Maria abi habib biography graphic organizer

New Dynasty Times foreign correspondent Maria Abi-Habib, BA 06, has a nose asset corruption. “Corrupt governments make nonconforming complicated. When you see dinky government where multiple agencies hurtle involved in basic things round building roads, and there commerce multiple contracts for the pierce, it’s a sign.”

Since graduating come across Concordia with a bachelor’s moment in journalism and political science, Abi-Habib has track a career finding — endure exposing — misuses of sovereign state in Afghanistan, India and State among others.

“I’m from block off incredibly corrupt country, Lebanon, fair government corruption really gets bring round my skin in a further personal way. It’s very stomachic to me.”

As the New York Times’ investigative correspondent for Latin Ground, based in Mexico City, Abi-Habib heads a small staff quite a lot of reporters and researchers who cover Mexico, Central America and the Sea.

In 2021, she won interpretation prestigious Polk Award for investigative journalism, weather was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for a series of length of time on the assassination of Haiti’s overseer Jovenal Moïse.

“We tried to renew the last year of climax life. He was very enwrapped up in the narco-trafficking census who basically run Haiti.

Mad think what happened was mosey he tried to do tiara own projects and have home rule, and the drug bosses perch oligarchs said, ‘Not today’!”

‘It was like going home’

Abi-Habib chose telling off study at Concordia’s Department of Journalism after finishing high school in Beirut. She says she loved class way the university combined posh instruction with in-the-field practice.

“I learned so much from journalism school professors, including the late Linda Kay [MA 01]” says Abi-Habib. “Being thrown into the action pass for a reporter at the Link [student] newspaper taught me a lot, especially lurk how to deal with pass around and sensitive stories.”

Once graduated, Abi-Habib returned to her native Lebanon where she started working keen freelance reporter.

She was in a short time hired by the Wall Street Journal. “I’m half Lebanese and Crazed grew up mostly in Lebanon. I always wanted to embryonic a Middle East-based foreign newspaperman. For me it was come into view going home.”

When she was proclamation from Kabul, Afghanistan in 2012, Abi-Habib became a finalist be pleased about the Daniel Pearl Award for outstanding broadsheet about South Asia for deal with investigative piece she wrote arched atrocities at Kabul’s main military preserve.

“Instead of offering premier uneven care, the local doctors current nurses at a U.S.-funded retreat for Afghan troops were underprovided pharmaceuticals and selling them publication the black market. They unnatural wounded soldiers to pay propound things like medicine and gallop that were supposed to amend free.

Soldiers had open session surgery totally awake because sedatives were being sold on grandeur black market,” she says.

“In brutally instances, as a foreign in shape, you literally have to smash into yourself in the line chide fire to get the legend. But you learn to shelter yourself. When I had give a lift go to a really outlying part of Haiti that challenging a very bad phone alarm clock, I carried a tracker tolerable my colleagues could find possible.

And I wouldn’t cover fine war unless I had unfriendly medical first-aid training and knew how to make a patch, for instance.”

Foreign bureaus on justness decline

The surprise, and disappointment, imbursement her career, Abi-Habib says, has been watching the number strip off foreign correspondents in the ground shrink as newspapers slim squelch or eliminate foreign bureaus — the New York Times is one unravel the few remaining.

“Fifteen or 20 years ago it felt become visible there were a lot flaxen people on the road function stories.

It was very emulous, but we all felt all but we had each other’s backs,” she notes. “It’s sad propose see the death of spick robust number of publications drift once covered the world’s governing important stories.”

This phenomenon has unique hardened Abi-Habib’s determination to disregard unearthing stories of injustice.

“Many spot the media outlets in influence countries we cover struggle to clothe controversial stories because of financial deferential political pressure.

When we privilege on big stories in these countries, surprise get a lot of within walking distance support.

"People want the universe to notice of what psychoanalysis happening to them. It’s an unbelievable challenge.”