There is a disturbing narrative around people in the media being just what it says in the title of this article and I will whole heartedly disagree with that – and from personal experience.
The latest of which involved someone in the legal fraternity (NOT from South Africa) who had been hauled in front of the courts, named in one of my publications (as it correct and legal as per the rules of engagement for any court reporter), and subsequently had his cas thrown out.
But, unluckily for him the perceptions created by the mere mention of his name in the article made people believe that he was a miscreant and, along with losing his permanent job, also lost the trust of any potential employer, who bothered to plug his name into a search engine, as my online publication came up with the first result showcasing the crime that he was NOT convicted of. Owing to the sensitivity of his trade that put all potential employers off from even contemplating employing him.
For the sake of continuity I will call this person ‘Sean’. I am sure I need not remind you that ‘Sean’ is NOT his (or her) real name!
Anyway on 12 July 2023 Sean contacted me via e-mail laying his life on the line and asking very politely if I could assist in helping him get his life back on track.
Let me make one thing clear – I do get quite a few such requests and deal with them as follows:
- Contact me and threaten me and I will punch back
- Contact me in a kind manner and I will under promise and over deliver.
Locally I come across many transgressions and errors by people and institutions and, contrary to most people on social media, my first instinct is NOT to run to publish but rather to try and sort things out in an adult fashion by trying to get the two parties to compromise with each other. Yes, YOU, as the current institution in my crosshairs know whom you are!
That same day – 12 July 2023 – I replied to Sean saying that I had empathy for his situation having gone through something similar with a friend of mine who had to leave SA to find a job. AND I removed his name from the article.
HERE one must understand that Google also keeps copies of everything published so it is a bit of a cat and mouse game to wait and see when they will update their index.
It turns out that Google are even slower than a South African Politician fixing potholes or solving load shedding and, in September 2023, Sean wrote to me again after hitting a wall with Google and asking me if we could do anything else. So I took the entire article down and off from the publication – removing articles can hurt your SEO (a polite way of saying that you will lose money), but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.
Anyway on 8 March 2024 Sean wrote THUS; “Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I wanted to let you know that the search result appears to have been successfully filtered from search engines. Thank you so much for your effort in doing this, it’s a real relief for me and my family. I really appreciate it. Please do let me know if you had had any thoughts about a payment/donation.”
SO, I now ask what would you do out of these three options:
- Ask for a payment
- Ask for a contribution to Charity and WHICH ONE
- Ask Sean to pay it forward?
UPDATE: I wrote to Sean and told him to “Pay it forward” as I am not looking for a reward for just being a kind human being. He replied thus; “The situation that occurred was a real watershed moment for me and I have since been making real efforts to have a more positive impact. Thank you for your kindness to a stranger and I wish you the best for the future.”
Alan Straton
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