Newspapers have become more important to the average man than the scriptures.
— Mahatma Gandhi, Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist
Yesterday, I woke up late. Since it was my day off, I decided to take things slow. I would have woken up even later if not for the incessant blaring of a horn in front of my gate.
When I opened the door, I saw a young waste material collector standing in front of his van.
“Towkay neo (towkay’s wife), did you ask me for recycled magazines recently?,” he asked in Mandarin as soon as he saw me.
My hair tousled and still sleepy, I did not say anything, only shook my head.
“Sorry, I must have spoken to another person,” he said apologetically.
When he mentioned “recycled magazines”, I immediately thought of popular women’s magazines like Female and American magazines like Newsweek which provided in-depth analyses, news and opinions about international issues, technology, business, culture, etc.
But then, who would give away such valuable magazines, even though they had been read once or twice, to the waste material collector? Only well-read, well-off and English educated households perhaps. Personally, I don’t know any such household in my neighbourhood.
However, since the waste material man visits many neighbourhoods in the course of day, he may have some Female and Newsweek magazines in his
collections.
When I visited a government polyclinic recently, I saw some interesting old English magazines on a bookshelf. They were for patients to read as they waited for their turns to see the doctors.
I used to read Newsweek regularly in the past and whenever I visited the Kuching North City Commission library to borrow new books.
As a subeditor, I read lots of news everyday but reading serious magazines, I think, helps me improve my writing skills and knowledge.
A few years ago, I used to get my copies of old Newsweek from a younger sister who works in a hotel in Malaya.
I treasure old magazines and newspapers because they are valuable sources of information and they are the results of hours and hours of hard work.
Before the invention of the handphones and computers, many students depended on old magazines and newspapers for information.
When I was in Form 4 and Form 5, I used to bring home old copies of the Sarawak Tribune from my father’s workplace, Kheng Chiew Association, in Sibu.
Little did I know that one day, I would move from Sibu to work in the Tribune office in Kuching.
My father was proud I was a good student and so every week, he would faithfully keep the newspapers for me.
When I was growing up in Sibu, traders there would wrap pork and fish in old newspapers. That was how I came across newspapers from Australia many times. That was how I was also introduced to other parts of the world apart from the primary school geography book which introduced my classmates and I to Africa through a black boy called Bombo.
With the introduction of plastic bags and growing awareness of the dangers of the printer ink to human health, newspaper wrappers slowly went out of fashion.
Thanks to the Internet, information is now at our fingertips. Nowadays, we do not have to turn to old newspapers or magazines to find the things we want; we can just ‘Google’ them.
Until recently, I thought schoolchildren had no use for newspapers in their lives anymore. How wrong I was!
Last week, my nephew and his family came to my house. One of his daughters, Charmaine, who is in Form One, asked me for some old newspapers.
“Why do you need them?” I asked her.
“To make a volcano for my school project,” she replied.
I was greatly surprised by her answer. I gave Charmaine old copies of New Sarawak Tribune for her volcano project and more — I also gave her the leisure section of the Tribune.
“Read these. There are many interesting stories here,” I told her.
She had, earlier on, asked me for story books.
But nowadays, I read mostly biographies or autobiographies and I don’t think they are suitable for a 13-year-old girl.
I hope the interesting stories in the leisure section of the Tribune will help Charmaine improve her command of the English language, introduce her to the rest of the world and broaden her mind.
