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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2013)
4 ■1881 ■»M Since her husband's murder a decade ago, Daniel Pearl's widow has not wavered from reporting the v a lu e o f life P H O T O B Y T H O M S O N R E U T E R S F O U N D A T I O N / M A G D A M IS BY S A M B A YO N G A S TR EET N E W S S E R V IC E working on several new journalistic projects. Mariane Pearl spoke at the Thomson Reuters Foundation Trust Women Conference in London in December. aving faced one of the most unimaginable challenges in her life, Mariane Pearl has come to symbolize hope and courage for humankind across the world. Her life was thrust Sam ba Yonga: You have become an international role model - how have you taken this on in your life? into the limelight from behind the keys of her computer when her husband, and father-two-be of M ariane Pearl: I think like a lot of people who their unborn child, Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and have gone through difficulties, you embrace killed by a Pakistan militant Islamic fundamentalist whatever is your life. You know, I was not born the group in 2002. day my husband died. I think my previous At the time of Daniel Pearl’s murder he was a experiences - I lost my father very early - and I journalist and the bureau chief of the Wall Street think having quality values as a person early on in Journal in Pakistan. Daniel and Mariane were quite life, so I’m very thankful for that. I think when you an unbeatable couple; both were experienced when go through difficulties the thing that you journalists and were committed to their jobs. really need to have is a solid set of values to walk Since the incident, Mariane has taken what they on as your firm ground. If you have that, then you shared together and put it toward fighting for view your experiences as part of the human humanity in a world she describes as becoming condition and create values out of it the best you more bereft of any kind of consideration for the can, and that is what I did.” value of life. She published “A Mighty Heart” in 2003, a S.Y.: How have your experiences changed the way memoir and detailed look into the investigation of you approach and write stories? her husband’s kidnapping. When the idea to make it into a film came about, she asked Angelina Jolie M.P.: To tell you the truth, I am finding to play her character. She recently published her something very creepy in journalism today. I feel second book “In Search of Hope,” is a regular it’s just worsening. You know, as we go into the contributor to The New York Times, Glamour and different crises, there is a certain loss of values. I The Sunday Times of London, and is currently H am working more and more with journalists in the developing world. I’m thankful for that. I want to work with journalists who know why they are journalists and know what they are fighting for because I feel that fascination and hunger for misery, for other people’s misery; the fascination for violence and graphic description of violence: it’s really creepy and we are not addressing it the way we should. I think there is something not right about that and I wonder where it’s going to go. And as the budgets are being cut, we are not having balance. We are going to have things that are only dedicated to showing how horrible things can be. I went to the World Press Photo Exhibition and I was shocked. The World Press Photo was just a display of extreme violence, so what are we saying there? It’s a reflection - the World Press Photography is supposed to reflect a year of life. How come no one is saying what is wrong with that? It’s a perversion. I never entered journalism because I am fascinated by violence or war or conflict, the only interest I have ever had in journalism is my interest in human beings. You know I have always found human beings fascinating, as I have always found the world. I have been mesmerized by the "Äs the budgets are being c«tF we are not having balance. We are going to have things that are only dedicated to showing bow horrible things can be." See PEARL, page 7 10-year plan Well said! Semper HA! reset Homeless families now the priority in city, county's plan to end homelessness A look back at some of our most memorable interviews of 2012 An interview with Terminal Lance cartoonist Maximilian Page 5 Page 8 Page 3 Uñarte
