What a difference 22 years make. When I first interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi she was a humble Nobel Peace Prize winner while I was the BBC's star foreign correspondent. Now she's Burma's President while I....well I still work for the Beeb ('The Most Trusted Name In Fake News') but as a marginalised figure. While I've devoted my life to equality, anti-racism and the cause of the oppressed I must admit I feel a little hard done by. You see the BBC don't really want you if you're White, male, straight and non-Jewish. The only thing I have going for me is that I'm not English but that's not enough any more.
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In my interview Aung San Suu Kyi disappointed me. Clearly success has gone to her head. That happens to a lot of people you know. She refused to take my point that the unfortunate Rohinga are being ethnically cleansed even when I explained to her that I had just been to that part of the country.'I've lived here all my life so maybe I know something as well' she waspishly shot back. So unlike Nelson Mandela, who maintained his humility up to the end of his magnificent life. I remember his generosity even after becoming President."Had it not been for your fearless reporting Fergal our country would still not be free". "Madiba, you are too kind" I blushingly responded.
What a man.
In case you're wondering Rwanda is the reason I'm so worked up about the Rohinga gig. You see I got there too late to save the situation. That thought haunts me to this day. I saw the slaughter first hand. From the penthouse suite at the Kigali Hilton. I looked in horror as the locals (clearly suffering from the legacy of colonialism) hacked and gouged one another in an orgy of slaughter. A knock on the door distracted me from the grisly spectacle. It was room service. Eating dinner I mused that at €95 my simple bottle of Chateau d’Yquem Sauternes 55 cost half a year's salary for the average Rwandan. Life is so unfair. But I've suffered as well. Like at that restaurant in Kiev where they served red wine with my fish. You don't forget things like that.
No, it's not easy being a virtue-signalling anti-racist. But I soldier on, serving my shyster globohomo overlords by repackaging inconvenient facts in support of the Official Narrative. You must understand that the Truth is a rare and precious commodity ... we must be economical with it.
Peace.