WHEN all else fails, shoot the messenger.
In days of yore, the powers that be would also cut off their heads or throw them to the crocodiles to vent their frustration at receiving bad news.
And we are not just talking about carrier pigeons here.
It’s supposed to be a metaphorical phrase these days, but journalists around the world are still being ‘taken out’, probably more to hide the truth than for just delivering unwanted news.
Anyway, dear readers, please don’t ‘shoot’’ us for shouting about all that is wrong on the South Coast at the moment.
We are just as reliant as you on the prosperity of our piece of paradise and we realise that some stories might be damaging to our reputation.
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We know that Tourism is doing everything it can to attract holidaymakers and Vicky Wentzel is bubbling with enthusiasm for the Bike Festival coming up in April.
But what good would it do to just brush all-that’s-bad under the carpet and hope it goes away?
The bottom line is that the coast is literally in the @#%!… t!
Never mind the annoying drip-drip water supplies, some of our rivers and lagoons are now ‘deadly toxic’.
If it wasn’t for our crusading journalist Shona Aylward, ward councillor Dave Watson and his party colleagues, the general public would be none the wiser. Official statements from Ugu District Municipality are just downright lame.
By the way, why are many other Ugu and Ray Nkonyeni councillors so quiet? Maybe they are content to ‘blame it on DD’ (Ugu municipal manger), just like everyone else?
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We have already had the experience of hundreds of people ending up in hospitals over the festive season, many because of the ‘mysterious’ sewage flow into the Ivungu River. The jury’s still out on that one and now even more @#%!…t has hit the fan.
The only way the Herald found out about the latest disaster was because Shona’s keen nose for news (and the pong) told her to follow a ‘honey sucker’.
This is why people normally like to shoot the messenger:
* They are already under pressure;
* They do not feel in control of the situation;
* They do not know how to resolve the problem.
Hence their solution: Yell at the person who brought the bad news.
We offer another solution:
C2Wiki: “Blow up the problem and invite the messenger to help you scream. Make it clear that you see the messenger as a partner in solving the problem, not as its cause.”
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