Gary Younge

Unrywbeth "gwleidyddol" sydd ddim yn ffitio unrhywle arall.
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Unrywbeth "gwleidyddol" sydd ddim yn ffitio unrhywle arall. Pwyswch yma i ddarllen canllawiau cyffredinol maes-e.

Gary Younge

Postiogan Cardi Bach » Mer 01 Rhag 2004 3:06 pm

Mae Gary Younge wedi sgrifennu colofn yn y Guardian heddiw.
Ar ddechrau'r golofn mae e wedi ysgrifennu darn sydd wirioneddol wedi ngorfodi i i feddwl. Mae'n rhagorol yn y ffordd mae'n ysgogi rhywun i wynebu yr hyn mae'n ddweud.
Yn hynny o beth, oe'n i'n meddwl y byddwn i'n rhannu'r berl yma gyda chi.
Mae'n ofnadwy o berthnasol am y Maes - yn enwedig y trafodaethau mwy gwleidyddol.

Sometimes...questions can be so pregnant with assumptions that they are, arguably, better left unanswered. Not because they do not relate to important issues, but because they are so loaded with prejudice and crippled by ignorance, thoughtless in tone and reckless in content, that the manner in which they are put renders them incapable of addressing important issues. To engage with them would be to legitimise their bias.

This is not an issue confined to race or religion. The victors in every battle do not just write history (and then rewrite it continually until the vanquished have either been disappeared or demonised beyond all recognition), they also frame the terms of reference for the present. Questions, and those who pose them, are never neutral, but are both informed and misinformed by the received wisdom of place and time.

Nobody ever asks: "when did you first realise you were straight?" or "how do you balance fatherhood and work?" One day, hopefully, they might. But in the meantime some identities will be subject to relentless examination, while others coast by with eternal presumption. Those who ask the questions of others without interrogating themselves are effectively saying: this is our world, you're just living in it.

So we inquire in our own image with all the limitations and prejudices implied. The point is not that we should ask tough questions of others - our best and only hope is that we all keep talking. But if you want a substantial answer, you must ask a substantial question. The respondent may meet you half way, but if the person asking the questions hasn't moved an inch, half of nothing will not take either of them very far.


Wedi hynny mae'n awgrymu hyn, sydd yn ei dro hefyd yn ddifyr:

If you are interested in conversing with the world around you, then you cannot simply ask people to change the subject every time a subject you do not like comes up. Such pre-emptive defensiveness stands little chance of winning over potential support and shows every sign of a lack of confidence in your ability to make yourself understood. We cannot choose the terrain on which these battles are fought; nor can we dictate the rules. These are subject to negotiation.

But the reason some people get defensive is because they feel that they are forever being attacked. It's true that we have to work with what we've got. But sometimes the material we are given to work with seems so lame that I am tempted to take a day off. Before there can be negotiation there must first be goodwill - the desire to fill in the gaps of knowledge and perspective. A good question does not seek agreement but engagement; a point of contact; the recognition of at least the shred of commonality with the questioned.

Without that, all we are left with is full-scale interrogation - the hostile questioning of the prosecution counsel: less of a conversation than a trial by presumption.


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Cardi Bach
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Postiogan sanddef » Mer 01 Rhag 2004 3:12 pm

amen tw ddat.
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