Old news now, but I think this is so cool. I had no idea there were still uncontacted people in the world.
The CBC website version of this story has a great debate on the merits of the “prime directive“. Check it out. Where do I stand? I guess I’m on the side of leaving them alone. I think that they will eventually be contacted either way though, like if helicopters keep flying overhead.
(Picture from Funai, taken from the cbc.ca site)
The Toronto Star is doing a great series this week about the culture of secrecy in Ottawa. It’s called “Secret Capital” and you can find the first article here. It’s being updated all week.
The gist of it seems to be that Ottawa is becoming progressively more secret and that Stephen Harper’s government and the PMO have securely tightened their grip on all information flowing out of government. All messages are controlled through a central authority and government officials, even Members of Parliament are being muzzled to ensure a consistent message line.
I have to say that this has been my own experience thus far. There is a growing culture of secrecy in Ottawa, and I’ve seen it from the inside and the outside. Everything communications-wise at DND got vetted by at least PCO.
From the outside, I still see that there are some extraordinarily helpful individuals in the media relations offices of the government, it’s true. Unfortunately, many of them seem unable to tell me anything when I call.
I had a poor experience with Environment Canada recently. I had asked people from the local B.C. branch some questions regarding municipal sewage treatment for this story I was writing, and with one exception, they all eventually referred me to the central media relations office in Ottawa. Fair enough… not everybody wants to talk when a reporter comes calling.
The media relations person I got first referred me to the website, which I had read, and then asked me to email her my questions. I wanted to speak to an expert who worked in the appropriate division, and I told her so. She wanted to know what questions I was going to ask. Eventually, after calling everyone I could think of in the department to no avail, I emailed some questions.
I got back very unsatisfactory answers after several days. They seemed cut and pasted from a communications policy document, and did not even answer the specific questions I asked. So, I went back.
And again, didn’t get answers. So I went back.
And asked again.
And again.
I called nearly every day for two weeks.
Eventually, as the story was about to be published, I got a bland email with another policy-ese response that ended up in the story. I never got to speak to a live person, other than the media rep. Really, they would have looked better if someone had talked to me.
Read the Star’s series. I have high hopes for it.
