Sharon van Wyk is probably one of the few writers in the country (besides me) who calls a tourism spade a spade, and, like me, she has her detractors and her followers. But she doesn’t deserve to be attacked - which she was, verbally, and anonymously - recently.

So she  asked me to post the following reply, on the outside chance that her ‘friend’ was a reader of This Tourism Week  (if he is, I hope he’ll unsubscribe):

Greetings tourism colleagues. I have asked that this post be published because I had a strange and somewhat disturbing phone call on my private number this afternoon which went something along these (somewhat abbreviated) lines:

“Sharon van Wyk. Who the hell do you think you are. I am sick and fed up of the absolute drivel you write about tourism. So you come from Cambridge? Well you should have stayed there. You’re one ugly bitch too, and look like you’re married to a real rock spider.

Why the hell don’t you go back to where you came from and if you ever mention me in an article again, I will see you in court, make no mistake, I have the means…”

Whereupon my nemesis chose to hang up.

I sat gobsmacked for a while before starting to laugh. I have obviously got a serious detractor out there in tourism land. Which is fine, my writing is not for everyone, and my opinions are often very wide of left field. But to go to the bother of finding my private number, refuse to identify yourself and then attack me on such a personal level for something I have written? That’s actually a bit off. Well. A lot off.

So let me say the following to my mystery non-admirer…

You are entitled to your opinion about the quality of my work, but you have absolutely no right to attack me or my family on a personal level. It seems to me that you must have rather tiny personal accoutrements because you evidently weren’t big enough and brave enough to say who you were, but you did allude to the fact that you work in the tourism industry. In which case I have this to say to you: I hope your business can survive your severe attitude problem because I sure as hell wouldn’t like to be one of your “ugly” or “married to a rock spider” clients. By all means take umbridge at what I write, but reply to it in an honest and constructive manner, don’t attack me as a person, attack me as a professional, because that’s what I am, and patently what you are not.

The people who may know you, work with you, listen to your whingeing and otherwise put up with you need to take you to one side and give you a bit of a talking to, because you sound like one unhappy dude with some serious issues.

And if your approach to complaint is indicative of the way you run your business or operate in the tourism arena, then woe betide anyone who looks at you slightly squiffily.

As to your identity, that remains a mystery to me, because I have looked back at all of the opinion pieces I have written and unless you are Gordon Brown with a bad South African accent, Zakumi or Mike Tsotetsi, there is very little I can think of that would give you cause, let alone grounds, to sue me. As for the rest of my non-opinion writing, I am sure the likes of the Mail & Guardian and Business Day also have the means to challenge your not very well veiled threat.

So, Mr Whoever You Are, if you are not prepared to stand up and be counted like a real man, I would be grateful if you would never, ever contact me again.

Sharon van Wyk
Painted Earth Productions
Pretoria, South Africa
www.paintedearth.tv
www.thebushbabe.blogspot.com

WHAT’S SHE UP TO NOW? WHO’S IN THE FIRING LINE THIS WEEK? READ SHARON VAN WYK’S NO-HOLDS-BARRED OPINION COLUMNS EVERY MONDAY ON www.travelwires.com