It is said that no people on earth are more fearful and anxious when written about, than the members of the press. Think about why doctors are known to be impossible patients, or when pilots panic when they’re passengers, flown by others.
Journalists spend their lifetime extracting information from other people, so when the tables are turned, they are petrified.
But not Mr. Romy P. Borje. He knows everybody, goes everywhere and misses nothing, even after dark. He has described the scenes and people most popular to us, in his combined 50 years of reporting.
His easy, humane reporting has taken him to places and heights far removed from his younger colleagues. A columnist with a sense of humor, he is also seen as a lovable, gentle teddy bear. He is also a much more a man of wit and words than fists when hosting a program.
At a certain age he is still in perpetual motion. He sings, dances, emcees, edits, and makes jokes. His favorite mantra is, “one must open men’s eyes, not tear them out; never hurt other peoples feelings.”
He doesn’t draw blood, he doesn’t assail. He analyzes, reflects, appreciates, and mentors. During our interview, he simply jumped around — as most of us do when we asked open-ended questions. Thus, for the sake of clarity, we sometimes see it necessary to put more order into the answers while being careful not to destroy the beauty and color of the language.
How many ways can you measure a word? He could defend a decision in a dialog with Socrates. The word zest comes to mind. I had asked him “Sir, I notice you’re always sitting, is it because you can’t think on your feet?”
His reply was, “It is always hard for me to stand up…under the weight, of all that I know…”
He is prideful with his promiscuous dialogs, insidious juxtapositions and preemptive obfuscations; by deploying words like smithereens, apostates, exemplar and lapidary.
Freighted with ignorance, I have paused to quarrel or to smile at how he assembles and fly a paragraph in his windblown pages. He is disappointed at the political, noisy and chaotic lives and trouble back home.
“I can understand the occasional necessity to execute the pork barrel people, but never to hurt their feelings…that is why it is necessary constantly to scribble,“ he said. This was his dreamy optimism.
I asked him what makes a good interviewer and he answered, that that person must be naturally curious, persistent, loves asking questions and listens intently.
I followed up with the question, “Can these qualities be acquired?” He said that it comes with the territory, as an expert prepares a list of questions to be answered.
“Politeness and civility work better than hostility…the adversarial approach may be good for the soul, but bad for the story,” he added. “Journalists should be free to ask the question they like in the way they like.”
Our talk happened during a recent small get together attended by colleagues, friends and admirers, who paid him a heartfelt tribute. After his acceptance speech culminated by a song, I ran to the podium, and I gave him a great a hug and a maiden peck, his glasses came down a bit on his nose.
I think I greatly embarrassed Mr. Borje — but I’m so glad, I did it!
