In times of pandemic there are few certainties. But today I have three. I am no longer free in my individual decisions, opinion unless it is specialized is slop and information has a privileged value and, therefore, journalism at the current juncture has its beginning and its philosophical and practical end.
Only in Colombia's fratricidal war in its deep conflict, had it experienced a challenge and commitment such as those posed by a situation like the present one, which hardly depends on us, and calls to necessarily awaken the ethical in all its dimensions. Unfortunately, not surprisingly, the pandemic is showing many terrified and vulnerable world leaders, vain and delighted with the spotlights on television. On the other hand, it has allowed others and others in different parts of the world to learn about its rigor, such as the Angela Merkel case and the rulers of New Zealand and Finland.
And it is not that, in Colombia, they have done it wrong. Good enough to be balanced. Or at least in what the numbers of the tests tell us about the percentage of infected with the covid -19. But really not very successful in what has to do with consensual communication through which the most forceful and in general, natural weaknesses of men and women, who choose the public and political scenario as a work platform, have filtered through.
How to develop a postulate so risky and so little measured or considered with those who make the decisions with the best intentions, but slaves to the end of their human vulnerabilities in the exercise of politics? I will try it under pain of the vanity of my own exercise, from which it is much easier to judge without enough data since not even science in the XXI century offers them. Or at least to me, it seemed surreal to go from one explanation to another, from one symptom to another, of medicines that one day work and others do not, of so many theories that only show the failure of understanding or what has been overcome by the pathogen that reached us.
There are no greater certainties even from the epidemiologists and infectologists of the best universities in the world, and on whom humanity depends today. For now it only serves to think that we are facing another virus that tests our evolution as a species. Although at least to me, it seems obligatory to go into rigorous research on the appearance of this virus in Wuham and all the maneuvers that China made of it.
The politicians are making their decisions, they say supported by the leading scientists, they speak of flattening the curve, of reactivating some sectors, they defend their decisions to the brim; Entrepreneurs use their practicality for the reactivation, on which our salaries depend, educators get excited about the human writings of their growing pupils, the most realistic ones have their voices cut off in the midst of their vital hope, those who have hunger defy the order and good sense demanded of them.
And then there is the information and the inspiring challenge of each day to give our audiences an answer. Those who expected to find it on the networks, I invite you to use them for other things. There is only serious journalism, capable of questioning, in search of answers, that tells the stories of those who have been victims or recovered, who must investigate the conspiracy theories without modesty, warn the world of Trump's stupidity proposing to swallow disinfectant, know if Ecuador was filled with corpses due to negligence or ignorance, because the information that today reaches each home in its diversity determines how decisions are made, which have direct consequences on life or death.
Colombia begins a week in which the two most important authorities communicate by letter. At this time we do not know if the two sectors of the economy, construction and manufacturing, which involve approximately four million workers, will begin to reactivate their work, they will go out into the street, complying with the biosafety protocols announced by the President, and how many will be able to transport themselves. without putting others at risk.
It pains me that we are in a discussion fueled by different ways of approaching the same problem, with the same intention of doing it well, and that, however, today's readings focus on the opinion of the experts in accusing others of according to the place on the political spectrum where they are accommodated by their electoral failure or triumph. Hence, we are left with a rigorous search for information to help us make sound decisions.
Information from sources qualified as a single lifeguard to act above the enormous vanities of the leaders and those of us who have the letters and the microphones, so we must understand this work that will leave us many injuries and even bankruptcies in the smallest media, but at least we will have rediscovered the meaning of the chosen profession and honored it.
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