Tonga celebrates King's 88th birthday
Tuesday, July 4, 2006 - 17:00
Tonga's aging King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV for the first time was unable to attend the July 4 military parade - this year marking his 88th birthday - and the inspection of the parade was carried out by Crown Prince Tupouto'a at Mala'e Pangai in Nuku'alofa.
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Frail King home to Tonga for
Frail King home to Tonga for a big day - ‘Inoke Fotu Hu‘akau, Sydney, Australia
The gap between professional journalism and professional gossiping itches closer to each other this week. Instrumental in closing the gap is Angela Gregory's piece about the King of Tonga returning home, on the Herald (3/7/06) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10389714. The piece was purposely grafted to ridicule or worst to cast derision in guise of reporting.
The serious side of this kind of smarty-pants journalism is the fact that the arrogant form of racial vilification rears its ugly head in different ways regardless of time. The implied message of this kind of reporting is not about the event of the King returning to Tonga, but about vilifying the monarch by making the article a collection of snapshots of events with an overtone of negativity. To be this insensitive to person in that age and state of health, regardless of status, can only point to the deeply rooted racial hatred that this journalist has for the Polynesian community of New Zealand.
If Ms Angela Gregory motive for this article is to make a political point by vilifying the King because of her belief for Tonga to be a democracy, then unless New Zealand moves toward becoming a Republic as a bench mark, both of us would have to agree that we have a fair way to go. But, the kind of cheap trashy journalism that you practice, as evident in the content of this article, in addition to your attitude as implied by the tone of your writing is an affront to those who take the written media as their main source of information.
Journalism as a profession and as always without any doubt plays an integral role in this new age of information and technology. But there are morals, ethics, laws and guidelines that evolve from centuries of practice to prevent this art-form from being an instrument to air the deep asocial beliefs of our personality. Of course, craftsmen can play around with the object of their art for the sake of creativity, but still their purpose is produce something beautiful to behold whether by the eyes or the mind.
The tutored journalist cannot see vilifying a frail King as a beautiful creation by an artist of their profession.
‘Ofa atu,
‘Inoke Fotu Hu‘akau