Book Reviews·Book Review｜How to Stand Against Dictators——Memoirs of Maria Ressa

In the article "When Secrets Can't Be Formed" by @chusi (collected in "Zi Fu" @Zi Fu Magazine, Issue 3), the sentence that impressed me most deeply is " And when the whole city is seriously ill, it turns out that everyone is... I don’t know how to moan. ” In addition, this is the sentence “‘ All we have left is optimism ’”. The former sentence refers to Hong Kong , and the latter sentence refers to the Philippines . I have interacted with Filipinos to some extent before, and I just feel that they are the friendliest and most loving people. Their kindness is evident at all times, and they are definitely not pretending. Until I read the following paragraph, I had never thought about what ignore meant -

I often recall the human rights inspection team that went to the Philippines many years ago. The friend who hosted us told us that the reporter was dead and the group’s previous address was set on fire. There were many things that shocked me at the time, but I said Gotta understate it. I also saw them laughing and joking often. I asked them how they faced it and how they could still be so optimistic. A local friend replied, "We only have optimism." I've thought about this over and over again in recent years. Do I understand their necessity better now?

——Excerpted from "When Secrets Can't Be Shaped"

However, no coincidence can make a book. This pessimism of "only optimism" has planted a seed in my mind, so the library saw the memoir " Say No to Dictators " by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa. I immediately borrowed it and took a look.

I was attracted by the first sentence of Maria Ressa's memoir: " You don't know who you are until you're forced to fight for it. " Know who you really are.) The translation is not good, that’s probably what it means. A seemingly simple sentence reveals control. If you need to fight to become yourself, then the hard-won self is the real self! Later in the book, it is pointed out that the scary thing is a more "moisturizing and silent" control, which makes you firmly believe that the lost self is the real self.

Who is Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa was born in the Philippines, but her mother remarried an American and brought her and her sisters to the United States when they were young. Therefore, after Maria spent her early childhood in the Philippines, she mainly received an American education and became a famous brand. A top student in the university. However, after graduation, Maria decided to return to work in the Philippines and became the main anchor of CNN Radio in the Philippines. Later, she also helped establish CNN branches in other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, making outstanding contributions to press freedom and truthful reporting. For defending press freedom, the Duterte government almost imprisoned Ressa. However, Ressa gave up the fight and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

"Present Moment of the Past"

This phrase is the one Raisa mentions most often in her memoirs, and it is also an important verbal expression that links her life together. I like this expression very much. Maria Ressa said from the beginning when she mentioned her childhood in the Philippines that the "present" in "living in the present" actually includes thousands of decisive or unnoticed moments in the "past" . Every "present" we experience is affected by each "past moment". "Letting go" that modern people have always wanted to do is actually an attempt to let go of thousands of moments in the past.

authoritarian education

Renesa, who received American critical thinking education since childhood, returned to the Philippines and witnessed what kind of education is authoritarian education in Philippine universities——

What were their values? What I saw being rewarded was respect for authority: knowing your place, rote learning, the ability to memorize and mimic answers back; neatness and punctuality; and above all, submission to their teachers and their views. They rarely articulated what they really thought.

What Ressa saw was that young people were rewarded for their respect for authority; for memorizing and imitating answers; for giving in to teachers and teachers' opinions; and for rarely expressing what they really thought. Seeing this, I can’t help but feel sad, because what Reesa mentioned is almost the epitome of my growing up experience. However, I am very happy. Fortunately, even the 360-degree all-round indoctrination and education method has not extinguished my inner admiration for freedom, and I have many fellow travelers. Not for a reason, but for people.

The Dilemma of the Philippines and Southeast Asia

By extension, it is a global dilemma. Even though there are many countries and many places that are relatively developed in terms of press freedom and freedom of speech and are doing better than other countries, there are still countless people fighting for freedom in both Europe and the United States.

Back to the Philippines. The Philippines is a country that does not receive much attention, but it has a Facebook usage rate of 97%. Zuckerberg pondered for a long time after hearing this data and asked, "What about the remaining 3%?" That's exactly what happened. The Internet and social media usage rate has made the Philippines a frontier for truth and falsehood on the Internet and misleading self-media opinions. After Duterte changed from a vigilante mayor to a vigilante head of state, he went on a killing spree, causing many unknown deaths of civilians. In the Philippines, there was even a record of more than fifty investigative journalists being killed, which caused a global sensation. It is under such circumstances that the phrase "' All we have left is optimism '" may have emerged. What a painful realization this was.

In 1998, Indonesia experienced riots and anti-Chinese incidents. Renesas recorded his personal experience. I clearly remember that at that time, online news reported that during the anti-Chinese anti-Chinese period in Indonesia, some people cut off people’s heads and played them as footballs. Although I was shocked, this news always stayed in my mind, but to be honest, I didn't believe this news. I don’t believe that such a horrific tragedy would happen in Indonesia so close to me in the new millennium. impossible. More than twenty years later, in Maria Ressa’s memoirs, I read what she saw with her own eyes——

On the streets of Jakarta, people stabbed each other with machetes. One weekend, Ressa saw eight people beheaded by men wearing various turbans. Later, she walked into a field and saw a group of boys playing football. They seemed very happy. However, Ressa walked in and saw that what they were kicking was an old man's head.

It was hard for Ressa to digest what she saw, and I don’t know how she spent her time at that time. She wrote: " In other words, authority can give us the freedom to be our worst selves. " Aren't those parents who show their worst sides in front of their children also benefited from "authority"?

stand and resist

In the Philippines Ressa describes, it seems difficult to stand up and resist. However, in any authoritarian, totalitarian, and powerful system, how can we stand up and resist? When everyone is frightened by the cost of resistance, those who enjoy power laugh. Fear is always a weapon.

I don’t really like the Chinese translation of the title of this book. I think it’s more than just saying no to the dictator. Maria Ressa uses her own life trajectory to show us how to stand and resist, and how to protect without being humble or overbearing. The basic universal values ​​that one upholds.

As soon as the word "resistance" comes out, it already reveals the unequal power relationship. If the power relationship is equal, why resist? Once you resist, it is a battle between two forces. Kneeling, you can only look up.