EDITORIAL
Unwelcome interference, Mr Shum
This week, we ‘ve been counting column inches...
The part of the latest (August 2006) Symi Visitor “Free Monthly” that is not ads (41% of it is ads by the way) consists of:
36% written by Nicholas Shum (the editor)
14% by Adriana Shum (his wife)
25% by non-Greek (i.e. English) contributors (including regulars Hugo Tyler, Rachel Skerry-Papacaldouca, etc.)
5% from Greeks (high this month, it is usually hard to find any Greek contribution at all)
20% can be called "News" or "Information" (selected for inclusion, of course, by Mr Shum)
Apart from the ads, the “Free Monthly” is basically what Mr. Shum wants it to be. If its content were useful, factual, or even nothing more than bland and dull we wouldn’t complain. The problem is that the paper is being used by Mr Shum as a vehicle for pushing forward his personal agenda, and increasingly this agenda is completely contrary to that of the people of Symi.
This month, Mr Shum’s foot was well and truly shoved in his mouth when he spewed forth the Israeli propaganda that “Muslim radicals... may wish to disrupt the evacuations” in Lebanon as “so many groups of western subjects gathered together make a tempting target.” This has prompted several Symi residents to call for his sacking as editor of the “Free Monthly”. Symi’s only Lebanese resident, Ali, the well known joint-proprietor of Pat’s Bar has been particularly distressed. A picket of the Symi Visitor office has even been suggested.
Mr Shum has one more thing to say on the subject before he leaves it though, and how crass he can be is revealed to all. After stating in his editorial that the next in his never-ending series of “Symi in the war” articles has been omitted this month, he says “Celebrating success in warfare seemed a bit tasteless in the light of present events in the Middle East. September, I think.”
Mr Shum’s editorial is usually reserved for his pet peeve. For some time this has been the mayor’s hope of building roads to open up the island’s remoter beaches to tourism. Mr Shum presents a double page spread of a “survey” of local business owners and their views on what Symi’s major problems are. Most of them say it’s traffic in the harbour area. This is understandable and we agree wholeheartedly that the traffic in Yialos can, at times, be too much. The editorial mentions this and then launches into the anti-all-road mode that has come to characterise Mr Shum’s writing (when he’s not writing about the War, that is.) It’s pretty obvious that Mr Shum sees the issues of traffic in the harbour area, and general road-building to open up the island, as being inextricably linked. They are not, and we doubt he could find a single Greek resident of Symi who would agree with him.
On the issue of opening up Symi by road, we believe the Mayor is having no trouble finding support. After all, the old paths that would be replaced when the roads are built account for a fraction of a fraction of a percent of Symi’s surface and so the project would have little environmental impact, opening up the island and its beaches by road would attract far more tourists to Symi than those which the replacement of old paths might deter, and the increase in hire car traffic on Symi that would probably result could be kept away from the harbour area without great difficulty.
Mr Shum seems to want Symi to be stuck in the past, a quaint place for him and his friends to come and colonise. When he writes a line such as “The attraction of what beaches there are is precisely because they are remote and unspoiled”, he fails to say who it is that finds this attractive. This though is the whole point. Mr Shum doesn’t seem to understand that Symi has an “indigenous” population at all, let alone that they may not agree with him. In any case, their opinion would likely be of no interest to him. Mr Shum seems to think that the pesky locals and the leaders they have elected cannot be trusted to keep Symi as he wants it, and so he must abuse his position as editor of the Symi Visitor “Free Monthly” to get his point across, by niggling away at the current mayor and his administration and by trying to make his own views appear the norm on Symi when they are far, far from it.
If Mr Shum is really so passionate about roads, then maybe he should stop using the one from Chorio to Yialos, the harbour road in Pitini, or any of the roads beyond Chorio towards Panormitis as these are relatively new editions to the island. As his editorial says, “the motor car is not, fundamentally, essential” so can we take it that he will be getting rid of the old Lada truck that he drives all over the place? Or did he mean that the motor car is not essential to people other than himself?
We recommend that Mr Shum stays out of politics, both in the World at large and also on Symi. Especially regarding the former, his views would maybe have found more sympathetic ears in the old South Africa which he and his wife chose to abandon soon after Apartheid fell, but on Symi they are neither desirable nor welcome.
So long as the Symi Visitor remains in the prominent position it now occupies, SymiGreece will continue to challenge it when it oversteps the mark, correct it when it is wrong, and complain about it when this is needed. Symi is a place for ALL its residents, and not just a minority of non-Greek migrants with special interests.
The part of the latest (August 2006) Symi Visitor “Free Monthly” that is not ads (41% of it is ads by the way) consists of:
36% written by Nicholas Shum (the editor) 14% by Adriana Shum (his wife) 25% by non-Greek (i.e. English) contributors (including regulars Hugo Tyler, Rachel Skerry-Papacaldouca, etc.) 5% from Greeks (high this month, it is usually hard to find any Greek contribution at all) 20% can be called "News" or "Information" (selected for inclusion, of course, by Mr Shum)
Apart from the ads, the “Free Monthly” is basically what Mr. Shum wants it to be. If its content were useful, factual, or even nothing more than bland and dull we wouldn’t complain. The problem is that the paper is being used by Mr Shum as a vehicle for pushing forward his personal agenda, and increasingly this agenda is completely contrary to that of the people of Symi.
This month, Mr Shum’s foot was well and truly shoved in his mouth when he spewed forth the Israeli propaganda that “Muslim radicals... may wish to disrupt the evacuations” in Lebanon as “so many groups of western subjects gathered together make a tempting target.” This has prompted several Symi residents to call for his sacking as editor of the “Free Monthly”. Symi’s only Lebanese resident, Ali, the well known joint-proprietor of Pat’s Bar has been particularly distressed. A picket of the Symi Visitor office has even been suggested.
Mr Shum has one more thing to say on the subject before he leaves it though, and how crass he can be is revealed to all. After stating in his editorial that the next in his never-ending series of “Symi in the war” articles has been omitted this month, he says “Celebrating success in warfare seemed a bit tasteless in the light of present events in the Middle East. September, I think.”
Mr Shum’s editorial is usually reserved for his pet peeve. For some time this has been the mayor’s hope of building roads to open up the island’s remoter beaches to tourism. Mr Shum presents a double page spread of a “survey” of local business owners and their views on what Symi’s major problems are. Most of them say it’s traffic in the harbour area. This is understandable and we agree wholeheartedly that the traffic in Yialos can, at times, be too much. The editorial mentions this and then launches into the anti-all-road mode that has come to characterise Mr Shum’s writing (when he’s not writing about the War, that is.) It’s pretty obvious that Mr Shum sees the issues of traffic in the harbour area, and general road-building to open up the island, as being inextricably linked. They are not, and we doubt he could find a single Greek resident of Symi who would agree with him.
On the issue of opening up Symi by road, we believe the Mayor is having no trouble finding support. After all, the old paths that would be replaced when the roads are built account for a fraction of a fraction of a percent of Symi’s surface and so the project would have little environmental impact, opening up the island and its beaches by road would attract far more tourists to Symi than those which the replacement of old paths might deter, and the increase in hire car traffic on Symi that would probably result could be kept away from the harbour area without great difficulty.
Mr Shum seems to want Symi to be stuck in the past, a quaint place for him and his friends to come and colonise. When he writes a line such as “The attraction of what beaches there are is precisely because they are remote and unspoiled”, he fails to say who it is that finds this attractive. This though is the whole point. Mr Shum doesn’t seem to understand that Symi has an “indigenous” population at all, let alone that they may not agree with him. In any case, their opinion would likely be of no interest to him. Mr Shum seems to think that the pesky locals and the leaders they have elected cannot be trusted to keep Symi as he wants it, and so he must abuse his position as editor of the Symi Visitor “Free Monthly” to get his point across, by niggling away at the current mayor and his administration and by trying to make his own views appear the norm on Symi when they are far, far from it.
If Mr Shum is really so passionate about roads, then maybe he should stop using the one from Chorio to Yialos, the harbour road in Pitini, or any of the roads beyond Chorio towards Panormitis as these are relatively new editions to the island. As his editorial says, “the motor car is not, fundamentally, essential” so can we take it that he will be getting rid of the old Lada truck that he drives all over the place? Or did he mean that the motor car is not essential to people other than himself?
We recommend that Mr Shum stays out of politics, both in the World at large and also on Symi. Especially regarding the former, his views would maybe have found more sympathetic ears in the old South Africa which he and his wife chose to abandon soon after Apartheid fell, but on Symi they are neither desirable nor welcome.
So long as the Symi Visitor remains in the prominent position it now occupies, SymiGreece will continue to challenge it when it oversteps the mark, correct it when it is wrong, and complain about it when this is needed. Symi is a place for ALL its residents, and not just a minority of non-Greek migrants with special interests.