WHY HIDE OUR PROBLEMS? [Archives:2000/21/Viewpoint]

I was quite disappointed with the reaction of some -but not all- officials in regards to the Sana’a University, Faculty of Medicine’s incident that raised a lot of local and international concern. These officials, requested softly not to publish anything about this incident on the 10th anniversary celebration.
However, we obviously did publish the story because our duty is to publish what is new to be informative and effective, rather than passive and non-productive. We cannot support the view of ignoring an event of such macabre proportions that has shaken attention of the world. Occurrence of such incidents may not be a shame on us because they happen all the time, even in the most developed countries. But we would bury our heads in shame if we try to ignore the case, even for a temporary time. This does not show that we are smart, but rather it shows our weakness, and inability to handle such situations when needed. It would have been a better move on the part of the government, if they just said, “OK, this is a problem that happened, we may use the help of the media to reveal its mysteries and help in bringing the criminals to justice.” If that would have been done, not only would the citizens respect the government more, but even the delegations that are visiting us today would do so as well. The whole world would respect such a move. At least, they would appreciate the government’s efforts not to hide its problems, but rather confront them aand try to solve them in front of everyone. Walid Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf

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