Exploring the notion of a constructive collective

LAST week, I attended an entirely pleasant gathering of subscribers and columnists of the Cape Argus as part of the paper’s 160th birthday celebrations. My instincts tell me our readers need to share in, and be a part of, the experience.

My first, lasting, impression was the notion of a paper for the people.

This sounds like hackneyed politico-speak of the years of resistance, but I really felt the outreach ethos of the Cape Argus, where it was clearly stated as policy that anybody and everybody has a voice through this newspaper.

I have commented on the platform given to the #FeesMustFall campaign, the column from a homeless person, the daily verbal peregrinations of David Biggs (who has been writing his column for the past 38 years) and the elegant research of Jackie Loos.

Here was a pleasant social gathering where the readers could put a face to their columnists. The columnists – myself included – could put a face to the editors who nurture, guide and promote useful discourse and keep us honest.

More than that, we saw the army of journalists tied to laptops and computers, plotting and planning, construing the shape of tomorrow’s rag.

And a whole model of a productive collective played out right in front of my eyes. Granted, there were killer confections to enjoy. But there was also a deadly earnestness for our newspaper to really reach out and touch its readers.

Ah, I hear you say, you are buttering-up the editors for prolonged tenure. Perhaps. Then again, perhaps not. But this much is true: I saw a model in action that was guided by vision, pragmatism and a sense of purpose.

And this is what we need to address our very real problems of the new free country we have achieved. In a word, the problems are manifold and complex. But the solutions needn’t be. Simple solutions which work; out-ofthe-box thinking; an acknowledgement that each and every role-player has a voice; these were the lasting impressions I took away from the celebration.

And it became very clear to me that we must continue to use the newspaper as original resource material to promote literacy.

We must use the material to reconfigure unfortunate assumptions about our past.

We can promote reading among our young learners by asking why there aren’t more high schools in the Argus quiz. And what about the primary schools?

And we must reinvent the ethos of storytelling in order to find each other’s cultural filters.

We must nurture the ethic that every voice has merit, every opinion is worth listening to. I have learnt that a constructive collective to heal our land is possible.

Thank you, Mr Editor. And Happy Birthday to the Grand Olde Dame, the Cape Argus.