Miren Gutiérrez

ITALY: Being a Refugee Becomes a Dream

By Aldo Ciummo*

ROME, Jul 16 (IPS) - Ernestine Kayindo fled Goma town in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997 amidst fighting between the regular army and rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (NCDP), a Tutsi armed group that is still active.

“All of us Congolese felt in danger of being killed,” says Kayindo, who now works in Rome with the Società Civile Congolese.

More than four million died in the 1997-2003 civil war that destroyed most of Congo. Many fled the violence, famine and disease.

Some sought refuge in Italy. But today they face uncertainty again, as parliament considers a law to punish undocumented migrants with six months to four years imprisonment. Many of those who fled violent conflict, and without documents under the circumstances, may now be refused asylum, and instead face jail.

The new law would be lethal for migrants like the Congolese in Italy. These number less than 4,000 within a migrant population of about 3.7 million. But their plight is a vivid illustration of the dangers from the proposed law.

The Commission for Constitutional Affairs and the Commission of Justice of the Italian Senate will finish examining the proposed immigration law Jul. 18. The Senate will vote on the penalty for undocumented migrants Jul. 24.

Last year only 57 Congolese submitted requests for asylum, and just 14 were successful. In 2006, 102 Congolese citizens applied for asylum; only 33 were accepted.

Read more…

Q&A: ‘Everybody leaves the Forum happier, wiser and stronger’
Interview with Roberto Savio, member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum

ROME, Jan 9 (IPS) - Roberto Savio is probably among the best informed insiders at the World Social Forum (WSF). He has been on its international committee since it was created in 2001, and since 2003 he has been coordinator of the ‘media, culture and counter-hegemony’ thematic area.

He founded the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency in 1964, as well as other news and information organisations, always with an emphasis on the developing world. He is now IPS President Emeritus. He is co-founder of Media Watch International, based in Paris, and Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a New Humanity, a foundation promoting the culture of peace.

Savio speaks with IPS Editor-in-Chief Miren Gutiérrez about the future of the WSF.

IPS: The World Social Forum (WSF) is an anti-globalisation movement, using the term ‘globalisation’ in a doctrinal sense, not a literal one. But the WSF is a global phenomenon…

Roberto Savio: The WSF is not a movement against globalisation; it is a movement against the kind of globalisation which is based only on the values of market and profit. That is a globalisation spawned by the Washington Consensus, the call for a New International Order made in the late eighties by the International Financial Institutions and the U.S. Treasury Department.

It also coincided with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and an unprecedented return to unilateralism in international relations, based on hegemony, military might, and the idea that the interests of the U.S. were automatically the interests of humankind, as President (George) Bush declared several times. The result of this kind of globalisation was to marginalise the United Nations, international law, and the call for social justice, sustainable development and other values which are enshrined in the constitutions of practically all countries.

Those who identify themselves with the WSF want another globalisation, where social justice, participation, democracy and people are also values. It is significant that when we started in 2001, we were considered a fringe movement; even by then President of Brazil. Now, seven years later, nobody defends any longer the Washington Consensus. The damages it did worldwide have prompted the IFIs to do some significant corrections, and even the Bush administration is having several changes of route.

Read more…

En español… 

POLITICS: Is There a Gender-Specific Leadership Style?
By Miren Gutiérrez*

ROME, Jan 9 (IPS) - Is there a female way to lead? Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has raised that possibility in saying that she tries to lead through consensus, not by imposition. “While not wishing to generalise, many women have leadership styles that have been described as ‘empowering leadership’ or ‘consensual leadership’, where they build leadership structures that share responsibilities according to the ‘best fit’, and in doing so, often create new types of leadership,” Ayesha Kajee, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs and board member of Transparency International’s South Africa chapter, tells IPS.“Since women also tend to discuss problems more openly and utilise ‘group-think’ to seek solutions, such solutions are often more acceptable to teams. Some have described these as inherently female ways of interacting, but these styles can and should be learnt by both men and women leaders.”

An example, Kajee says, is Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has “clearly indicated that she intends to bring feminine qualities to the Liberian presidency, a very important component in a country which has been decimated and devastated by horrendous crimes and human rights violations.

“But this is not to say that these qualities negate the need for a strong leader in Liberia. She has both — the traditional strength of will, ambition and determination associated with African leaders, which will prevent her being abused by the old boys’ club because she can fight most battles on equal terms with them, and also the nurturing, reconciliatory and healing qualities that her shattered nation requires to rebuild the national spirit and collective human dignity.”

Inevitably, a suggestion of any specifically female style of leadership is controversial.

Joanne Sandler, deputy executive director for programmes at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), says she is reluctant to buy into the “essentialist argument” that women have a different way of leading.

“Some evidence tends to be true, but you cannot say all women build consensus and men don’t. But I think it is also true that in countries whose parliaments have more than 30 percent of women, where women can more easily access positions of leadership, they tend to get outcomes that address women’s rights more frequently, and other types of rights, so political negotiation is probably vulnerable to gender difference to some extent.”

In places where you have more than 30 percent of women in parliament or congress, “child care policy, security, education, issues that are often associated with women, begin to emerge. I don’t mean that men don’t care about them; but I think that there is evidence that the theory of critical mass is a valid one.”

Charlotte Bunch, executive director of the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University in the U.S., tells IPS that “there is a more collaborative style of leadership that more women like and find comfortable. And women are more likely to do that, but I don’t call it female’ because some men are like that, while some women aren’t… But it is a cultural construction our world needs more of.”

Men can take the right decisions for women, too. “I think change comes about not only because of who the president is, but also because of who she or he appoints,” says Sandler.

“In Rwanda, a male head of state (Paul Kagame) has been very supportive of a gender equality policy, and as a result Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in the low and high houses of parliament. The combination of a supportive president and more women in key positions transforms the political structure, and then you start seeing changes.”

Read more…

En español

POLITICS: Mum, Can a Man be President?
By Miren Gutiérrez*

ROME, Jan 9 (IPS) - “Do you think a man could ever be president?” the little boy in Ireland asks his mother. All his life he has only seen women presidents, currently Mary McAleese.Joanne Sandler, deputy executive director for programmes at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), tells this little anecdote to show that in some places it can be routine for women to be found in leadership roles.

“In places like Ireland and Finland it is becoming less extraordinary to see a woman in power,” says Sandler. And it is this kind of female power that could bring more women into leadership, she says.

“When you see women in positions of power, in ministries, obviously the self-image of girls changes, and they envision themselves in those places. But that kind of change will take a very long time, though it has started,” she adds.

The change does not necessarily correspond to a nation’s level of economic development.

Italy ranks 84 in the latest Gender Gap Index (GGI) of the World Economic Forum, where the number one marks the smallest gap. That places it behind Bolivia (80), Peru (75) or Armenia (70), even though it is among the world’s biggest economies.

Panama is number 38 among 128 countries surveyed, while Liberia with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president is not ranked. Sri Lanka is ranked 15, the United States 31, Argentina 33, Mongolia 62, Indonesia 81, Nicaragua 90 and Bangladesh 100. The Philippines fares extraordinarily well at number six, after Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and New Zealand. Pakistan ranks 126, with the biggest gap only after Yemen (128) and Chad (127).

Like national wealth, personal wealth is not an essential pre-requisite. “There is not a relationship between more money and less gender discrimination,” says Sandler. “Money and power have an influence in those women achieving power. But money alone doesn’t explain it.

“Look at the elections in Liberia. A woman who has education, a former employee of the World Bank and the U.N., with an impressive resume, against a man who had no high school education, a soccer player (George Weah). Imagine the opposite: against a man with Johnson-Sirleaf’s background, would a woman with Weah’s credentials be a serious contender? To be a contender for high level political office, women have to bring a lot of extra qualities in order to get into the race. They need the same things as a man, plus others.”

Ayesha Kajee, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs and board member of Transparency International’s South Africa chapter, says “money is most certainly a partial equaliser for women, in terms of access — access to education, capital, property and opportunity. But even amongst wealthy elites, men tend to wield considerably more power than women. Thus, wealth does not guarantee equity between men and women.”

Read more… 

En español

POLITICS: For Women, Leaning Doesn’t Make For Leading
By Miren Gutierrez**

ROME, Jan 9 (IPS) - “A woman who enters politics changes; a thousand women who enter politics change politics,” Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told the Spanish television channel TVE in a recent interview.It is the former that seems to ring more true. Most powerful women, particularly though not only in developing countries, are or have been members of elite families: widows, daughters, wives of powerful men, in societies where women do not have equal access to most things.

The list of female rulers who have derived their leadership from men is a long and telling one.

Mireya Moscoso (president of Panama from 1999-2004) was widow of three times former president Arnulfo Arias (who was deposed each time by the military). Before her, Isabel Martínez de Perón was president of Argentina from 1974-1976, following the death of her husband, President Juan Domingo Perón. Argentina has just elected its second woman president: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who succeeded her husband Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) in December.

The success — or succession — of women began in Asia in recent times with Sühbaataryn Yanjmaa, widow of Mongolian hero Sühbaatar. She was the equivalent of head of state from Sept. 23, 1953 to Jul. 7, 1954. “If we consider such a post as having a real ruling status, she would have been (excepting queens) the absolute first woman political ruler in contemporary history,” says Zárate’s Political Collections (ZPC), a record of worldwide leadership.

Corazon Aquino was president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, after her husband Benigno Aquino — the leader of the opposition against dictator Ferdinand Marcos — was assassinated. Chandrika Kumaratunga, Sri Lankan president from 1994-2005, followed in the footsteps of her mother Sirimavo Bandaranaike, three times prime minister, a rare instance of a woman taking leadership after another female family member.

Benazir Bhutto, assassinated Dec. 27, was Pakistani prime minister from 1988-1990 and again from 1993-1996. She was the daughter of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Sukarno (Indonesia’s first post-colonial president 1945-1967), led the world’s largest Muslim country from 2001-2004, and is expected to seek the post again in 2009. In Bangladesh, arch-enemies Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have both served as prime ministers and as heads of the two largest political parties. Hasina’s late father and Zia’s late husband ran the country at different times.

“These women share dynastic origins and ‘inherited’ political leadership,” says the German government-funded research report ‘Dynasties and Female Leadership in Asia’.

Read more… 

En español

The interview that ÍñigoHeras did for PeriodistaAudioDigital appears now at Periodista Digital.

ENTREVISTA

Miren Gutiérrez: “Un buen periodista de investigación debe tener un punto de paranoico”

Entre Hong Kong, Nueva York, Panamá y medios como El País o The Wall Street Journal Americas, la periodista Miren Gutiérrez ha logrado convertirse en una verdadera todoterreno. Actualmente, ejerce de editora jefe de la agencia IPS en Roma. Estos días presenta en varios escenarios su primera novela, La ciudad de las cigarras, que cuenta con Marc Harris, el mayor blanqueador de dinero del Caribe, y con la historia de una gran estafa que Amaia Luna y su grupo de periodistas deberán investigar. La historia ha surgido de la propia investigación que la periodista desarrolló durante sus años de trabajo en el diario panameño La prensa.

¿Eres de las que piensa que todo periodismo debe ser de investigación?

No existe el periodismo sin investigación; lo demás es propaganda, relaciones públicas, publicidad. Pero es verdad que existe una especialidad conocida como periodismo de investigación. Éste implica una investigación dirigida a revelar información relevante que un poderoso –ya sea un gobierno o una organización de cualquier tipo— quiere mantener secreta. Este tipo de periodismo es obviamente más arduo y difícil.

¿Cómo valoras el ejercicio de la profesión en Italia y qué diferencias aprecias con respecto al español?

En Italia existe buen periodismo. Se puede destacar, por ejemplo, el trabajo de investigación de la revista L´Espresso, con periodistas como Leo Sisti, que han destapado asuntos de corrupción, terrorismo y crimen organizado. Hay periodistas valientes que están publicando libros sobre la mafia, como Roberto Saviano. Pero, más que el problema del sensacionalismo (que también se da en España posiblemente en igual medida), destacaría los problemas de censura que los medios, especialmente la televisión, han sufrido con el gobierno de Berlusconi, como en los casos de los periodistas Michele Santoro y Enzo Biagi. Eso ha dejado secuelas que el gobierno de Prodi todavía no ha subsanado. Sin embargo, creo que, en general, tanto en España como en Italia el periodismo de investigación es anémico y poco frecuente.

¿Crees en el periodismo de denuncia? ¿Piensas que está reservado solo a unos pocos privilegiados?

Creo firmemente en el periodismo de denuncia, siempre y cuando venga acompañado de los hechos, confirmados, verificados y bien expuestos. Y sí, por desgracia está destinado a unos pocos: por un lado, toma mucho tiempo, esfuerzo y talento de parte de escritores y editores; por otro, no todos los medios son los suficientemente valientes o libres como para publicarlo. Afortunadamente, ahora, con los blogs, uno puede dedicarse a esto (si tiene el tiempo, el dinero y el talento) y hacerlo público sin depender de los medios tradicionales. Con Internet, una de las dos limitaciones, la del medio, desaparece.

Marc Harris sería todo un personaje por explorar y seguramente habrá asuntos que no habrás podido incluir en “La ciudad de las cigarras”…

Marc Harris es todo un personaje desde distintos puntos de vista, incluyendo el psiquiátrico… Pero no, en mi novela he incluido todos los asuntos que he creído relevantes sin restricciones, así como hicimos con las investigación periodística en que está basada. Para escribir este relato de ficción me sentí completamente libre para hablar de todo; incluso más, porque me inventé y recreé con absoluta libertad.

¿Cómo surgió la idea de investigar el blanqueo de dinero en Panamá? ¿Fue algo fortuito o pensaste desde el principio escribir la novela?

Una cosa fue la investigación periodística de este caso, uno de los mayores, si no el mayor, de blanqueo de dinero en el Caribe. Y otra, la novela, que está basada en aquellos hechos. La idea de investigar el dinero sucio en Panamá surgió, no como idea, sino como necesidad, como resultado del lugar y de la circunstancia. Se trata de un importante centro bancario internacional, la segunda mayor zona libre del mundo, una ruta comercial marítima de vital importancia… El blanqueo es un fenómeno que no podíamos dejar de investigar como periodistas financieros. La novela surgió mucho después. Nunca me imaginé, cuando investigaba a Marc Harris, que la escribiría.

¿Cuál es la principal herramienta que un periodista debe tener en cuenta a la hora de mezclar investigación y ficción?

Para empezar, tener muy claro qué está haciendo. En el periodismo no cabe la ficción. Uno puede utilizar las técnicas narrativas de la literatura, pero todos los hechos que narra son hechos relevantes y confirmados. En la ficción, esas ataduras no existen. Como escritor de ficción, uno lidia con hechos (verdaderos o no), con las herramientas de la creatividad, de la composición y del lenguaje.

Sería apasionante descubrir, en plena investigación, que nombres como el de Vladimiro Montesinos tenían relación con Marc Harris…

Apasionante sí, pero poco sorprendente. Al final este tipo de coincidencias era tan frecuente que teníamos callo… La realidad es más increíble que la ficción.

En el libro, a pesar de la dureza de los acontecimientos, fuiste valiente e introdujiste el humor…

No concibo ficción ni realidad sin humor. Quizá es un recurso para alejarse de la dureza de los acontecimientos, quizá una tara… No sólo me reí escribiendo el libro; en la realidad, los que investigamos a Marc Harris tuvimos momentos de desternillarnos de risa, con lágrimas en los ojos.

¿Qué aspectos valoras especialmente a la hora de investigar?

Si preguntas por qué cualidades debe tener un buen periodista de investigación, diría que debe ser inteligente, sistemático y trabajador, tener tesón, debe saber hacer correlaciones y preguntas, debe poder identificar patrones de comportamiento en situaciones complejas, debe saber de números y escribir bien, y debe tener un punto de paranoico, por su seguridad.

EFE, Hong Kong, Latin Finance, La Prensa, El Mundo, The Wall Street Journal Americas… Son ya muchos años de experiencia y muchos los escenarios, ¿es sano que la carrera de un/a periodista cambie? ¿En qué aspectos te ha enriquecido a ti?

Me parece no sano, supersano. A mí esta experiencia me ha ayudado a saber moverme en situaciones diversas y a escribir para muy distintas audiencias. Sin embargo, también creo que es necesaria la especialización. Los mejores periodistas, gente como Seymour Hersh o Gustavo Gorriti, con quien tuve la suerte de trabajar en Panamá, son gente obsesionada con uno o dos temas, que acumula una montaña de conocimientos, de historia, de fuentes, de citas, de correlaciones, y que ve más que otros.

¿Tienes en mente algún nuevo proyecto literario o de momento prefieres dedicarte a IPS?

Tengo muchos proyectos, primero porque creo que también IPS se beneficia de lo que pueda lograr como escritora de ficción o como conferencista o como lo que sea. Entre otras cosas, estoy escribiendo una continuación de La Ciudad de las Cigarras, o más bien un nuevo caso de Amaia Luna, por supuesto basándome en otra truculenta y verdadera investigación periodística. También estoy haciendo un doctorado en nuevas tecnologías y periodismo, y dando charlas por el mundo. No me quejo.

Para terminar, un consejo a los jóvenes periodistas que se debaten entre la suerte o acabar trabajando en prensa rosa…

Yo siempre les digo lo mismo: salid, mejor si es fuera de España, y husmead.

_______________________________________

Miren Gutiérrez ( Pamplona, 1967) llegó a Hong Kong en 1990 para comenzar su carrera periodística como corresponsal de la Agencia EFE en la región de Asia-Pacífico. Nueva York, Panamá y Roma han sido sus otros destinos, desde los que ha escrito para El País, El Mundo, Diario 16 y The Wall Street Journal Americas, las revistas Gatopardo, The Nation y Latin Finance, y la agencia de noticias UPI. Durante cinco años, estuvo a cargo de la sección económica del diario panameño La Prensa. Actualmente, es editora jefe de la agencia de noticias internacional Inter Press Service.

La ciudad de las cigarras puede adquirirse en Madrid, en las librerías Estudio en Escarlata y Librería Méndez y en San Sebastián, en la Librería Lagun.

This is the video of the Feria del Libro de Madrid, where I signed books this weekend.

I was recently interviewed by PeriodistaAudiovisual, a blog about media and journalism. Blogger Íñigo Heras asked me about how to do investigative journalism,  the differences betwen working as journalist in Spain and Italy, and my novel La Ciudad de las Cigarras, based on a real financial investigation.

Here it is another presentation of La Ciudad de las Cigarras, this time in Seville.

I am posting the YouTube video of the presentation of my novel La Ciudad de las Cigarras in Madrid. It was fun. The most interesting part was that some colleagues from La Prensa came to participate, and told stories about good old times in Panama. The hardest questions were about journalistic standards and how to organise an investigative business story in a hostile environment.