"Turn on your radio!" There was panic in her voice, the kind of panic that told me I was not going to like what I heard. "Ragashanti is talking about you!" So, with some effort, I found where this Ragashanti was positioned on the radio, thinking nervously that the 'shanti' part was safe, but the 'raga' part meant trouble.

Sure enough, Ragashanti had read a column I had written about 'helpers' and declared open season. I was annoyed with Mr Ragashanti (I had another sentence in mind but you never know these days, there must be a print commission waiting in the wings for me).

The article was about working mothers whose already heavy stress is heightened and their productivity diminished when their children's caregivers don't turn up for work as promised. I also mentioned the sense of betrayal a family feels when they are walked out on by an employee who had invariably become a friend. I suggested that helpers hold themselves to the standard employment procedures and be respected and paid accordingly.

Rich white woman

But if you listened to the radio that day, I was a rich white woman yearning for the days of slavery, when I could go back to beating my maid and feeding her scraps.

To be fair to Ragashanti, he did throw in a few balanced comments amid my burning at the stake. I nevertheless neatly placed Mr Ragashanti in the 'enemy box' waiting for the day when I would get a chance to get back at him. I decided to 'know my enemy' and started to listen to his programme, and initially found him to be a populist (something that clearly has paid off in the media polls) with not much substance.

Yet, one day as I was listening to all that 'trite' I really began to listen and learn. Ragashanti's programme and his acceptance of his viewers' feelings and beliefs has created something that I have not seen anywhere else in our media, a place where people are honest about themselves, their lives and their communities. Ragashanti's show is a place where the taboos are removed and people open up, and between the loud colloquial rantings, is in some ways fine journalism. Ragashanti is peeling away a barrier that has existed where a certain class could never attempt to understand the other class. The lower class has a safe place to talk openly without being judged and preached to, and the middle class finally has an opportunity to listen.

Increased decorum

I share with the Broadcast Commission a desire for an increased decorum in our society, yet communication and under-standing is an integral part of moving forward as a civilised society, silencing Ragashanti, no matter what station he is aired on (I have an association with News Talk 93) could only set us back.

I sympathise with the woman who got the cussing, it is not a pleasant feeling, being bashed on public radio. And in my own interest I hope he will tone down his criticisms of individuals like me. But even I must admit that if there is a place for my 'conservative' view in our media landscape, then there certainly is a very important space for the Raga's view.