Schadenfreude – The Johann Hari Edition

There may be some amongst you who recall a piece of execrable weekend journalism by Johann Hari entitled ‘The Dark Side of Dubai’. It was published in the Independent in 2009 and caused something of a furore in the UAE blogosphere. Most Dubai-based writers accepted that there were (and are) undeniably a lot of problems with Dubai that deserved to be reported on, and that Hari is a very effective writer, if polemic or propaganda are your cup of tea. However, Hari’s article was deeply flawed as a piece of journalism: lacking balance or perspective and filled with jarring stylistic flourishes, sensationalist hyperbole and rhetorical tropes.*

As well as these flaws, a number of Dubai-based bloggers and writers also observed that Hari’s piece contained a number of implausible anecdotes, conveniently apt quotations and exaggerations. Few people were willing to suggest outright fabrication given Hari’s status in the world of journalism, but nagging doubts have stayed with me since then. I am therefore very glad to see that Hari has been caught out recently over his use of quotations and is now facing some very awkward questions over his journalistic conduct.**

I am fully supportive of free speech and the media’s right to investigate; there is certainly plenty about Dubai that can and should be written about. However, if a journalist can actually be bothered, there is more than enough interesting subject matter out there without having to resort to lazy caricature, sensationalism and outright fabrication. It is a pretty damning indictment of the journalistic profession that there have been some journalists lining up to defend Hari’s transgressions and that his rhetorical style has been rewarded with the Orwell Prize for Journalism, particularly given Orwell’s own attitude to language (my emphases):

The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

[…]

Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase — some jackboot, Achilles’ heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other lump of verbal refuse — into the dustbin, where it belongs.

Hari has sought to defend his practice but the fact remains that he has been caught out presenting a false picture to his readers to achieve a rhetorical aim. By presenting these quotes with his own dramatised context and tone, he has shown a disregard for accuracy and truth that calls into question the convenient anecdotes and quotes he has previously presented as fact. The only reason that he has been caught out in this instance is because the quotations have been from famous or prominent individuals: he can be even more cavalier with quotes and events that are below the radar and impossible to properly verify.

I am reminded of something Albert Einstein once said to me, as we had lunch together at a charming Bistro in Penge. He put down his glass of Merlot, fixed me with his gaze and said: “Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either”.

* – Brilliantly parodied and dissected by Chris Saul.

** – Links galore as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

You leave Dubai for a few days…

It transpired that my brief Eid visit to Istanbul coincided perfectly with the eruption of the Dubai World debt furore. I was therefore able to while away the time at Dubai Airport last Friday by reading the anguished reporting of The Times on the issue. I continued to follow the story on the main news sites over the next few days; such was the frenzy of speculation and doom-mongering that I wondered if I was going to return home to find the dystopian vision of Simon Jenkins writ large, or that the entire populace had simply decided to give up and commit mass harakiri.

As our flight back took us over Dubai, I was therefore relieved to see that the buildings remained standing and that the city had neither been consumed by fire nor swallowed by the earth. My concerns were further alleviated when I discovered that the airport had not yet been occupied by a horde of desperate refugees with tear-stained faces and that the residents of our apartment building had yet to resort to cannibalism.

Sarcasm aside, it has certainly been an ‘interesting’ week or so for Dubai and there’s a PR advisor out there somewhere who needs a good kicking. The attempt to downplay the story by releasing the statement just before the Eid and Thanksgiving Holidays backfired spectacularly: the gaps in the story and general unavailability of clear facts meant that media was able to merrily pile in with rampant speculation to fill the vacuum, merrily stoking panic as they did so. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that so many decisions in this region take place behind closed doors and are veiled in secrecy, which meant that even the most august media organisations were largely reduced to playing guessing games and assuming the worst. It was always going to be difficult, but the timing and handling of the announcement turned it into a media maelstrom.

I have been heartened to see at least some damage control being exercised in the last few days, as well as some back-tracking in the international press with some much more professional and balanced articles appearing in the Guardian (here and here) and in the FT. (I would link to the FT article, but annoyingly they limit online access to articles. I think it was in Wednesday’s edition though if you are subscriber.) The first Guardian article is probably one of the most sensible I’ve read about Dubai in the international press (it’s not difficult), simply as a result of possessing some nuance, intelligence and perspective. The second article also has some merit in that the author seems to have at least tried to consider various points of view, but he can’t help lapsing into Guardianista silliness every now and again.

Some of the other more sensible commentary can be found here, here and here. If you are looking for foolish moralising and speculation, I invite you to read the latest offerings from Johann and Simon.  There is also this odd offering in The Times which is worth a read, even though I largely disagree with the author’s claims and conclusions. If time allows I will revisit these, but just in case I invite you to look at a superb response to and parody of Johann’s earlier previous piece on Dubai. If you want to remind yourself of how amusing it is for the British press to be damning other nations for living beyond their means and piling up unsustainable debt, this might serve the purpose and have British citizens googling “how to emigrate to Australia and Canada”.

This story still has a long way to run and dealing with the debt is going to be a long and difficult process. I hope that all the skeletons are out of the closet and if not, that they are in the very near future. I also think that there are going to be very serious questions asked of those financial institutions that lent the money in the first place as more details start to emerge. Arabian Business have a good comment piece on this issue.

I remember going to the UK in the 1980s and 1990s and the word ‘Dubai’ being met with a baffled look, sometimes followed by the question: “Isn’t that near Saudi?”. If nothing else, this has been a reminder that Dubai is now on the map, for good or ill. Its prominence means that it cannot avoid international media scrutiny, but has to try and make this exposure work for it rather than against it. Hopefully Dubai has now learnt just how fickle the press can be and will adapt accordingly. Perhaps it can now get back to generating some more positive headlines, starting with the opening of the Burj Dubai early next year.