Ordinary Gweilo

One of the headlines on the front page of today’s SCMP is Kevin Sinclair dies after long battle with cancer.  John Diamond, another journalist who was killed by cancer, had something to say about the way that the disease is presented in this clichéd way by lazy journalists:

“I despise the set of warlike metaphors that so many apply to cancer. My antipathy has nothing to do with pacifism and everything to do with a hatred for the sort of morality which says that only those who fight hard against their cancer survive it or deserve to survive it – the corollary being that those who lose the fight deserved to do so.”

No surprise, then, to find this in the SCMP story:

In a letter to the Sinclair family to express his condolences, the chief executive said he was moved by the courage and tenacity that Sinclair displayed during his book signing.

“Although born a Kiwi, to me, Kevin typified the undaunted Hong Kong spirit – a fact borne out by the enormous mental and physical effort it must have taken to finish his book, and Kevin’s determination to see his friends and colleagues at the FCC even at a time when he was gravely ill. It was an honour and a privilege for me personally to have been able to talk to him that night, and to have received a copy of his book.”

Or to put it another way – if some people “battle bravely” and demonstrate “courage and tenacity”, what about the rest?  Well, you don’t see headlines like this: Loved Ones Recall Local Man’s Cowardly Battle With Cancer, do you?  Except in The Onion, of course.