Over the course of the last couple of months, I must have read close to 40 crime novels by everyone from Michael Connelly to Val McDermid. I’ve noticed that I’m becoming increasingly paranoid; my imagination is running away with me. Holes in ceilings now house hidden cameras. I talk in code while on the phone. And if I happen to meet the same random stranger in the street twice in one day, they’re following me. It’s obvious.
In light of this, it’s not surprising that the recent brouhaha over a recording of a telephone conversation which was posted on YouTube in July allegedly between Zenonas Kumetaitis, deputy director of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Eastern Neighbourhood Policy Department, and Renatas Juška, Lithuania’s Ambassador to Hungary has me worried. The recording is still available on YouTube, subtitled in English (although one of the comments beneath says that the subtitles are incorrect) so I’m at the mercy of translators.
Contrary to Lithuania’s official position, Amb. Juška is apparently leaning towards Armenia, as they, too, are Christians. The two chat about Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius’s visit to St Petersburg and share personal opinions on Azerbaijan-Armenia relations. Politics aside, what’s amusing me is that in their world, the most difficult problems are apparently solved over Blackberries, without having a chance to sit face-to-face and discuss not just a particular issue, but those that might be relevant to it. This worries me. A lot. I have a deep-seated fear (crime-novel-induced paranoia aside) that we are losing our ability to communicate in any meaningful sense.
In a rather amusing opinion piece on the situation, Rimvydas Valatka of 15min. lt says: The leaked conversation has revealed that, over the last couple of decades, Lithuania has trained a generation of diplomats with faculties for critical thought as well as good sense of humour. I hear vague echoes of reflections on the writing abilities of US diplomats in the wake of WikiLeaks and wonder, yet again, what purpose these leaks serve.
One point though that Valatka makes really got me thinking: What if recorded conversations are not leaked but instead sent to ambassadors themselves? ‘Listen, guys, this and that, we can upload it on YouTube and you’ll end up like Žurauskas and Juška; or we can have a deal. A tit for tat for mother Russia..’.
Could it ever come to that? Could the threat of exposure on social media be enough to influence behaviour?
First published 29 August 2013 with DiploFoundation
5 Responses
Does this inability to communicate meaningfully derive from the falling standards of literacy of which there is plenty of evidence? Coupled with the widespread belief that every individual has the ‘right’ to voice an opinion? Do you ever see the ‘threads’ of comment on newspaper articles posted on the internet?
Mary, if reading crime novels makes you so cautious, what would reading romantic novels do for you? 🙂
Bernard in Malta we do have the Times of Malta a leading newspaper read obviously in Malta and yes we also see the comments made by the readers. No matter what the story is there are a band of people that have to make it political, no matter what the new government does it is not enough and no matter what the new government does it is always wonderful and so much better than the old administration (we have two main political parties). It makes me cringe that people are so blind to what is really happening on this small island – but if not for the ‘gossip’ probably nobody would have much to say about anything, because at the end of the day nobody believes anybody anyway.
Have a good day
The mind boggles, Sylvana. Not sure I’m ready to it out – might have to ease myself into the romance novels gradually. As for polarised views – Malta could be Hungary or Ireland or anywhere really – I, too, despair of the apathy.
Yes – I do – always. Sometimes the comments thread is a better indicator of what’s really going on. Amazing though how polarised they generally are. I was surprised to hear at a lecture in Malta that social media, contrary to my belief that it was reducing literacy levels, is actually helping to raise them amongst school-going children. Maybe there is hope…
Hope away! I’ll join you, but that seems unlikely.