Choice

One morning, when I finished with the morning clinic and was walking back to my office, I met my friend VW.

He asked, in his as always humble voice, "Is it a bit mean to talk about Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋)?"

Oh, he was referring to a recent blog of mine. (See http://ccszeto.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_05.html)

My defence mechanism immediately took control of my neurons, "Em... I was just describing what JF said during the lunch."

Alas, that's literally true. But, the situation is like a newspaper; although it reports only facts, the editor, by deciding the choice of fact and the tone of the wordings, tells us which side the publisher is standing for.

(And it is naive to ask for a newspaper - or any other organization - to be absolutely neutral; we need them to have their own stand.)

For the same argument, I hold the responsibility for choosing a specific part of the conversation to be described, which inevitably reflects what I think.

Please accept my apology.

PS. A few days later, when I attended the wedding ceremony of YL, our neurology fellow, I met JW, and he asked me the same question as VW did.

I shall be more tactful next time.