These are some of the burdens journalists bear. When “off the record” makes you a therapist of sorts. When you are given information that you can’t use, even when it eats away at you.
When a man responsible for drafting our laws is the same man who breaks them every night with his own flesh and blood. How I shudder every time I see his face on TV."
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“Congratulations for being a great mum!” I have heard this a few times and it always makes me feel uncomfortable. Being a good parent — whatever we think that entails – is our job, right? Why should we be congratulated for what we are supposed to be doing in the first place?
Unfortunately, the bar has been set pretty low when it comes to parenting. I know someone who tossed out his teenage son and daughter.
But her husband stands on the national stage and gives lectures about good governance. He speaks out about corruption. He wants Kenya to be a better place.
“Congratulations for fighting for the common man,” he is told all the time.
Fighting for the common man but leaving his kids destitute? Right. That’s a hero right there.
There’s a member of Parliament who has been defiling his teenage girls since they were eight years old. Their mother knows about it. She asks them to bear it because she cannot afford to take care of them herself.
The older one wrote to me years ago, confided in me and asked me never to expose her father.
These are some of the burdens journalists bear. When “off the record” makes you a therapist of sorts. When you are given information that you can’t use, even when it eats away at you.
So maybe you and I need to hear congratulations after all, because we live in a sick, sick society. We are so used to mediocrity that we say congratulations even to elected officials for doing their job. By all means, let’s give them a pat on the back.
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