The word "clever" by Ho Quang Loi

(Baonghean) - If someone has ever subjectively assumed that Nghe An people are all loud-mouthed (in the harsh sense), then Ho Quang Loi is definitely an exception. Except when he needs a strong tone for an international news commentary - a field in which he is an almost irreplaceable name, before and even after taking office as Head of the Hanoi Party Committee's Propaganda Department, Ho Quang Loi in real life is a calm, unhurried speaker, with the seriousness and propriety of someone who has spent a long time in the military environment; plus the mellowness of someone who is rich in experience, passionate about life, passionate about his job, and well-versed in many things that are unfair in life...

Journalist Ho Quang Loi. Photo: Internet

Is that your job: before speaking or writing, you have to listen first, even things that are not easy to listen to. Ho Quang Loi is clever, I think. He writes cleverly, speaks cleverly and acts cleverly, both in the press and in real life. Clever without giving the impression of being clever, because it is still warm, still close and real, in the way he "adjusts the volume" moderately, using words carefully so as not to bother the listener and not make things difficult for himself.

I once received a lesson in journalism from Ho Quang Loi when I listened to him lecture at the Faculty of Journalism - Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and it is still useful to this day. That is the art of headlines - a prominent strength of this famous international commentator, not only because of his engaging writing style but also because of his far-sighted vision. "The Gulf - the sword of war has been drawn from its sheath" - the "classic" headline (because it was later "borrowed" by many of his colleagues in similar contexts), which brought him to the National Press Award in its first organization, can be said to be one of the peaks of "skill" in Ho Quang Loi. Because when his "sensitive" article was published (written on January 15, 1991, published in the People's Army newspaper on January 16, 1991), that breathtaking war did not happen until a day later. A very valuable headline, not only because it is brave and confident in its prediction, but more importantly, because it is clever: so that in any case (war happens or not), the author of the article will not be… wrong. And journalism, sometimes, is better than not being wrong!

I also know Ho Quang Loi cleverly - still him, but in another story, outside of his profession. That was when a female journalist asked him a difficult question: "Have you ever thought that there is a limit to loving and not loving, loving life and loving someone? Do you often "fall in love" with women?", the answer, very "silky", was: "I am not better than those who know how to love - love life and love women". That's it! A very short answer, but containing many things, can be understood in any way, and importantly, it satisfies both sides: the "owner" cannot be caught anywhere, and other "impossible missions" (if any, and if desired) can still find for themselves a little "light at the end of the tunnel" (?).

It must be because of the word “skill” in Ho Quang Loi (whose most significant foundation is his depth and expertise) that the Hanoi Party Committee “summoned” him no less than five times (who was still infatuated with his profession despite having been a writer for more than 30 years) to “help the country”. An unprecedented case here: For the first time, a person who had not even reached the Party Committee level was invited to take up the position of Head of the City Party Committee’s Propaganda Department, at the right moment of great importance: the Great Celebration of the Thousand Years of Thang Long - Hanoi, an expanded Hanoi - fuller, wider, but also much more crisscrossed and cluttered….

Well, the Propaganda Department, it turns out, has a connection with Nghe An people: From the Head of the Propaganda Department of the Hanoi Party Committee to the Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department (Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky) are all “country people”. “I think it’s just a coincidence, and coincidences often bring interesting feelings. Just like there was a time when the Chairman of the Hanoi Writers Association (writer Ho Anh Thai) and the Chairman of the Hanoi Journalists Association (me) were both from the same village (Quynh Doi - Quynh Luu - Nghe An), so what…” - Ho Quang Loi laughed.

The international commentator does not consider himself “clever”. If anything, he is just good at learning: “Nghe An people are often straightforward, frank, and sincere. That is also a “suitable” personality for a profession that requires speaking. But on the one hand, if you do not know how to “adjust the volume” of Nghe An, you may be considered to be difficult to listen to! And the art of “adjusting the volume”, to be able to use it well, you must also learn…” - he said.

Journalist Ho Quang Loi (left) at the book launch ceremony "The world and the eyes". Photo: Internet

Of course, there are times when a person who is well-versed in everything under the sun, in every nook and cranny of the world, even in places he has never set foot in, often cannot answer questions that occur right in his own home, in his own country. For example, for so many years he did not know where the grave of his younger brother who died in the 1978 Southwestern border war was located in this vast S-shaped land; he also did not understand why his mother did not want to bring his brother's remains back to his hometown, even after finding the grave... The answer, of course, was finally there, but to answer it, he and his relatives had to stumble through a whole land of pain. And there were pains that could not be commented on!

But this alone makes me want to (imitate him) practice commentary: Being a Propaganda teacher at this time can be said to be more difficult than ever. If at one time, the whole country, the whole society, every person and every family shared the same ideology, the same way of thinking, the same generational baggage (sometimes just needing a song to call for attention or a book to put on the bed), then today, with the stormy development of the internet and social networks, each netizen seems to be at the same time a "thinker", a "commentator" who knows it all, or at least it is difficult to avoid having illusions sometimes. Therefore, how to say things so that those "know it all" people feel right, find it easy to listen, requires the word "skill" more than ever.

But I know that, besides playing "word ball", Ho Quang Loi also plays soccer - the "king" sport that requires both strength and dexterity.

Nguyen Le