Profile: Lyse Doucet one of the BBC’s Best

This is an assignment I completed for my Journalism & Conflict Zones class earlier this semester. Before researching the assignment I wasn’t too familiar with Lyse Doucet’s work but she quickly turned out to be one my favourite journalists, as well as a role model. I was lucky enough to meet her a few weeks after I finished the assignment, during a talk she gave about reporting during the Arab Spring at the University of Ottawa.

Lyse Doucet: One of the BBC’s Best Foreign Correspondents

From New Brunswick to West Africa: early years and biography

While her work reporting for the BBC has taken her across the globe multiple times, given her exclusive access to some of the Middle East’s most elusive figures, and won her numerous awards, Lyse Doucet credits her lengthy and impressive journalism career to simply being in the right place at the right time. Born in Bathurst, New Brunswick in 1958, Doucet completed her undergraduate degree at Queens University before going on to earn her masters in International Relations at the University of Toronto. Her first overseas experience was in 1982 with a not-for-profit group called Canadian Crossroads International, where she volunteered as an English teacher in the Ivory Coast for four months. Doucet then spent five months traveling through West Africa freelancing for Canadian media organizations and the BBC. Lucky for Doucet, her freelancing gig just happened to coincide with the opening of the BBC’s West African bureau, and her career as a foreign correspondent began.

Since the early 1980s Doucet has been covering stories from across the Middle East and Africa.  She spent the first five years of her career in the Ivory Coast, before heading to Pakistan in 1988. She was one of the only correspondents present for the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and was the BBC’s main correspondent in Islamabad from 1989-1993. She then opened a BBC office in Amman, Jordan in 1994.

Doucet has become a trusted and authoritative voice on both the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and more recently the Arab Spring, where she continues to file reports from Libya and most recently Syria. She’s not married, and spends her time between London, England and the Middle East. However, she still carries a Canadian passport and has been known to visit her east coast hometown frequently.

Reflections on the summer and fourth-year freak outs

Well it’s been TWO MONTHS since I lasted updated this baby. Unlike my last blogging hiatus, which was due to a more or less lack of excitement in my life, this one is because I’ve just been too busy!

(If there is a state of mind that exists somewhere between boredom and barely functioning because I’m so swamped… I’ve yet to find it. But, I digress.)

I was lucky enough to spend my summer in the Ottawa Citizen newsroom, where I got to cover a bunch of topics ranging from the murder of a young Gatineau girl, to what it’s like for KHL players flying in Russia, to innovative new cancer experiments using dogs, to FOOD!

[I was also assigned the very difficult, albeit important task of covering the Great Boys of Fire 2012 calendar photo shoot, which led to a ball busting expose of epic journalistic proportions... I kid, but that was a fun assignment. Why? See below.]

Cleary my toughest assignment of the summer....

I learned a lot  about both journalism and myself while working for the city desk at the Citizen. I also was fortunate to meet and work with a lot of awesome journalists and editors, both young and old, who taught me a lot about the business and nature of print journalism. Newsrooms are an interesting place to be these days with all the changes going on in journalism, and the Citizen proved to be just that.

But sadly summer has come to an end (officially 6 days ago, I know I’m little late), which means it’s time to come face to face with my fourth and final year of university. Over the last three years I’ve had a love/hate relationship with journalism program at Carleton.

Love = the feeling you get after pulling off an awesome newscast or filing a great story on deadline.

Hate = all the times you had to awkwardly run out of class mid-lecture to take a phone call from a source or that time you spent 1.5 hours on an OC Transpo bus to Blackburn Hamlet to interview someone, when that wasn’t even your intended destination (Yes, this actually happened to my friend Lo and I. Yes, it was embarrassing).

But to be honest I’m sad that my last year of university is upon me and like many soon-to-be-graduates I’m slightly freaked out as to what comes next. I plan to make the most out of this coming year and so far things are (surprisingly) going pretty smoothly. I’m studying business journalism as my beat this year, an area which I had virtually no knowledge about, but after three weeks of class am starting to really like. I’m also taking magazine journalism and reporting in conflict zones. Next semester I’m trying my hand at television journalism again, where I’ll work with my classmates to produce the current affairs program the 25th Hour.

So, here’s to hoping things continue to go smoothly! Now, time for homework.

- 30-

 

Happy (. . . belated) Father’s Day

I know this post is coming a day late. Sadly, I spent Father’s Day this year in the newsroom working the Sunday shift. But since my dear old Dad always writes such lovely things about me on his blog (which I assure you he’ll be quite happy to see me plug) I decided to return the love and do the same.

My Dad has always been there for me, no matter what silly/stupid things I get myself into… He’s someone I know I can depend on and trust completely.

Growing up, my brother Mitch and I went through several ridiculous phases. From the Spice Girls stickers we religiously collected to our obsession with Beanie Babies, my Dad was always right there supporting us in our endeavors – even though that often meant sacrificing his money and his pride.

Dad, Ryan, Mitch & I playing with photobooth - 2006

I’ll never forget the summer of  ’98, the year our obsession with the Spice Girls reached its all time high. My mom’s work was running a Spice Girls promotion and she had managed to get us tickets to their concert in Darien Lake, New York. I was eight-years-old and basically spent every day of my life pretending I was the sixth Spice Girl, working on my British accent and dressing up in ridiculous (and looking back on it now, embarrassing) outfits, so naturally I WAS OVER THE MOON EXCITED. Mitch, whether he’ll openly admit to it now or not, was just as obsessed as I was and I’m sure spent many a day pretending he was a Spice Girl too. Long story short (another of my Dad’s favourite sayings… along with, SHAZAM!) we were stoked.

Time Square 2010

My Dad however, who had the lovely job of accompanying us to our dream concert, was not as enthused as we were, and I’m sure had a million other places he would rather have been (seeing as how he detests large crowds, especially when they are composed mainly of screaming pre-teen girls). But being the great Dad he is he put on a smile and took us to the concert, simply because it made us happy. Even though he had to suffer through watching Spice World the entire bus ride up (which, by the way, he had already painfully sat through in theatres mere months earlier) and had to stand in the pouring rain watching a girl band he couldn’t care less about, he never complained. Instead, he took turns picking us up so we could see the stage, waited patiently for us while we went on dozens of rides before the concert, and bought us tons of memorabilia and candy.

But, that’s just my Dad, bending over backwards to help everyone and anyone he can.

My life is filled with tons of “Spice Girls concert moments,” and if I were to write them all down now, it would take weeks to finish this post. My Dad (and my Mom too, of course!) worked hard to give my brother and I the funnest and greatest childhood ever. From making up hilarious games to play at dinners, to taking us up north to the Stanton House each summer, to buying us hamsters (only to see us kill them off months later… ) he has given Mitch and I everything.

 

 

So Happy (…belated) Father’s Day Dad!

I love you.

- Alex

Losing my Gatineau Park Virginity

This past weekend marked my first ever trip to Gatineau Park, Quebec. I woke up on Saturday morning kind of bored, and since it was such a beautiful day, I decided that an outdoor excursion was a must.

So my boyfriend Dane, our friend Hilary, her boyfriend Matt and I (can you say double date?) all piled into my car and headed into the abyss that is Hull-Gatineau. I call it an abyss because  typically I am instantly lost as soon as I cross the Ottawa River. Last week it took me 45 min to find the Gatineau Costco, and a few years ago my mom and I drove for almost an hour trying to find the casino (yes, I know it literally is RIGHT across the bridge, please don’t ask me how we got lost, to this day I am still not sure…)

But, thanks to google maps, all was well and we arrived quickly and safely.

Beautiful lake in Gatineau Park

I’d always heard great things about Gatineau Park, but honestly I was shocked when I arrived to discover just how BIG it is. After figuring out which trail we wanted to hike, we drove for another 15 minutes inside the park to get there. It was a beautiful drive, lots of trees and fresh smelling air – which was nice because sadly my car has no A/C.

We decided to hike the Mont King trail – which we were told was a medium route. Being very novice hikers, we were quite impressed with ourselves, since we only took 45 minutes to finish the trail we were told was 1.5 hours long. This included the several pit stops we made in order to stage impromptu photoshoots. See below.

We are some bad ass hikers.

Thank God it wasnt windy...

Boys turn. Yes, Matt is a ninja. Again, Dane has troubles jumping...

After our hike we decided to check out the Mackenzie King Estate, which was nice, but honestly they make it sound way cooler in the little guide they give you. For one, the so-called “cave” on the property is merely a tiny hole in the groud, which is roped off forbidding you from going inside. When I think cave, I think two things: bat cave, or cave with cool underground lake. This was lacking both. We also spent a solid 25 min hiking the Waterfall Trail, only to be slightly disappointed at the size of the waterfall the trail is named after. I mean, it was beautiful, but again I was expecting a really awesome waterfall with a swimming hole, circa: Lost.

Gorgeous gardens at the Mackenzie King Estate

Playing around in the Mackenzie King Estate ruins... while we were doing this a couple was awkwardly waiting to take their engagement photos...

My new friend

But, who am I to complain. The day was lots of fun, and we even ended up finding a great pub to have some post hiking grub (just call me Dr. Seuss).
All-in-all it was a great day, and I’m excited to head back to the park soon, hopefully to check out some beaches (ie. I really want to go to the beach this weekend).

GANDOLF

Back in Ottawa for the Summer

Sooo. I wish I could say the reason I haven’t updated my blog in two weeks was because I was so busy doing awesome things like  mountain climbing, Thai kickboxing or wrestling with tigers. But, sadly, there is no reason for my lack of updates, except for the lack of excitement in my life.

I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks at home in London, Ontario on my couch watching re-runs of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and reading children’s books for my online literature class. Resist the urge to call me lazy (seriously, that’s mean), as part of the reason why I was so immobile was because I had my wisdom teeth removed and was forced (not really, I offered) to stay at home and babysit my 10-year-old brother while my parents took a cruise. And when you’re only company is at school for 6-hours a day, things can get quite boring – hence my new found unhealthy obsession with the Kardashians.

However some of the few things I did manage to accomplish during my sting at home were: learning how to drive standard (albeit terribly), stealing sushi from an all-you-can-eat restaurant (for which my Grandma should take most responsibility), and surviving the predicted May 21, 2011 apocalypse (#winning).

My driving instructor for the day, thanks Grandma!

That's sushi she's pulling out of her rain hat...

I was there the night before...

But, moving right along….

I’m back in Ottawa now! I arrived in the Capital City after a road trip from London with my boyfriend just over a week ago in. . .  MY NEW CAR (it’s really used, but new to me!). The drive would’ve been great if I a.) didn’t get a speeding ticket and b) the giant loser who ran into my car in a parking lot while I was getting a coffee inside Tim Horton’s, putting a nice big scrape along the side was never born(seriously, karma better get him good).

But we’ll just gloss over all that  swearing, anger and frustration.

When I arrived in Ottawa I had a week to kill before I started my new summer job interning at the Ottawa Citizen, and I made the most of it!

Since I’m trying my best to eat healthy this summer and have recently entered  the realm of vegetarianism, Ariel (my roommate) and I decided a summer of learning how to cook Asian food would do us well (we also decided this after eating really delicious Pho in Berlin…). So I spent the first few nights here experimenting with Thai and Japanese cooking, many thanks to T&T. Surprisingly it all tasted delicious, despite how sad it actually looks.

Looks can be deceiving....

I also hit up my first ever Great Glebe Garage Sale with my friend Hilary. I picked up a super cute homemade button mirror from Yakety Yak Designs and a chunky old man sweater that smelled of mothballs and brandy… grand total: $11.

Holding my breath as I hold up my new sweater!

Cupcake Queen couldn't resist...

The rest of the week was a mix of sipping Stella’s on the porch, reading children’s books in the sun, and running along the canal (though clearly not in that order…) that is until yesterday – when I started my internship at the Ottawa Citizen.

I was quite nervous to start at the Citizen. Having spent the better part of the last month frolicking around Europe, I felt out of touch with the Ottawa news scene. But I had a great first day, thanks to the all too kind Citizen staff and am lucky to be interning with three other awesome Carleton students this summer (well … one just graduated – congrats Julia!).

I haven’t really been able to get to deep into my job yet, seeing as how I’ve only been there two days, but this afternoon I filed a story about the black bears that have been poking their noses into the backyards of Bells Corners residents. It’s always a great feeling seeing my byline in print,  and I hope to see it many more times this summer!

Anyways, I must now tidy my very messy room, but now that my life has some resemblance of routine and I AM ACTUALLY DOING THINGS, expect many more Ottawa summer posts.

Also, I’m looking to spend my free time exploring the city – so any fun Ottawa summer suggestions would be much appreciated!

Eurotrip Photo Galleries

If we’re friends on Facebook, then ignore this post, as all my photos from Europe can be found on my Facebook page. But, if you don’t have Facebook or (for some reason) we are not Facebook friends, then feel free to take a few minutes to look through the photos from our Europe trip on my Flickr page! Just click on any of the images below to be directed to the right gallery…

Brussels, Belgium

PARIS (VERSAILLES)

Paris, France II

Amsterdam, Netherlands

London, England (The Royal Wedding)

London, England II

Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany II

Venice, Italy

Rome, Italy

When in Rome. . .

Forgive me for posting this blog so late. We’ve been back in Canada for two days now, and sadly procrastination has got the better of me… I’m now on the train from Ottawa to London (Ontario…sadly), and since I developed a knack for blogging on trains overseas, I’ve decided to take the next few hours to sum up and blog about our Roman adventure…

It did not start well.

We arrived in Rome from Venice at around 10 p.m., and immediately we were suspicious for several reasons. First of all, our train was on time. Second of all, our hostel was only a five-minute walk from the train station. Thirdly, we found our hostel with ease, and did not get lost once. Lastly, when we went to check-in there was no line and we were helped immediately.

With things going so well, we knew something bad was bound to happen. Never had we ever had our heavy backpacks on for such a short period of time.

And alas, our suspicions were confirmed, when we turned the key to the door of our six-person bedroom at the Alessandro Downtown Hostel.

I was the first one to enter the dark room and immediately noticed lumps in the bunk beds. Obviously, people were sleeping. Not wanting to be rude I told everyone to be quiet, which we were.

But, apparently we weren’t quite enough for one disgruntled old trekker, let’s call him Mr. Sexist Old Catholic Man. As soon as we were all inside the room, Mr. Sexist Old Catholic Man, starts yelling. Since it was dark, and since it was PRACTICALLY SILENT as we were all being so quiet, his voice scared the shit out of me, and Amanda and Ariel (Dane claims he was not at all jarred, though this remains to be confirmed).

We apologized and tried to explain that we had just arrived and needed to settle in. It was not even 10:30 pm yet, so we didn’t think it was that rude, to open a door and silently enter a room, but to each their own. However, since Mr. Sexist Old Catholic Man, was (we’re like 99% sure) sexist, he would not listen to or acknowledge any of our female voices, and hurled slurs at us. However, when Dane spoke he listened, but we don’t think he understood…

After a few minutes of him telling us (we’re pretty sure at least, he had a heavy accent and barked more than he spoke) this was a men’s room (it wasn’t) and we were all rude, terrible people, we decided there was no way we were sleeping anywhere near this man, and went down to the front desk to request a room change.

But, since our visit to Rome was only a few days after the beatification of Pope JPII, the city was full of Catholics, and there were no other rooms available.

(Keep reading after the jump!)

Venice, Italy: Where we get lost like it’s our job

Note: This blog post is being published very late, as it’s been hard to find internet since we’ve been in Rome. You’ll find out why, when I am able to write about our time in Italy’s capital. So stay tuned! Hopefully it will be within the next day or two…

I know I’ve probably said this about every place we’ve been to so far, but Venice was amazing.

We arrived there yesterday afternoon after catching a morning flight out of Berlin. Since none of us speak Italian very well, we had some trouble (of course) getting to the actual city from the airport, which is about 25 km away. At first, the lady who sold us our bus ticket at the airport transport counter said we were taking a water bus, and even described in detail how to get to the water bus stop, about a 15 min walk away.

We trekked 15 min to the water bus stop with our massive backpacks and 3-hour sleep, only to find out we weren’t taking a water bus at all, but a normal bus into the city (this was slightly disappointing since for the entire walk we talked about how awesome it would be to take a water bus). So, we walked all the way back to the terminal and nearly got on what we thought was our bus (the number 5). Turns out it wasn’t (shocking), we were actually taking a different number 5 bus (having two number 5 buses is of course logical), which we had conveniently just missed and we learned wasn’t coming again for another 25 min. I do not, and probably will not ever understand the Italian bus system.

Nonetheless we made it into Venice, and after another 20 min trek to our hostel, we were nothing short of relieved to get our backpacks of our shoulders (our bags have been getting increasingly heavier, since we keep buying so much stuff, or at least my bag is getting increasingly heavier, since I keep buying so much stuff, FML).

Our Venice hostel is definitely the most unique place we’ve stayed on the trip. It’s on the second floor of a building that’s over 500 years old and is run by a group of North American and British guys in their early twenties. They’re very laid back and when we got there, they were all just lounging in the giant living/dining room watching Modern Family. It’s a gothic building with cathedral ceilings and huge windows that open up onto a balcony overlooking a beautiful walkway. It also has its own moat and the guys who run the hostel cook you a free pasta dinner every night at 8 p.m. (Fellow backpackers heading to Venice, stay at A Venice Fish).

After checking in, we decided to head out and explore. Luckily, since Venice is so small (it literally takes 45 min to walk the entire city), there was no complicated transportation system to figure out.

Our first stop (naturally) was the Piazza San Marco. It was beautiful, aside from the massive crowds of people… and pigeons. And the architecture was a refreshing change from what we saw in Berlin, as was the weather.

After checking out the piazza we literally got lost in the alleyways and canals that make up Venice. We wondered into shop after shop, each filled with gorgeous Venetian glass, masks and artwork. Naturally, I picked up some souvenirs (Mom, you’ll thank me later).

(Read more about Venice after the jump!)

Berlin, Germany: Day 3 & 4

I’m writing this sitting on an airport floor in Berlin. Since our incredibly close call with our plane to London last week, we’ve made quite the effort to try and leave early for our flights, and, so far, so good.

Berlin was such an interesting city to experience. It has so much history (albeit a lot if it isn’t good) and is such a unique place.

On our third day in Germany we decided to visit a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin. After training for 40 min and walking for an hour and a half (we got really lost) we found the Sachenheusen concentration camp. Not only was this the first concentration camp built during the Nazi’s reign, it was also where the SS training centre was located, as well the command centre for all the concentration camps throughout Europe.

Walking through Sahcenheusen was a sobering and humbling experience. I don’t think I’ll ever really be able to process just how terrifying and upsetting the things I saw and read about there really were. The stories were horrifying and made me feel sick, and honestly after only seeing about half the camp we decided to leave, because it was too much to handle.

If you’re ever in Berlin, I highly recommend you go though. Although there are several WWII and Holocaust museums, seeing a concentration camp with your own eyes is different, and if anything, makes you value and appreciate your own life a lot more.

But, onto brighter things…

After visiting the concentration camp, we were all feeling a little low, as is to be expected. So on the way to the train station back we stopped for ice cream and McDonalds fries! When we got back to the hostel we napped and read for a bit, before heading up to our hostel bar for some cheap pitchers and card games.

Our first German pretzel experience. It was epic.

The next day we decided to explore more of Berlin. We visited the Brandenberg Gate, the Reichstag and walked for a bit through the Tiergarten. After snapping a bunch of photos we then headed to the Holocaust Musuem and the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Berlin, Germany: Day 1 & 2

When we first got to Berlin we were exhausted, as you probably already know if you’ve read my last few updates. We got to our hostel around 11 am, but had to wait until 2 pm to check in, so we just hung out in the lobby, and I finally got a chance to write all about our time in London (see below!).

It wasn’t until the late afternoon that we were ready to head out and explore Berlin. And since it was so late on a Sunday afternoon and was also a holiday here in Germany (we still don’t know what holiday?) there wasn’t a whole lot open. So, we decided to check out the Berlin Wall!

It took us a little while to find the wall, you think it would be easy, but there are only certain parts of it that are still in tact, and we also took the wrong train the wrong way for awhile. The transportation system here in Germany is the most confusing of any of the places we visited. I think this is partially due to the fact that because German words and street names are so long and several of them are VERY SIMILAR, it actually takes you a lot longer to figure out and remember where exactly it is you want to go. (For example: yesterday we wanted to get to the Potsdamplatz station, but found ourselves on a train to the town of Potsdam, which operates off of the same platform as the train to Potsdam Platz. Confusing, right? )

Nonetheless we made it to the Wall and it was very cool. The West Berlin side is now an art exhibition, where local artists have painted really cool designs about the day wall came down and what it means to them. The East Berlin side was filled with awesome graffiti (as much of Berlin seems to be) and we had a lot of fun walking along it checking out all the neat phrases and designs.

(Read more about our first two days in Berlin after the jump!)