Remnants: The deadly legacy of the Soviet Union’s biological warfare program.

Biological warfare. It is a term that can cause widespread panic and fear at its mere intimation. However, during the Cold War both the United States and the Soviet Union produced and stockpiled huge quantities of lethal germs and toxins which were intended for use against the opposite side in the event of a full-blown war. Whilst President Nixon ended all aspects of the US biological weapons project designed exclusively for ‘offensive use’ in 1969, the Soviets continued to research, produce and subsequently genetically alter germs and toxins right up until the programme was officially dismantled in 1992. This was despite signing the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972 – a international agreement designed to ban the production of biological agents.

Why did the Russians continue? Simple: they highly doubted that the US had any intention of upholding their end of the BWC bargain, and so continued to manufacture germ warfare in secret for decades. The results would be nothing short of catastrophic.

 

Soviet Biological Capability

The Soviet Bioweapons project – or ‘Biopreparat’ – was of a mammoth scale; capable of producing over 100 tonnes of weaponised bacterial agents per annum at its peak in the mid to late 1970s. Some of the diseases that were cultivated and converted into weapons include smallpox, anthrax, plague, typhus, tularaemia, Q Fever, botulism and the Marburg virus. As well as germs designed to target the human population of a country, the Soviets developed weaponised versions of bacteria that would kill ‘food animals’ (such as rinderpest, a disease that is fatal to cattle). In this way they could, if necessary, starve a country into submission during a war by decimating it’s livestock.

By all accounts there were over 50 clandestine weapons manufacturing facilities across the Soviet Union, employing around 50,000 military and civilian personnel. Safety and containment protocols were often critically inefficient, and thus it is no wonder that there were several serious containment breaches which resulted in deaths amongst the local population…and extensive government cover-ups. Whilst I will detail two of these incidents below, don’t for a second think that these are the only two such incidents. Due to the secretive nature of the Russian government it is likely that we will never know just how many times biological agents escaped from Soviet-era labs or polluted the environment due to deliberate release.

 

The Sverdlovsk Anthrax Incident

In 1979 inside a specially built bioweapons facility, a horrific chain of events were set in motion by a simple communication error. Inside the secret government anthrax lab, there was a drying room which was used to dehydrate anthrax spores into a fine white powder; this could then be aerosolised and used against the enemy – producing a mortality rate of 90% without treatment. On the last evening of March in 1979, a maintenance worker removed one of the filters from the exhaust chimney in order to clean it. He did so and then left a note to his superiors advising them of his actions and stating that the filter should be put back into place before the drying machines were turned back on.

His note was summarily ignored and the machines were restarted the following morning with nothing to separate the drying anthrax powder from the outside world. Highly deadly weaponised spores spilled unhindered into the atmosphere surrounding the laboratory and during the following days all of the workers at a ceramic factory fell ill with the disease. The leak was traced back to Sverdlovsk when it was found that the ceramic plant had been directly downwind of the anthrax drying facility at the time of the incident, and the only thing that all of the victims had in common was their place of work. Animals in the area also became sick and died within a week of being exposed to the spores.

At least 105 people died from inhalation anthrax as a result of this blunder, and the Communist party attempted to hush the incident up – falsifying medical records and having the KGB destroy relevent evidence from Sverdlovsk. It is thought that the death toll is higher that the official number, which was only released in 1992 at the fall of the Soviet Union. Whilst the laboratory at Sverdlovsk has ‘officially’ been closed down, armed men with attack dogs still patrol the closed compound and – some reports state – that work has moved to underground laboratories which are still working with dangerous pathogens.

 

The Aral Sea Incident

In 1971 the Soviet Union was secretly preparing to field test an aerosolised version of the smallpox virus which had been weaponised to emphasise its haemorrhagic properties – thus making it more lethal. From their extensive research complex on Vozrozhdeniya Island (now joint property of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) the Soviets exploded a canister of smallpox which had been placed in a remote area of the island, most of which was barren desert.

Approximately nine miles from the island, a research vessel was surveying plankton from the Aral Sea. Over the next few days one of the crew developed smallpox symptoms, despite having already been vaccinated against the virus. From there, small outbreaks of the disease occurred in two Uzbek cities and three people died from a haemorrhagic form of the smallpox virus.

The Soviet response to this outbreak was swift however, and the outbreak was quickly arrested through mass vaccination of the population of the Aral Sea region, quarantine of suspected cases and the disinfection of thousands of suspected ‘contaminated goods’. The fact that the disease had escaped from the research complex at Vozrozhdeniya however, did not become public knowledge until 2002.

However, twenty-six years after it was abandoned by the dissolving Soviet Union, Vozrozhdeniya is still a haunting place with unmitigated lethal potential…

 

Vozrozhdeniya Island Today

In 1991 the Soviets retreated from the Aral Sea region and abandoned their biological research lab on Vozrozhdeniya (codenamed ‘Aralsk-7’) virtually overnight. At its peak, the island held 1,500 inhabitants – all of whom either worked on the biological warfare program or were immediate family members of the workers – and also had shops, schools, an airfield and even a small football stadium. This small city came to be known as ‘Kantubek’, and it was as secretive as America’s Area 51 is deemed to be today.

Kantubek is still there. As a ghost town.

Nobody lives there as the ground is – probably quite rightly – seen as ‘polluted’. Occasionally groups of Uzbek or Kazakh nomads will visit the island in search of copper and other scrap metal that they can salvage from the decaying buildings, but other than that…the island is an unofficial ‘no-go zone’.

The real ‘nightmare fuel’ of this story is this: when Kantubek was abandoned and left to rot, so was the super-secret germ warfare facility at nearby Aralsk-7. In the apparent hurry to leave Vozrozhdeniya Island, many containers of lethal, genetically modified diseases were either smashed on the ground and abandoned, or were stored in inappropriate containers – which have now developed leaks. As a result, the island (which is dangerously close to becoming a peninsula due to the drop in water levels in the Aral Sea) is now seen as one of the most dangerous and polluted places on the face of the Earth. Don’t believe that the Soviets just smashed Petri dishes and test tubes full of lethal viruses? Don’t believe that anyone could be so soulcrushingly irresponsible? See below:

This is one of the many highly dangerous refuse areas on Vozrozhdeniya today. A team of photographers and journalists had to abandon their venture to the site after their ventilators became overloaded with chemical agents mere 15 minutes into the complex. It is thought that the toxins that remain at Vozrozhdeniya have been responsible for several bubonic plague outbreaks in the area as well as the mass death of Saiga antelope – 50,000 of which dropped dead one hour after grazing on the contaminated steppe land downwind.

Whilst the anthrax burial sites (inside which drums containing hundreds of tonnes of weaponised anthrax spores lay abandoned) on the island have now been officially decontaminated, the land is still considered to be highly dangerous. Nobody knows what else lurks beneath the soil, or may still linger in the air. We can but hope that all of the weaponised germs have been accounted for, as the consequences of a nihilist terrorist organisation such as ISIS obtaining these Soviet-era super-germs would be totally and utterly unthinkable.

 

“What’s the point in truth or beauty or knowledge when anthrax bombs are popping all around you?” – Aldous Huxley.

–Apologies to my readers–

 

Apologies for my recent hiatus. I have been afflicted by this awful Australian Flu thing that’s currently ravaging the world. So, please do accept my apologies. Developing World Tuesdays will resume next week, as well as other frequent news stories.

In-keeping with the current theme of illness, my post today will revolve around altogether more sinister diseases…with altogether more sinister purposes….

 

 

“Interesting things always come from being really exhausted and really sick” – Adam Driver.

 

North Korea: Society inside the ‘Secret State’.

 

So today’s post will be a little shorter than yesterday’s hard slog through DACA legislation, you’ll be heartened to hear! We will be focussing on the world’s only remaining ‘hermit state’ – North Korea, or as it is also known, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Whilst North Korea has opened its borders a little in the last decade or so – mainly for tourism purposes – it still remains an enigma to the outside world. Approximately 4,000 – 4,500 Western tourists visit the nation annually; the actual number of tourists is much higher, but 95% of the total number are thought to originate from China – a country which has long been a close ally of the North Korean regime.

However, every aspect of a visit to this secretive nation is highly controlled by government approved tourism agencies such as Koryo Group. Tourists are not allowed to deviate from the specified tour itinerary – mainly made up of sites of political relevance – and they are kept forever under the watchful eyes of the government ‘minders’ who accompany the group. The tours are designed to showcase the DPRK and it’s government in the best light possible and visitors are kept away from the dark underbelly of the country stringently. All you need to do is look at the few documentaries that undercover journalists have posted on YouTube and you will see tourists being told sharply by the tour guide(s) not to photograph scenes outside the windows of the tour bus as it passes by. Scenes such as local people picking through the dirt at the roadside to find food, or virtually empty market-stalls which highlight the country’s ever present food shortage. Tours to North Korea portray the nation through rose-tinted glass. You have to dig deeper to find the real North Korea, and to see how it’s citizens truly live.

So below I have compiled some little known facts about North Korea, designed to give you an insight into this undeniably bizarre state.

1) North Korea is the world’s only true ‘Necrocracy’. This means that it is a government that still operates under the rule (or the set of rules laid down by) a dead leader. Until his death in 1994, Kim Il-Sung (known by North Koreans as ‘The Great Leader’) ruled North Korea; a post he had held since the end of the Korean War and the separation of the two Koreas. After his death, he was declared ‘Eternal President’ and has thus retained his position as Supreme Leader of the DPRK – even attaining God-like status in the minds of the North Korean populace. In 1998, according to The Times newspaper, rather than listening to the then leader of the country – Kim Jong-Il – make a speech, the North Korean Assembly instead listened, enraptured, to a tape-recording of a speech made by the late Eternal President. North Korean citizens over the age of 16 are required to wear two lapel badges whenever they leave home – one depicting the Great Leader, Kim Il-Sung, and the other depicting his now-deceased son – Grand Marshal, Kim Jong-Il. Leaving home without one is deemed an ‘anti-Kim offence’ and those found doing so are frequently punished or face Maoist-style ‘self-criticism sessions’.

2) North Korea’s political ideology is NOT communist, contrary to popular belief. They have a unique ideology called ‘Juche’, which roughly translates as ‘self Reliance’s, and was introduced by founding father, Kim Il-Sung. Basically, the theory behind Juche is that each North Korean citizen should be a ‘master of the Revolution’, help the nation become self-reliant by tireless work and thus build the DPRK into a true beacon of socialism. The symbols of Juche are a flaming torch, and the typical Communist hammer and sickle motif…with the addition of a paintbrush in the centre to symbolise North Korean artists and intellectuals.

3) Each North Korean citizen has a form of unique political karma called ‘Songbun’. This is calculated based on the social, political and economic activities of your ancestors and your living relatives. Their general trustworthiness and any run-ins with the military or the police will also be factored into your own ascribed Songbun. By all accounts there are over 50 different categories you can be assigned to and, whilst ‘losing’ Songbun and being ‘demoted’ a category or two is apparently quite easy….gaining Songbun is notoriously hard to do. Why is Songbun so important? Simple. It can affect everything to do with your life and that of your spouse/children. From what jobs you are eligible for, to what education you can receive…even to the amount of food you are eligible to receive under government rationing.

4) There is a ‘Three Generations of Punishment’ law in North Korea. If you commit a crime or are found guilty of political dissidence, you are sent to prison (or more usually in North Korea, a hard labour camp). However you do not go alone – your family will often be sentenced alongside you for the same crime. In some reports all three generations of a family will suffer the same fate as you – that’s your parents and your children. In other reports it is the two generations of your family that will descend from you – so that’s your children and your grandchildren. Either way, it is a particularly nasty and Draconian punishment system that sheds a lot of light on why North Koreans were so eager to show their grief to the cameras on the dead of Kim Jong-Il in 2011. They did not want their children ending up in work camps due to ‘a parent not affording the proper respect to the passing of the Grand Marshal’.

5) North Korea has concentration camps. Yes, you read that right. Completely isolated from the outside world, families are sentenced to a lifetime of hard labour, unrelenting torture and starvation. The most famous of these camps are Yodok (about 70 miles from the capital, Pyongyang) and Hoeryong (five miles from the northeastern border with China). The camps are both surrounded by natural barriers, such as rivers and tall mountains, which prevents them from being seen by the outside world. Below however is a photograph that purports to show prisoners inside the fence at Yodok concentration camp:

As might be expected, the North Korean government initially denied that these camps existed – and then when the installations appeared on satellite images – insisted that the camps had already been decommissioned and closed down.

However, escapees who have defected from North Korea have come forward with stories of torture and barbarity that rival the Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz. One such man is Kim Kwang-Il who spent over two years Jeongeori concentration and documented the daily human rights abuses through a series of harrowing illustrations. One illustration, depicting methods of repetitive torture that the guards employed against the emaciated inmates, is shown below:

Another such escapee is Kim Young-Soon who spent nine years as an inmate of Yodok camp. Both of her parents and her eight-year-old son died of disease and starvation whilst they served her sentence alongside her, as per North Korea’s ‘Three Generations of Punishment’ law. Upon her successful defection from the country, she told officials how many inmates used to eat dirt to try and survive, whilst others lost limbs to frostbite or succumbed to insanity through repeated torture. She urged potential tourists to ‘stay away’ from the country so as not to inadvertently support an ‘evil’ regime with their money.

 

In conclusion, there is more to North Korea than a frequently malfunctioning nuclear weapons program. The stories of the country’s oppressed masses deserve a more prominent space on the world stage so that we can honour the vows that were made at the conclusion of World War II – we can never, ever allow something like Auschwitz, or Treblinka or Dachau to happen again. Ever. If we know about such atrocities – like those that occur at Yodok and Hoeryong – and do nothing…does that make us any better than the perpetrators?

 

Losing DACA?: The possible implications for America’s ‘Dreamers’.

Today’s story comes from the United States and focuses on the acronym that’s blanketed the airwaves for the last few months – DACA. It also focuses on the heartbreaking tale of a man named Jorgé Garcia who, in January 2018, was separated from his family and forcibly deported to Mexico after nearly 30 years of living in America.

First things first, shall we?

What actually is DACA?

‘DACA’ stands for ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ and is a federal government program in the US which was created in 2012 under Barack Obama. The act affords people who were brought to the country illegally as children (under 16) the right to temporarily live, study and work in America. To apply for consideration under DACA a person must have completed school, be a current student or have served in the armed forces; they must also have no criminal convictions of any kind and be deemed ‘not a threat to national security’. If successful in their application, legal action to deport the individual is suspended for two years – and possibly for longer if the application is successfully renewed. Oh, and they also become eligible for basic things like the right to hold a driving license or attend college (university). These people are known as The Dreamers.

Called ‘Dreamers’ after the failed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (Dream) Act that Obama tried to pass through Congress. Whilst the Dreamer Act would have afforded these children permanent legal status as citizens of the United States….DACA only offers the deferred deportation process as described above. Most Dreamers are of Latino ethnicity and arrived in America from Central American countries, most notably Mexico.

Why all the fuss about DACA?

In September 2017, President Trump announced that he would be ending the DACA program as of March 2018 and any new applications would not be considered. This would mean that, in one month’s time, c. 800,000 young Dreamers would face deportation back to a country that many of them will have no memory of. They would find themselves homeless on the streets of – what is to all intents and purposes – a ‘foreign’ country, with little or no family in the area to support them. It is a bleak prospect indeed for those affected.

Luckily, President Trump has since been blocked from scrapping the program by a federal judge (much to the President’s infamous ire) and the DACA issue was one of the key agendas that prompted the recent shutdown of the US government as Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a DACA-related bargain. A final decision has still not been reached regarding the fate of c. 800,000 young Dreamers in America and the President’s stance towards DACA changes on a seemingly hourly basis. We can but hope that a deal is reached which protects America’s Dreamers. Soon. Lest we see more cases like the heart-rending story of Jorgé Garcia…

Jorgé Garcia

What does this man have to do with DACA and why do I keep mentioning him? Well his story is – I feel – a very powerful, emotional and important one which we should all be aware of. We should ruminate on the emotional and psychological impact that his story will have upon his family and friends. We should make it our mission to prevent similar things from ever occurring again.

Jorgé Garcia was brought to the United States of America from Mexico when he was ten years old. It is unknown who brought him across the border (most newspapers cite the person responsible only as an ‘unknown relative’), but what is certain is that he was brought across the border illegally.

That was almost thirty years ago.

In the years since arriving in the United States, Mr Garcia settled down in Lincoln Park, Michigan, married an American citizen, had two children (also American citizens) and worked as a landscaper. By all accounts he had no criminal record and he paid all of his taxes yearly. He was a normal, run-of-the-mill family man.

However, in 2009 a ‘Removal Order’ was issued for Mr Garcia as he had entered the country illegally…albeit not by his own choice and as a minor. The Garcia family fought hard for his right to remain in the United States and his deportation order was stayed by the Obama administration whilst the family looked for a way to make their husband/father a ‘legal citizen’.

Mr. Garcia did not qualify for DACA when it was introduced in 2012 as he was 33 years of age. Why is this important? The DACA bill stipulates that to qualify for consideration a person’s age on June 15th 2012 (the bill’s induction date) must not have exceeded 31 years. And so, despite coming into the country at age ten – well below the cut-off age of 16 – Jorgé Garcia did not qualify for the protection of DACA. His family continued to battle to make him a legal citizen, incurring legal fees of over $125,000.

That is, of course, until the Trump administration came to power. Legislation changed and Mr. Garcia found himself unable to delay the Removal Order any longer. On January 15th 2018 (Martin Luther King Day) immigration agents escorted Mr. Garcia to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, he pulled his family close in one final goodbye embrace…before being ushered through customs to board a plane ‘home’ to Mexico. Protesters stood silently nearby holding placards that read ‘Stop Separating Families’ as other travelers arriving at the airport looked on with sympathy and concern.

Below is a photograph of Jorgé Garica, his wife, his daughter (15) and his son (12) as they wept together before being separated. You can also find a video of this event on YouTube or Vimeo, but it’s content is – as one might expect – highly emotional and tear-jerking.

Mr. Garcia has now returned to a country he left when he was ten years old. He probably has very little memory of his ‘homeland’ and it is unknown whether he has any property or family remaining in Mexico. He now faces a potential ten-year ban preventing his re-entry to the USA, although his wife – Cindy Garcia – has stalwartly vowed to fight the government at every twist and turn to ensure that her husband is returned to her. At the very least it will be 18 months before a meeting can be arranged at the Mexican Consulate to discuss his ‘legal Green Card status’.

He is 39 years old and has spent almost 30 of those years in the United States. He married an American. His children are American. He worked for American customers. He paid tax to the American IRS…

…I ask you, HOW IS AMERICA NOT THIS MAN’S HOMELAND?! His wife is now without her husband; his children, without their father. The sheer psychological shock of an event like this on his family will be earthshakingly terrible. This should not be allowed to happen. Surely this is a breach of human rights?! However, if DACA is abolished this situation will be repeated all over the United States.

Immigration is something that must be controlled, yes, but the Obama administration’s DACA agreement should be honoured. The Dreamers should be afforded protection from a fate similar to that of Mr. Garcia. American families should not be torn apart in such an inhumane manner. The scene that played out at Detroit airport in January is one that – in my opinion – should never be repeated again.

 

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” – Emma Lazarus (an excerpt from the quote on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty).

Developing World Tuesday #1: Insidious disease spreading in Middle Africa?

So first of all let me start this article by making two statements:

a) I have decided that from now on every Tuesday will be ‘Developing World Tuesday’. I will focus on issues facing the developing world, news stories emerging from those nations, and I will try to showcase individuals who I feel have really made a difference in their countries.

b) This is not an opportunity to pass judgement on the developing world. Not every story will be about famine, civil strife, illegal poaching and war. However it is important that we recognise that some of the issues facing the developing world are much, much different to the issues that we face in the so-called ‘developed world’. It is also important that we recognise that, as unfortunate as it may be, places like the African subcontinent and the Former Soviet Republics often slip through the net when it comes to the reporting of mainstream news. I will endeavour to rectify this in part through these ‘Developing World Tuesdays’.

 

Right…now on with the show.

 

Insidious Disease Spreading In Middle Africa?

So…an alarming story flashed across my dashboard today. In December 2017 three people died in South Sudan due to contracting a disease which is commonly being referred to as ‘Bleeding Eyes Fever’. The situation then escalated somewhat in January 2018 when – across the southern border in Uganda – a nine-year-old girl tragically died after exhibiting similar symptoms. Reports are varied, but it is now believed that up to eleven people have died in the two countries and many more may have been exposed to the disease. Countries that border Uganda and South Sudan have been named ‘at risk’ of viral infections; those names are Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Whilst there is still some debate, it seems that there are two separate viruses responsible for the recent deaths. In the case of South Sudan, the illness has not been formally identified but is thought to be of the Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (VHF) family. Disturbing reports featured in The Daily Express claim that the disease could be a new strain of plague – related to the infamous ‘Black Death’ which killed over 50 million people in the 14th Century. In 2017 plague killed hundreds in Madagascar, and it is now feared that the disease may have developed into a new strain and made the jump to mainland Africa. This cannot be taken as solid truth though as virologists are still studying samples taken from the infected people. Encouragingly, it has been confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that – as per laboratory results – the disease in South Sudan is NOT Ebola, Marburg, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), Rift Valley Fever or Sosuga virus.

However, in the case of the nine-year-old girl who died in Uganda…whilst the Secretary of the Ugandan Health Ministry initially denied the fact – confusing the public greatly – it appears that there has been a minor outbreak of CCHF. The girl, who came from the rural district of Nakaseke, tested positive for the disease and up to 60 people are now being tested by health officials after fears of exposure to the virus. Seven have already fallen ill.

CCHF is similar to the haemorrhagic variant of Dengue Fever and it is caused by tick-bites or contact with infected animals (usually farming livestock); after a human is infected however, the virus can spread from person to person easily via bodily fluids. In this manner it is similar to Ebola, which I am sure we all remember vividly from the 2014-2016 epidemic in East Africa. Symptoms of CCHF are also similar to Ebola and include vomiting, headaches, very high fever and bleeding from the orifices. It has a frightening mortality rate of 25-40%.

Now another story arises – Rift Valley Fever (RVF) has also hit the nation of Uganda at the same time as CCHF. Cases have been reported as recently as January 19th 2018 and three people have already succumbed to the disease. RVF is also spread by an infected animals or mosquitos, however it does come in two variants – mild and severe. Those who suffer the severe version of the illness experience muscle pains, fever and bleeding into the brain; the mortality rates in these cases can be as high as 50%. It seems that Uganda is in the grip of a serious health crisis that is worthy of international attention.

Reassuringly, the WHO has a presence in Uganda and is advising the Health Ministry on how to contain the outbreak of these two serious viral diseases. Cattle spraying has begun in the country, designed to kill the ticks that transmit CCHF. Animal handlers have been advised to wear protective garb when inspecting and herding their livestock, and people throughout the country are being advised to boil all animal milk and ensure meat is thoroughly cooked to avoid contracting the viruses.

Panic is a very strong thing, and already the government of Cameroon has been forced to deny an outbreak of a haemorrhagic fever in its capital as fear grips Middle Africa.

My thoughts are with the people of South Sudan and Uganda who are suffering with these dreadful illnesses. Let’s hope that all parties concerned have learned the lessons taught to us by the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak: do not delay – preventative action and community education campaigns must be undertaken NOW to arrest the spread of CCHF and RVF. The local people cannot be expected to triumph over a disease unless the government educates them on how to recognise it and subsequently deal with it.

“It’s in the misery of some unnamed slum that the next killer virus will emerge.” – Barack Obama.

The Journey Begins

Well this promises to be the start of either a very short and thankless journey…or a life-changing one with endless opportunities…

…enough philosophising!

I have taken a huge step in my life today. I have, somewhat madly, applied to return to university and study a field that I have always been fascinated by. Journalism.

Yes! Aha! I will transform into the hated and loathed face of the ugly, overbearing and over-opinionated media whose droning voice we cannot ever escape. It pervades our living rooms, emanating from the speakers of our televisions. It dogs our footsteps with constant newsflashes on our smartphones. It’s influence is heard in the voices of the burgeoning population who walk our streets….

…well actually, no. I won’t become anything so powerful or fanciful. My goal is to be quite the opposite of the above. I went equipped with ‘The Speech’ to my interview with the head of the Communications and Media faculty today; annoyingly I did not get the chance to make my ‘grand and insightful’ speech as I was offered a place without needing it. Huzzah! It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I’ll probably re-read this later, shake my head and delete it for being ‘too weird and esoteric’.

However, since I spent a good while writing it (to the sound of smooth jazz music and my father banging around angrily above me in the loft), I’m going to post it here for your *ahem* reading pleasure. Oh, the latent sarcasm ends here by the way. 😋

“I have been an avid follower of world events since I was very young. Much too young to be concerned with the events of the US Presidential Election of 2000, in fact. However at the tender age of ten, I was arguing the case for the election of George W. Bush to the post of President. My best friend (also slightly mad) thought my politics were grossly wrong and so championed the case for the then Democratic candidate…Al Gore. What resulted was a prolonged battle of political campaigning by two ten-year-olds (the stories could last for pages) but in an effort to outwit my ‘opponent’ I began to really read and interpret news stories for the first time. This started me down the path that I now seek to walk to completion.

I feel that journalists have this unique – and undeniably dangerous – power that very few people could ever hope to possess. They can reach millions, if not billions, of people through the written or spoken word. The facts that are reported can have a tremendous effect upon the journalist’s audience which, thanks to social media platforms, is growing exponentially. This is the reason why it is so pivotally important that the facts are just that – facts. Not speculation. Not rumour. Facts.

As Uncle Ben once said to Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility”. This is a message that is of the utmost importance in the field of journalism. Facts should be reported “as is” and with no ‘spin’ or insertion of the journalist’s own political or social opinions.

If the facts are reported incorrectly then the results can be disastrous. Take for example the 2010 reports of a mosque that was due to be built at the Ground Zero site in New York City. A total falsehood that, via a television commercial financed by the dubious Koch Brothers, exploded into the media and incited protests throughout the American populace. The reality was that an Islamic community centre had been approved for construction more that two blocks away from the Ground Zero site…however through insidious and deliberate dissemination of disinformation, the media had cast the die. Thus the ‘fake news’ story is what the general public remember, not the truth. Occurrences like the one outlined above are to be avoided by the media at all costs. If not for the preservation of one’s own reputation, then for the preservation of order.

The honesty and integrity of the media is also something that should be preserved. The brave ‘truth will out’ image of journalism that was coined by such greats as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate scandal to America and spelled the death knell for President Nixon’s administration. This is what journalists should aspire to. To emulate the actions of these unforgettable men who worked so tirelessly to uncover the truth, in the face of possible reprisals from the very highest echelons of government.

I will close by stating this: I wish to study journalism so that I can have the honour of serving the people, as others have done so valiantly before me. I will tell the whole and unbiased truth. Opinions are for the listener/reader to develop – they are not for me to impose upon them. I hold dear the ideals of the past and I wish my journalism to reflect that ”Golden Age” of media, which is slipping through our fingers – like sand through an hourglass – as journalism becomes ever more personal, polarised and influenced by the opinions of whomsoever holds the most cash. Journalism should not be influenced by whoever owns the television network or newspaper; their money and politics should not be used to obfuscate the truth.

The phrase ‘money talks’ should not apply to the field of journalism. No amount of money should twist the facts and camouflage the truth.

I wish to study journalism because money does not ‘talk’ to me.

The truth talks to me.

“You can’t serve the public good without the truth as a bottom line.” – Carl Bernstein.