Between Immense Happiness and Anxiety

A Letter to Narco News Readers from Pablo Francischelli in Porto Alegre, Brazil

By Pablo Francischelli
2004 Narco News Authentic Journalism Scholar

June 9, 2004

I write these lines to introduce myself and to try to put a little bit of what I have felt in recent days into words…

To support Pablo’s scholarship, use this link.

About three weeks ago, I received a phone call from Alberto Giordano, informing me that I was one of the scholars selected to participate in the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in Cochabamba, Bolivia. At that moment, two big emotions began to grow inside me.

First, I felt an immense happiness over everything that this privilege and experience meant. The possibility of being able to travel to such a fertile country, to meet interesting people with ideals and similar values… Probably any human being would feel the same.

But in the days after receiving the news, another feeling came to me. I felt great anxiety. And to speak to you a little bit about my anguishes, it is necessary, first, to tell you a little about me.

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I lived until I was four years old. For the past eighteen years I have lived in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Now I am 22 and am in my senior year in the journalism school at the state university. Now begin the anxieties: What does it mean to be a journalist today? How can something dignified be done with this profession, something that can bring benefits to those who agree with my values? How to escape from becoming a slave of big corporate media? For me, journalism is a beating heart, not a prison. I have a very cool professor who is always repeating to me: “Journalism Is Subversion!”

At times, it has been difficult to find people with similar ideals. And then, Alberto Giordano called my house and told me about the scholarship. Little by little, as a few days passed, the anxiety that had gripped me had been conquered by the possibility of meeting people who believe as I do.

In the big corporate media, journalism does not exist. What they have there is investment, and the hiding and fragmenting of reality. All of it is done at the service of a comfortable and selfish elite.

Power is in the union of ideas. I want to contribute to this fight, a fight that will not lack ideas or will.

To whoever is reading these lines and is in conditions to make some kind of donation to the Fund for Authentic Journalism, do not have any doubt that you will be contributing toward the growth of some changes that can save our societies from possible catastrophes.

Many ideas need money in order to come to life. Unfortunately, that is the case. And when those ideas are alive we can begin to think about a world where money won’t be so important.

Please send your donation to:

The Fund for Authentic Journalism
P.O Box 71051
Madison Heights, MI 48071 USA

Or make a contribution, online, via this link:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org/

Sincerely,

Pablo Francischelli
Porto Alegre, Brazil

To support Pablo’s scholarship, use this link:

To support all the scholars, the school, and Narco News, click here: http://www.authenticjournalism.org/

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