During my student days at Dhaka University, the only extra-curricular thing in which I was engaged was working for a few English language daily newspapers published from Dhaka as a contributing writer. The concerned editor in some instances introduced me to the readers as a free lance journalist which probably renders some degree of injustice to my more dedicated colleagues in that universallly revered profession. I came across the news of The Bangladesh Observer's (the newspaper I mostly worked for) closure while at the London School of Economics (LSE) last summer and could not control my agony. I put my a brief comment on a news item in one Bengali newspaper covering Observer's death as one of its former part-time employee to express the hope that somehow 'my Observer would make a glorious resurrection' soon. One lady responded to my comment narrating how difficult it is to find her brother a suitable bride with the fault nothing other than the prospective groom's profession (journalism) !
Anyways, I left the business of writing for newspapers when my student days were not yet over. The position I landed in was that of a Research Associate at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a noted civil society think-tank in Bangladesh. I remember during my interviews, two separate occasions in a span of a year, first recruitment and then confirmation as a permanent research staff, I was asked about my aim in life: journalism or research! [Indeed, on my very first day as an office attending employee, it was slightly difficult for me to respond to a just-become-colleague as to what is the exact reason behind my shift of loyalty across professions! The thing I had a little struggle to hide was that my old office is unfortunately not in a pecuniary condition to pay dues to existing staffs let alone recruiting new hands! Can someone end up becoming a researcher in pursuit of cash?]
As a full-time civil servant now, it is difficult for me to answer an apparently intellecturally demanding question of how related or unrelated these two career paths are. While Paule Krugman would be the most illustrious example to cite, the mediocrities such as me must remain careful before responding to an employer that this issue is pretty personal unless, as an employer it is noticed that the concerned employee is not taking due interest in the assigned tasks!
Admittedly, minimum degree of interest is required to handle a profession even for the mere livelihood sake. HR nerds sum it up as a job satisfaction. While interest for specific jobs is essential to enjoy the profession, ironically on the flip side, too much of that may invite decisively life thereatening moments.
Years ago, I read a few classic pieces and quotes from the Pulitzer winning US journalist Ernie Pyle who, until his death in combat during the World War II wrote as a roving correspondent. The Indiana University, which Pyle left just one semester before graduating, houses the School of Journalism at the Ernie Pyle Hall, pays tribute to Pyle's passion for his profession, "his reporting humanized the war for many of his readers."
Three days ago, the fighting in Libya took the lives of two journalists Tim Hetherington, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Restrepo" and Chris Hondros, a Pulitzer Prize nominated photographer. The two journalists who had been covering the Libyan crisis accompanied the rebels fighting against Moammar Gaddafi's forces and succumbed to fatal injuries when mortars were fired targeting the rebels. The photo that I have attached Honros took few minutes before his death showing a rebel figther running up a burning stairwell during a house-to-house fighting on a Tripoli street .
I don't know what impresion Pyle could leave for his colleagues covering conflicts around the world today, however, if I had any chance to meet Tim or Chris before they took up the Libya assignment, I would surely draw their attention to at least one Pyle quote:
" There is nothing nice about the prospect of going back to war again. Anybody who has been in war and want to go back is a plain damn fool in my book." [Back Again, Feb 6, 1945]
