A reinvigorated fifth estate
Matthew Harrison
|
Drohan: uncovering corruption the hard way
|
Local investigative journalist Madelaine Drohan talks shop at Canada Book Day
"The only word I can think of to describe it is 'creepy,'" she says, adding, "maybe 'surreal.'"The investigative journalist sitting across from me at a local coffee shop is talking about what it's like to have tea with an African warlord.
"On one hand you're sitting down across from them and they sound like a very reasonable human being, but in the back of your mind you're always thinking, 'This guy was responsible for this massacre,' or, like this one interview I did with a mercenary in South Africa... He invited me to his house, gave me a glass of wine, showed me a photo album of a recent mission, but in the back of my head I'm thinking, 'This guy went on that mission and killed people.' So yeah, there's a real creepiness to it," she says.
Talking with another journalist from a local arts paper has got to be kind of a break for local investigative journalist Madelaine Drohan, who travelled Africa investigating the complex relationship between corporations and warlords and mercenaries for her 2004 book Making a Killing: How and Why Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business.
The book covers 150 years of companies doing business in Africa, a subject she fell into during her post as a financial reporter with The Globe and Mail in London, England.
"While I was there a story broke about a Canadian-owned company operating in Africa that was linked to mercenaries," explains Drohan. "I just couldn't believe that companies were actually hiring mercenaries... that was my real start
[into investigative reporting]."But times have changed and the idea that there's a cozy symbiosis between corporations and armed force no longer shocks. The wealth of information in the post-9/11 world connecting the U.S. military-industrial complex to U.S. companies is staggering. But in the mid-'90s, when Drohan was investigating Shell in Nigeria and Canadian-owned oil company Talisman in Sudan, connecting warlords and mercenaries to well-known and "respected" CEOs was bold.
The result of her efforts was Making a Killing, which won the Ottawa Book Award and was short-listed for the National Business Book of the Year Award in 2004-a fitting author to host an investigative journalism workshop during the Canada Book Day celebrations in Ottawa on Saturday April 23.
Arts Ottawa East's 15th annual Write-On-Workshops series presents Drohan's "Digging Deep," which will teach the skills of investigative journalism, as well as Tom Henighan's "Tripping Out," about travel writing for fun and profit, and Melanie Little's workshop on how to value every idea as the seed of a good story. There are also workshops for preteens, teens and young adults.
In pre-9/11 days at journalism school, we were told investigative journalism, which was popular during the Vietnam and Watergate years, was being pushed out by media convergence (loosely defined as a single company controlling the content of, and the medium for, conveying news), and the 24-hour news cycle-the antithesis of the long, laborious hours investigative journalists log.
But Drohan says that post-9/11 events have helped rekindle an interest in investigative reporting, including the Gomery inquiry.
"There were incidents which I discuss in my book that generated scandals... and it made me start thinking about scandals and how they play out, and are the real people really punished, which is what I'm researching now," she says. "The Gomery inquiry is great for testing my theories."
The workshops take place from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at Gloucester High School (2060 Ogilvie Road, between Blair and Montreal Roads). Enrolment in the Write-On-Workshops is limited; pre-registration is required. Cost is $20 for non-members of Arts Ottawa East, $15 for members. For information and registration packages, contact Arts Ottawa East at 749-4978, or info@artsoe.ca.
Feedback: letters@ottawaxpress.ca
| Democracies Also Need Armed Protection |
|
I remember the race riots in the US in the 1960s where the National Guard tried to reestablish the rule of law. Here in Canada during the 1970 October Crisis the Canadian Army was patrolling the streets of Montreal to prevent more abductions and murders. During the Ice Storm of 1998 the army was called in again to prevent looting and help maintain order.
Therefore I do not find it all that unusual for Canadian companies in the Third World to hire armed guards to protect their interests. There is always the danger that their factories could be firebombed or their high ranking executives either executed or kidnapped for money. We are far too complacent in Canada when we allowed a local Jewish School in the Montreal area to be firebombed last year. If we had these expert mercenaries patrolling our school grounds we would not have to fear for the lives of our precious students!
|
|
Stephen Talko
|
{9 votes}
|
|
|
Investigative journalism is important in the news world and must fight to survive the media
convergence for the good of humanity. We have a right to know what goes on in the world and sometimes the only way to find out the truth is by reading an article from a journalist who actually investigated a story. I'm glad to see that investigative journalism is making a come back since 2001 and I hope that it will become more and more recognized in the years to come.
|
|
Lise Auger
|
{13 votes}
|
|
|
In case your head's in a hole in the ground and you still believe that this world of ours isn't sliced up and stamped by the the powers that be then I suggest that you start your education in due haste because if the multinational corporations won't get you, the government will. There's nothing in "Making a Killing: How and Why Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business" that I'm not already familiar with, if anything it'll only further confirm what I already knew/suspected by filling in some of the blanks.
<<>>
We can't afford to be ignorant about the world we really live in and this book is a great stepping on point for people that only have an inkling of what goes on behind the veil of lies the media and government wants us to buy.
|
|
Pedro Eggers
|
{11 votes}
|
|
|
Judging from what I've read here I don't know nearly enough of the imperialist, militarily aggressive policies of the United States. Even though we are embroiled in this sponsorship scandal it would seem that Canada is at least a little more peaceful in its dealings. Yet those companies which have emerged and thrived in pro-conservative Alberta would harm the reputation of Canada if this can be blown open and exposed.
|
|
Skeleton James
|
{6 votes}
|
|
|
| Drohan's Courageousness.............. |
|
Wow, Madelaine Drohan has guts. Reading this article where Drohan interviewed warlords and mercinaries had me thinking about the dangers she was willing to put herself in to get the story. By now, we are familiar with the journalists at the beginning of the Iraq war that agreed to be imbedded in troops without the weapon or the training.
This is what Drohan's experience must have been like except she did not have the strength and cover of 50 other soldiers to support her during her brief time with "the enemy".
Because of her courage, information is available to all of us to help understand how corporations are able to operate profitably in foreign countries once they have paid their dues (sometimes by making immoral agreements with murderers).
I look forward to picking up Drohan's 2004 release: "Making a Killing: How and Why Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business".
Reading her book safely in the comfort of my nice, war-free Canadian neighbourhood.
|
|
Steve Landry
|
{5 votes}
|
|
|
