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November 13, 2009
Hope in the darkest places
Authors were inspired by the lives of their subjects.
BASYA LAYE
Terry Gould and Hester Rumberg have sought meaning beneath the surface, recounting deaths that are shockingly abrupt. Out of these investigations, they've each written powerfully inspiring stories. And they will both be in Vancouver this month to participate in The Need to Tell: Two Writers Recount the Tragedy of Senseless Deaths, with host Sheryl MacKay of the CBC, at the Cherie Smith JCCGV Jewish Book Festival.
In Murder Without Borders: Dying for the Story in the World's Most Dangerous Places (Random House Canada, 2009), Gould gives voice to seven murdered journalists. He traveled to Iraq, the Philippines, Russia, Colombia and Bangladesh, where he tracked down leads, interviewed family and friends, surviving colleagues and officials, and he has put together riveting profiles of men and women who died seeking the truth.
Gould writes that these murdered journalists "went to work each morning with the conviction that their journalism defended the defenseless." In an e-mail interview with the Independent, Gould said that each journalist covered in the book had different, complex motivations, as did he when he began his research in 2004.
"When I first heard about journalists who'd accepted death as a consequence of their reporting, I had to find out why. Answering that one overwhelming question was what drove me for four years in five countries. Once I got to know the journalists through the eyes of their families, colleagues, and sometimes their killers, I sought to bring the journalists to life again, telling truth to those who would murder truth-tellers."
He noted that there is no one personality type that was shared by his subjects. "The seven local journalists I wrote about all had very different personalities. None matched the stereotype of the adrenaline-addicted Western war correspondent. They reported in the countries where they were raised and were not seeking adventure. However, they did share one remarkable trait: they had reached a point where they were willing to accept death as a consequence of their reporting.
"I discovered there were two components to their psychology of sacrifice in the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. The first was that something had happened to them, or they had done something to others, that had transformed them into crusaders. Through guilt, revelation or grief, they came to believe passionately in the principle that the powerful should be prevented from oppressing the weak at all costs.
"The second component was that their countries were dominated by criminals who believed in the opposite principle: that the weak offered opportunities for the enrichment of the powerful. In one form or another, all of the journalists I studied attempted to expose the organized criminal structure that ruled their nations."
Addressing the line between ego and selflessness, Gould explained, "I searched for the motivations of journalists who had given their lives for a story and discovered complex emotional sources for their bravery. Personal atonement for a crime, angry resistance to public enemies or compensation for years of self-indulgence had played a part with some; manly pride or religious intoxication had fueled the courage of others.... My subjects were no saints. They were fully human, but still completely heroic in their final self-sacrifice."
The journalistic community has been very supportive of Gould's work over the years, and the reaction to this book has been just as positive. It has received several awards, including the 2009 Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression which, Gould explained, is named after a murdered Canadian journalist.
Rumberg's book is an intensely personal and emotional work, but no less governed by a persistent and passionate search for justice – and no less tragic. Ten Degrees of Reckoning: The True Story of a Family's Love and the Will to Survive (UTD Press, 2007) has won high praise for this first-time author. In it, Rumberg tells the heartbreaking story of her friend, Judith Sleavin, and Sleavin's harrowing survival at sea after a container ship collided with her family's yacht and claimed the lives of her husband and two children. It was sometime after the accident that Sleavin approached Rumberg to write her story.
"I was completely astonished when Judith first asked me to author a book about the events in her life.... This was a big story, and I felt it required someone with journalistic experience and writing skills beyond my capabilities. Also, I was personally affected by these events. I did not want my own grief to spill over onto the pages or cast a shadow on the issues that required an objective tone," said Rumberg, who finally did accept her friend's request.
Ten Degrees is engrossing and immensely readable but Rumberg was careful to point out to the Independent the myriad difficulties she encountered in the process. "This is my first book and it's gratifying to be inundated with e-mails from readers who have been affected by [it].... By profession I am a board-certified oral and maxillofacial radiologist and, in that capacity, in addition to seeing patients, I have conducted research and written scientific papers. Those skills were essential to me in tackling and dissecting the heaps of documents and gave me my initial confidence."
Rumberg tried to balance a full writing schedule with her professional and personal life, but she admitted that the book took priority over the rest of her life for a time. "The writing process itself was many things at once: exhilarating, daunting, isolating, tedious, nourishing, insufferable and ultimately very satisfying," she said. "I think that readers will be astounded at Judith's optimism and hopefulness in light of the cruel events that framed this book and her lack of rage in the aftermath of the injustices that followed the tragedy. Her courage and determination affected me tremendously, and I want to emulate her appreciation for all those little everyday celebrations I might have once overlooked."
Rumberg assured, "This is a book that takes a reader through both exhilarating adventure and tremendous heartbreak, but it is also about the audacity to live life passionately whatever circumstances come our way. The Sleavins taught their children that fine balance, to live in the moment but with responsibility and self-reliance. They also gave them the most precious gifts of all, their attention and the principle of love for one another. And they offered those gifts without knowing what the future held."
Both Gould's and Rumberg's books warn that the fight for justice is uphill, but that it's of infinite value. "Although the tragedy that befell the Sleavins is certainly the core event of the book, I wanted to wrap it in a much broader context," Rumberg explained. "I think of Judith as a hero for our times, quite extraordinary in her bravery, resilience and altogether inspirational. I couldn't make the book a strictly investigational piece because it's a remarkable tale of courage and survival, and of the human spirit over adversity. I also wanted to discuss the challenge of how to live with any experience that changes us forever, and how friendship, memory and our personal histories might affect our actions. This is a universal tale of love and loss and hope."
Similarly, Gould is certain that the journalists he profiled did not give their lives in vain. In the fight against impunity, the best-case scenario is, he said, "to prosecute the killers. If journalists can be murdered for their work and the killers suffer no consequences, then the societies in which the murders occur will be at the mercy of sociopaths. The killers will always be free to kill again."
Gould grounds his own persistence in his Jewish identity. "I am compelled to investigate the inner motivations of people, and for reasons that possibly have to do with my Jewish heritage. From an early age, I learned it was important to understand why people strive for certain goals. Of what significance would the story of Moses be without his quest for the Promised Land? And of what significance would his quest for the Promised Land be without understanding the factors in his early life that led him to his quest? Aren't most Jewish holidays studious inquiries rather than rote worship? The intellectual foundation of every Jew is to ask the question, Why? Why is this night different? Why are we chosen? Why are we made to suffer, to exalt, to hurt others? Perhaps that is why the ranks of journalists and scientists are filled with Jews out of all proportion to their numbers in the population. As a Jew, a journalist and a man, I am driven at every turn to ask, Why? Sometimes I ask the question of criminals, sometimes of saints and sometimes of everyday people who are moved by circumstances to act in extraordinary ways."
Terry Gould and Hester Rumberg will be at the Norman Rothstein Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12 and are available by phone at 604-257-5111 or online at jewishbookfestival.ca.
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