces the fact that Malaysians are truly not ready for responsible freedom of speech. And civility will often eventually spiral into personal mud-slinging because of clashed egos. So who’s right between the two? Nobody. And it stings cos both involved are friends of mine. I can only pray that cooler heads will prevail.