Dichotomy

To blog or not to blog, that is the question

Published Date: November 15, 2007
By Shamael Al-Sharikh, Staff columnist




It is never an easy task to accept public criticism. By public criticism, I mean both being criticized by the public, and in public. Simply put, it is an embarrassing thing to endure, regardless of whether the criticism has any merit or not.

In this cyber age we are living in, public criticism through the internet has taken on new heights. Anyone can open a blog or make a videotape of his own ranting and post it on YouTube or simply send a forward to all those on his email list and voila, the damage is done. There are no laws to control opinions and it is possible but very difficult to track the person posting negative opinions.

The reason I am bringing up this issue is because a good friend of mine and I recently talked about a blog that is aimed at criticizing a particular workplace, and that has incredibly offensive remarks about the individuals working in it. Based on comments I have heard from those workers, most of the remarks are baseless, immature, and written by people with very little work experience, or very little formal education.

To put it succinctly, the blog is awful, and will never have the public opinion weight that other Kuwaiti blogs have. However, it does have a substantial readership, as my friend rightly pointed out. The readers may click on it for cheap amusement, or curiosity, but the fact of the matter remains that they keep clicking on it, which makes it difficult to ignore the blog.

I am not a lawyer, so I am not familiar with any legal implications of the criticisms made in this blog. Could it be seen as slander? Maybe. However, if we use this basis, it can be applied to the umpteen blogs that insult our ministers and political leaders. No one is stopping them, and this blog should not be treated any differently.

The question that begs an answer is; what do we do about this blog?

In my humble opinion, we do nothing. There is nothing to be done with criticism except refute it in the same forum in which it was made. Alternatively, you can create another forum and refute the latter criticism made in it. You may write about it on the papers, or even speak about it on TV, depending on how crucial the topic of discussion is. However there is nothing you can do to actually stop a person from criticizing you, your issues, or even a person or indeed a cause that is dear and near to your hea
rt. You just have to deal with it.

This is the twist with blogging. You can say anything you want on the blog, but be prepared to hear things said about you. If this is a difficult task to endure, I say do not visit that blog anymore. You may also wish to investigate further and find out who the blog owner is and possibly meet her or him to clear away any grievances or misunderstandings. Short of that, there is very little that can be done against a blog. When it comes to blogging, the only saying that comes to mind is; if you can't stand t
he heat, get out of the kitchen.

Email: Shamael@kuwaittimes.net

Letters to Shamael

Dear Shamael,

Your recent column "How do we deal with the current high prices?" (published on November 13, 2007) touches an important issue. I hope these concerns will not fall upon deaf ears. However, I do feel that the proposed "second answer" to dealing with the high cost of living in Kuwait, namely raising governmental salaries, would only exacerbate the problem.

Firstly, this would benefit mainly Kuwaiti citizens. Just because most or many Kuwaiti citizens are employed in governmental agencies, this doesn't mean that they alone are entitled to a pay increase. Kuwait is home to more non-citizens than citizens. They are all equally impacted by the rising cost of goods. Raising the salary of government employees would not help those who need the most help.

Of course a pay increase that would affect every single worker in Kuwait would be quite impossible to regulate. So a salary raise would not come close to solving this problem. A cap on the rising prices is the only solution in this picture. Let's hope the National Assembly cares enough for the people of this country, both the citizens and non-citizens, to actually do something before this spirals out of control!

Thanks,

Lily