Serious & Soulful - Mohannad Khatib to AlJazeera Talk on the illusive ATV story

Something happened today. Someone decided to talk.

There may actually be hope of a wider conversation about the ATV fiasco afterall. Former ATV MD who gave an-almost birth to the station has a soulful word with AlJazeera Talk - click to read in Arabic.


If we are to move forward, this dialog needs to continue. But how do we engage the silent parties? How do we convince them that the only way to learn and heal is thru confronting our fears and screw ups?!

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from a Jordanian research center asking about the volume of doc productions in Jordan. When I asked what his study was for, he started to say, 'you know, this country has been talking and working on reform for yea..."

I immediately laughed into the phone and cut him off saying, "good luck with that study".

There is no reform without a loud conversation with each other. There is no reform if we cannot hold the mirror up and say, oh shit! There is no reform if we continue to sweep things under the carpet, which covers not a floor but a bloody landfill it seems! There is no reform with fear. There is no reform with silence. And those with amnesia should not be allowed to even use the word.

Semantics should be honored, and delivering on it should be sacred. We use language so loosely these days. We use big words with little respect to them or to ourselves. When it comes to media, multimedia, content creation and access - I think we should refrain from using the six letter word 'reform' for a while; at least until we are ready to implement the real and very important and very difficult work that comes with it.

A dear departed once said, "what we are and what we aspire to be are two totally different things".