Arnon Grunberg

Difference

State

On taking a step down – Nicholas Kristof in NYT:

‘Yet this is my last column for The Times. I am giving up a job I love to run for governor of Oregon.
It’s fair to question my judgment. When my colleague William Safire was asked if he would give up his Times column to be secretary of state, he replied, “Why take a step down?” So why am I doing this?’

(…)

‘Good things are happening that we often don’t acknowledge, and they’re a result of a deeper understanding of what works to make a difference. That may seem surprising coming from the Gloom Columnist, who has covered starvation, atrocities and climate devastation. But just because journalists cover planes that crash, not those that land, doesn’t mean that all flights are crashing.
Consider this: Historically, almost half of humans died in childhood; now only 4 percent do. Every day in recent years, until the Covid-19 pandemic, another 170,000 people worldwide emerged from extreme poverty. Another 325,000 obtained electricity each day. Some 200,000 gained access to clean drinking water. The pandemic has been a major setback for the developing world, but the larger pattern of historic gains remains — if we apply lessons learned and redouble efforts while tackling climate policy.’

(…)

‘I’ve written regularly about the travails of my beloved hometown, Yamhill, Ore., which has struggled with the loss of good working-class jobs and the arrival of meth. Every day I rode to Yamhill Grade School and then Yamhill-Carlton High School on the No. 6 bus. Yet today more than one-quarter of my pals on my old bus are dead from drugs, alcohol and suicide — deaths of despair.
The political system failed them. The educational system failed them. The health system failed them. And I failed them. I was the kid on the bus who won scholarships, got the great education — and then went off to cover genocides half a world away.
While I’m proud of the attention I gave to global atrocities, it sickened me to return from humanitarian crises abroad and find one at home. Every two weeks, we lose more Americans from drugs, alcohol and suicide than in 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan — and that’s a pandemic that the media hasn’t adequately covered and our leaders haven’t adequately addressed.’

Read the article here.

I have a weak spot for Kistof, especially after I read one of his first columns for NYT somewhere in December 2001:

‘To fight Afghan terrorism, I got a haircut.
A dozen barbers were lined up on the cracked sidewalk near the Kabul market, and one of them, Jalad Khan, said he had once worked inside a real barbershop before it (along with much of the country's economy) went broke. The price was right: 2,000 afghani, or 6 cents.
So I squatted down on a wooden stool that Mr. Khan set out on the sidewalk, and he pulled out an ancient pair of scissors. A crowd gathered, for entertainment possibilities in Kabul are few and there was always some hope that the foreigner might lose an ear.
It was a great haircut! It was better than $20 cuts I've had in New York, although I appreciate that Americans are unlikely to fly to Kabul for 6-cent haircuts.’

Read this column here.

Over the years his sense of humor and irony grew thinner. Fair enough.

As a governor of Oregon you cannot say, ‘to fight Afghan terrorism, I got a haircut.’

If you want to be elected don’t count on irony. You can be a clown, but not an ironic one.

I wish Kristof well.

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