Have Pen and Notebook - Will Travel

Volume 3, Issue No. 38

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .

 

 Our latest as of Monday, March 21, 2022 

~ Never in my wildest dream would the opportunity to travel and see places beyond my ordinary reach come to fruition. Travel has changed my outlook on life personally and professionally. To go on a journey is to broaden horizons and enrich perspective and understanding of people, cultures, politics, and history. Travel is educational. In many instances, people travel for pleasure. But it's different when one is afforded the chance to tour places near and far because it is part of the job. That was profoundly gratifying and enriching.

 

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JOURNALISM MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE

Seeing the World Through a Journalist's Eyes

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

TORONTO - By no means would I ever come close, or even duplicate, travels envisioned by Jules Verne in his fictional novel Around the World in 80 Days and the real-life copycats that followed after its publication in 1873.

But I might have had unintentionally gone globetrotting . . . if touching land (as in layovers) and wandering around airports for several hours in long-haul flights would be factored in.

I don't want to brag, and I am not making one here, for the adventures I pursued were not within Verne's time constraints of less than three months, even with the advent of the jet age and modern airplanes. 

A good part of my travels, initially from the Philippines to Germany and back, in 1984, then from the Philippines to the United States in the mid-90s, then to Canada in 2010, and thence from Canada to Europe, were related to my work as a journalist.

I had decided to quit writing for the English edition of the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun in the middle of the chaos following the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino in August 1983, and accepted the excellent offer of the German news agency (Deutsche Press Agentur) to be its Philippine correspondent.

But first (and it's part of the contract), I've got to immerse myself in the style and ways of reporting for a 24/7 wire service that catered, and still caters, to German, English, Arabic, and Spanish clients worldwide, thus necessitating the training visit to its headquarters in Hamburg, and a tour of important cities in Germany.

With those incentives thrown in, plus an office and a handsome salary denominated in US dollars and Deutsche Marks, it would be foolish to refuse! Of course, I accepted. 

At that time, President Ferdinand Marcos' martial law had effectively turned the Philippine media into ass-kissing lame ducks. Powerful as he was, he could not bend the foreign press to his liking, so working as a foreign correspondent then was like a safe refuge from harassment and persecution.

That was one of the reasons Teddy Benigno, bureau chief of Agence France Presse, and later President Cory Aquino's press secretary, had put up the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) which he also headed for a while. 

It was a timely move as a huge number of reporters, editors and broadcast journalists from international news agencies, radio-television networks, magazines, and newspapers had gathered in Manila on the belief the Marcos dictatorship was crumbling.

FOCAP soon became a formidable counterbalance to muzzling the press as its membership roster counted influential heavyweights in the foreign press corps. Critics have labeled them with the pejorative "parachute journalists".

But back to the original story. My travel segment from America to Europe had combined professional, historical, and personal interests. In a span of eight years from 2010, I've visited seven out of 50 countries in Europe. That's way too low compared with Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.

My work as a foreign correspondent for DPA starting in 1984 had brought me to the German cities of Hamburg, Berlin (at that time divided into East and West), Munich, Cologne, Bonn, and Frankfurt.

History-wise, my most memorable was in Berlin, crossing by car at Checkpoint Charlie into communist East Berlin from the Allied-controlled West Berlin. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGxIkEzeYD8).

A visit to the site of the 1936 Summer Olympics, also in Berlin, in what's then Nazi Germany added more significance to that trip. Seeing Brandenburg Gate then (1984) and as recent as 2012 was like being transplanted back in time. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9EvFeMDY7c).

Hamburg, a major port and one of the world's biggest musical cities, is a likable place. On my off days from work, I would go walking around exploring the city within a radius of five miles from the editorial office in Mittelweg. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik0AXXyPXaE).

Being in some of the big cities in Germany was beyond belief, especially for one lacking the wherewithal to go on extended journeys. It was actually my job that had paid for those trips, my very first abroad. It was not bad at all.

On the way to Germany from Manila, I went to Bangkok, then to Bombay (now called Mumbai), and then to Frankfurt am Main, the main hub of Lufthansa. After an overnight stay, I took a flight to Hamburg where my on-the-job training began with one of the world's major news agencies).

The trips were undeniably a big leap from Asia to Europe, which meant traveling half the world. More than 9,000 kilometres separate the two continents.

In later years, I would add North America (the U.S. and Mexico in particular) to my growing list of destinations. After several years, the journey to North America would be completed by moving to Canada.

Just a year later in 2011, I embarked on a personal cruise of seven countries in the European Union, namely, in alphabetical order - Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Vatican - the world's smallest city-state at 0.44 square kilometres or 44 hectares.

Journeying to these countries had re-lived what I knew only from reading and watching documentaries. My knowledge suddenly grew, sparking more interest in each of their histories.

The visit to the Vatican, for example, was awe-inspiring but it did little to change my personal view of the many abuses committed by priests in the name of the Catholic church. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KteBl74us-0).

In Spain, notably Barcelona, including the towns of Sitges (video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6stjyvQxM0) and Tarragona, Madrid, and Toledo, I felt a sense of belonging but only to the extent that I knew and understood the language and culture, and how the ancient colonizers violently treated the natives depicted in Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere.

All these perspectives were the rewards of travel, thanks to my work as a journalist. Travel opens up a whole range of possibilities. Eighty days is just not enough to take in the wonders of the world. (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).