Our Desk | The ‘purgatory’ of the unanswered questions

Renato Marques

A couple of years ago, a discussion began on a popular web forum for photographers.
As, what I am guessing was meant as a joke, someone asked, “Where do the photos we take with no memory card on the cameras go?”
The answer seemed to be simple, as many of the first respondents thought that they never existed.  But as the discussion evolved, the supposed fact of the photographs’ “non-existence” was rapidly refuted, as any person would know nowadays that you are able to see the photograph taken (or at least a preview image) the moment after you click the “magical” button. That you can see a preview of the photograph is proof that it existed, and so the question remained unanswered.
That was until someone said something that rapidly gathered a lot of support from the forum users: “The photos go to the purgatory of photographs.”
But why am I bringing up this topic, you may ask. Well, the fact is that it seems like there is a similar situation involving a “purgatory” of unanswered questions, which I have named with no religious intent whatsoever. The purgatory of unanswered questions responds to the following: “Where do the unanswered questions that journalists (and others) directed namely at government officials go?”
The fact is that this happens almost daily, in meetings, press conferences, interviews and/or events. It is too often that a journalist comes up with a question he or she wants to see answered, but leaves without an answer –
or at least without an answer that has anything to do with the original question. And I am not talking about those questions that the person being interviewed decided (formally) not to answer, or that he/she declared they were not in position of enough expertise/knowledge about the topic to answer. I am simply talking about the “ignored” ones, or in other words, the questions that did not raise any reaction from the interviewee.
The Legislative Assembly is another example of where these “strange” events often happen. Although in this particular case, there is supposedly a mechanism that allows answers to those questions that were “lost” into the air to be answered afterwards, in writing.
The fact is, I haven’t seen one of these “written answers” yet, so I feel somewhat entitled to exercise doubt as to whether this mechanism really works. Either way, even if that happens, the answer will be outside of the discussion thread, and will not have the same effect as a straight and immediate answer to the question would. This “phenomenon” does not occur only in direct communication, but is also frequent in written communications. You ask A, B and C, and in the end you get the answer to Z.
My point here is: has this happened so often and for such a prolonged period of time that it has become a tradition?
I sure hope not, as I also hope that some of those interviewees become more aware of the number of questions that they are sending to that “purgatory of unanswered questions” to stay there, for who knows for how long – even forever.
On my side, I will try my best not to contribute by sending more files to “purgatory,” especially when it concerns the “purgatory of photographs,” over which I hold discretionary power.