Almost every active blogger knows about the Malu fiasco. It is really sad. Fingers are being pointed and more people are getting involved. Questions are being asked. Who is really at fault? Are the editors to blame or is this solely Malu’s very grave mistake. I think the real question is “Should we involve ourselves with this easily rectifiable problem?” Of course, the parties involved would take offense: the OFW’s for Malu’s “acerbic wit” and Malu for the libelous words thrown at her. We shouldn’t be concerning ourselves with who is absolutely right or wrong. The whole mistake ultimately began with Malu’s article and the editor’s incapability to filter out the article. It then grew larger as furious reactions were posted online. Malu, then, committed her gravest mistake. She didn’t take the first wave of reactions seriously. She even joked around about it. It was a bad move but mistakes cannot be preventable. The whole thing is just a big network of interconnected mistakes- from the editors, Malu and the people.
We must not let our instincts take over us. The “offend-defend” mind set should be changed to that of understanding and rationality. She is, obviously, oblivious to the living conditions of the common Filipino. She offended quite a number of people and her words still remained bitter after the first hate-letters. That was really, really wrong but so were the people for reacting so violently. Now, everyone wasted their time. They got angry, they studied the situation and did a lot of other stuff for something that could’ve been simply solved with minimal flaming and work.
What should’ve happened:
Malu’s offensive article—->Reaction of the people (nice and civilized)—->Editor’s apology—->Malu resigns—>Everyone gets on with their lives not wasting another keyboard stroke’s time.
Sometimes people get stupid on paper but that can be easily corrected. The bad thing is when people act stupid online.