Alan Johnston is free :)

I woke up this morning with the great news that BBC reporter Alan Johnston was freed by Hamas. I have been smiling ever since :)

Still it's funny how news reporting works and its subtle influence on the way people think. Read the BBC Headline "BBC's Gaza reporter released " and the dutch NOS Headline "Johnston released by Palestinian splinter organization". Neither mention the huge role of Hamas during the last couple of days. The NOS even prefers to headline the words 'splinter organization' and as such refer to the 'Army of Islam' that abducted Johnston. The dutch headline - and we all know most people don' t get much further than scanning headlines - reads as if this group volunteered to release him. It seems to me as if western culture/media - most probably unconsciously - finds it hard to cope with Hamas as an organization that extends beyond the obvious 'blow up Israel' view. Of course I realize they use this to further there political agenda - I'm not naive - but still, this says as much about Hamas as it says about us.

Fundamentally, this 'great conflict of our time' or 'war on terror' or however you may want to call it is not a clash of religions but a clash of cultures. We expect changes from Islamic culture which will only happen if we change our own. Let's start with treating the other side as equals. Western powers wanted a democratically elected government in Palestine, and we got it, we got Hamas. Consequently a huge boycot was put in place against the Palestinian authority and Diplomats refused to talk with palestinian officials. But maybe... maybe we should have kept communications open and treated them as they deserve: as elected equals. Which of course doesn't ever mean we have to agree with their political views.

Call it liberal, call it naive, call it pacifist, call it positive thinking, call it whatever, but in my opinion established political strategy has proved to have failed on nearly all fronts during the last 50 years. If anything it only deepened the chasm that gapes between western and eastern cultures. In my view it is time to try things differently and to me Johnston represents that. He does things differently, he lives in Gaza, refuses bodyguards and brings news from Palestine based on equality. As said, that doesn't mean he agrees with the views he reports, but it might be a basis for a relation found in respect instead of paternalism. The media plays a decisive role in this process. Johnston took this job seriously and I certainly hope he returns to this great work.