Today I received my first blog-related hate mail. When I wrote that blog entry, I was well aware that I may receive a lot of negative feedbacks, as all bloggers forwarding the No To Mining in Palawan campaign do. However, I was actually glad to have received that mail first thing in the morning, because for one, it means that the blog affects sensitivities, and as a writer, it’s an ounce of success to be able to stir souls and have people ponder about themselves and the world surrounding them due to one’s writing.
I did try to respond to that one viewer via email, but it seems that the address the person indicated in the contact form is not a valid email account (for all readers who are planning to send me private messages in the future, you need not worry because even if you cuss me from here to Tawi-Tawi, all your personal details i.e. gender, email address, name and the content of your message will not be exposed, as respect for your privacy).
However, I am taking my chance that that reader will again cross paths with my blog, so I’d just post my reply here, since this is also applicable to everyone who would in the future, send me messages like that one today. Here:
Hi,
I come to you in peace.
Let me assure you that as a responsible blogger, I do my homework prior to posting anything on the web. This means doing extensive research on a subject and making sure that my words are as much as possible, politically non-offensive. If you have read my entire entry about mining in Palawan, I did mention there that “I don’t want to be narrow-minded here and insist on sticking to just one side of the coin…there are small-scale laborers working in these mining areas whose families depend largely on mining.“ To be perfectly clear, I do not promote TOTAL banning of mining in Palawan (although it seems to me that Hagedorn has already proclaimed such), but responsible mining. I’m well aware that all of us are in need too of minerals to support our daily living, as I also mentioned in my blog (whether we admit it or not, we too, as consumers benefit from mining:the copper wires used for our phones and laptops, the nickel used for our household appliances, the gold and diamond that adorn our ring fingers. I don’t abhor mining; I believe there is such thing as responsible mining where minerals can be extracted from lands that have no other ecological bearing and where no co-existing harm will be yielded in the process).
I do appreciate you taking the time to air out your concerns on this issue. I understand where you are coming from and I respect your opinion. I’m well aware that this debate on Palawan has been putting our country under a great strain of divisiveness. Much as that fact saddens me, as a writer I also have a free press obligation to share facts about a certain issue which may be deemed vital to humanity in general. This is my opinion, my stand on the matter. I am not coercing anybody to stand by the same ideologies that I do. My goal is to simply inform; the decision to sign the petition or not lies entirely on the general public’s own freewill.
Having said that, I hope that we can come to the mutual agreement of simply respecting each other’s opinion on the issue, no matter how different they are.
Again, thank you for dropping by my blogsite. God bless you and all the wonderful people of Palawan.
Butchie
