 As
you can imagine, researching an issue on genocide makes for
some grim reading. Not exactly a laugh a minute.
In fact, one of the more regular complaints we get from
readers is that we’re too bloody depressing.
‘I love your magazine,’ one subscriber wrote recently. ‘But
I’m not sure I can take it any longer; it’s one
problem after another.’
I’ll admit that we sometimes get caught up in the
problems. But we also do our best to ensure that our analysis
of tough issues and their ultimate solutions are linked,
if only implicitly.
Take globalization. We’ve been relentlessly critical
over the years of an economic process which seems to be doing
more harm than good, both to people and to the environment.
Yet even globalization has its up side. You might say that
a new system of global justice which attempts to hold the
world’s
worst killers accountable for their actions is one of its
positive aspects. Justice after genocide means not just punishing
the guilty but preventing the slaughter from happening in
the future.
That balance between information and action is
critical. What we don’t want to do is leave readers
feeling powerless or hopeless, or both.
After all, the world may be a messed-up place but it’s
us humans who messed it up.
If we caused the problems, we can also do something about
them. |
