This article first appeared in The Herald, April 2006.
What do you think happens when 15 journalists from countries as diverse as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Chile, Algeria, Egypt, Germany, England, Brazil, Benin, Chad, India, Colombia, South Africa, Lebanon and France get together? They become show-offs. At a recent European Commission-sponsored gathering in Brussels, Belgium, reporters exaggerated the adversity and absurdity borne of their work, much like veterans comparing war wounds, punks tallying body piercings or mistresses flaunting diamonds. The trick to being a good braggart, it seemed, was to feign nonchalance so casual that it would be more appropriate to describe it with the French term laissez-faire.
