Photo by Anne Savery
Foreign Journalists in Milwaukee
Foreign journalists including Kimberly dela Cruz (third from left, back row), Amna Yaseen (fifth from left back row) and Vlada Librova (far right)
Not long ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of foreign journalists in the United States for a three-week junket and sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Many had never been to this country, and they seemed interested in all things American. Prior to visiting Milwaukee, they had been to Washington D.C., Reno and Salt Lake City, and were on their way to Chicago before returning to their home countries. We met at the International Institute of Wisconsin, a community-based partner for the US Department of State.
My presentation included Milwaukee issues, but mainly focused on the inner city populated largely by African Americans who have experienced poverty and lawlessness for too long. These journalists have experienced similar racial issues in their own countries, which included Jordan, Pakistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Ghana and many more.
After my talk, I was able to spend time with three of the foreign journalists, all women in their early 30s: Vlada Librova from Kiev; Kimberly dela Cruz: from Manilla, Philippines; and Amna Yaseen from LaHore, Pakistan.
Vlada, let’s start with you. With the Russia-Ukraine war going on, what is it like living there?
V.L.: I was born in Odessa, but now I live in Kiev. The city is different than it was before the Russian invasion, but there are lots of young people, and there are still nice places. There are bomb scares, but people are strong and doing their best to adjust. I do love the city.
Do you cover the war in your capacity as a photojournalist?
V.L.: As a photojournalist, for the last three years, I worked at the war’s front lines. I was wounded in 2023, and I don’t cover the infantry in combat anymore. Hard for me physically and emotionally. Currently, I am focused on the work of combat medics. Before the war, I was a wedding photographer where my main focus was love and hope. I had never seen death before the war. My life changed after my war experience because of what happened to myself. Everything changed. Now I am a different person. But I’m proud of my country and my people. You don’t want war coming to your country, but all you can do is try to do your best.
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Amna, you are a native of Pakistan. How did you get into photography?
A.Y.: I am based in LaHore, Pakistan. I started as a street photographer, and then I did social documentary photography. Later, I was asked to work with AFP, the French news service, but I preferred freelance. I’ve been a photojournalist for five years. I get assignments from the news agencies I work with. I focus on religion, politics, law, economy, lifestyle, culture, and sports—portraits and environmental shots. Sometimes, I work with correspondents.
Kimberly dela Cruz, you are from the Philippines. How did you get started in photojournalism, and what is your beat?
K.C.: I took journalism in college. I was an intern at a news agency in my fourth year of college. I then worked for a newspaper in a small town two hours from Manilla, the capital. I covered all different assignments, business, sports. In 2017, I totally focused on the “War,” which was a complaint against childbirth because of overpopulation. I was covering reproductive rights. That project changed my perspective on photography and journalism. I focused on the families affected by the killings and violence and their hopes for justice.
Why were there killings and violence back then in your country?
K.C.: Because President Duterte ordered the police to do vigilante killings. 30,000 reported deaths, but many more. The population growth was huge because so many young women got pregnant without birth control. I won awards for that work. After that project, I focused on climate change and women’s rights. I now work freelance for various international news agencies.
During 2017 and 2018, the Philippines experienced a significant surge in killings, largely attributed to President Duterte's "War on Drugs.” This campaign led to thousands of deaths, primarily of suspected drug users and dealers, but also extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses.
Impressions of the United States
I am interested to hear your impressions of the United States so far. Vlada, this is your first trip here.
V.L.: We’ve been here three weeks. Washington D.C., Reno, Nevada, Salt Lake City, now Milwaukee and soon Chicago. It’s hard to tell my impressions. So far, I see the country as huge and different. As Ukrainians, we have a lot to learn from the U.S. You have built a beautiful country. The democracy worked. I like your society. People trust themselves. They don’t let the government make all the decisions. They want to decide themselves. That’s cool. Still, you have economics problems as in all over the world. For instance, young people cannot afford houses to buy apartments. In Ukraine, we have all the same problems. For me as a person from a Slavic country, one of the most cool things about Americans is that most people smile. I understand that the smiles are part of the culture or maybe polite smiles.
You’ve seen a lot of Americans smiling at you?
V.L.: Yeah, and the smiles are friendly but maybe not sincere. But I like this part of the culture. At the start of a conversation, a person smiles at me. In Ukraine, it’s different. But maybe I want to put smiles in my country when I come back home. Our people smile only if something funny has happened. But young people in Ukraine smile much more than my parents did. For the first week in the U.S, I felt my cheeks are in pain, but now my smile muscle is starting to work.
And what are your impressions of America, Amna? This your first time in the U.S.
A.Y.: Yes, it is. I had heard good things and bad things. I like how Americans are nice, polite and try to help each other. If I go in a cab or meet someone at a grocery store, the clerks ask ‘how are you’ or compliment me on my purchase. I ate at an Indian restaurant and shopped in an Indian grocery store, and they were so nice to me because I was from that part of the world. In Pakistan, if you smile and are friendly or ask questions, it might seem like the person is flirting, if it’s a man. I’ve learned a lot about the American country. It is very positive here. In Reno, I learned that the city was a divorce district and a gambling district. While I was there, I lived for a day with a traditional family in their older house. The man is a retired judge, the lady a retired teacher, and their neighbors joined us. I’d never been inside a traditional American home.
Recently, Pakistan and India exchanged artillery fire and renewed their long-term hostilities.
A.Y.: Yes. Before this interview, my country of Pakistan experienced fighting with India. I wasn’t there to cover the story. It was different here. I was eating at an Indian restaurant in Milwaukee, and the Indian servers were very nice to me. Here in America, we Pakistanis and Indians can get along.
On May 7, there was a night of heavy fighting where India and Pakistan targeted each other’s military bases, and the combined civilian death toll rose to over 60 people. After a few days, the fighting halted through a peace agreement.
America is built on the philosophy of individualism, that any American has the chance to be successful through hard work and dedication. How about you, Kimberly? Let’s hear your impressions of America.
K.C.: My impressions are negative. My country, the Philippines, has had a bad history with imperial countries, first, the Spanish, then the U.S. I first visited here when I came to New York. I saw a lot of poor people on the streets, and I saw also very rich people, and it all seemed unfair. The culture of minimum wage and tipping, and me asking how those poor people can carry all that weight, not even afford social services when there are so many riches. And Black American culture being tokenized by white people.
One of the difficult issues here is that there are so many different ethnic groups all trying live together and get along, not to mention a variety of religions and spiritual beliefs. Different physical appearances, different skin colors. It is kind of hard to comprehend that this system works despite the faults.
K.C.: On this trip, I did not want to go to the south of the U.S. because of what I had heard about racism there. It’s odd, but a lot of immigrants love this country more than white Americans. It’s because they were used to so much hardship in their own countries. America is the land of opportunity. If you are a Filipino, and you get an American passport, you can go anywhere. But I do get tired of the politeness—“Hi, how are you, good morning.” They don’t really care. It is just being polite.
Some people care.
K.C.: Yeah, we met a lot of people who are nice. In my culture, it’s just a “Good morning,” no questions. But I came here a second time because I’ve worked with a number of American newspapers. America has a different approach to the social aspect of business. In the Philippines, we don’t put ourselves forward. We are taught to be timid. We are more of a community, less emphasis on the individual. I have to learn to bridge that gap because I have to be competitive in my news business.
Well, the world is run on Capitalism, and it has to be. Companies have to provide people with money and the chance to live a quality lifestyle.
Moving on, where do you think photojournalism is headed - and the part AI will play?
V.L.: It was a surprise for me to see people reading a printed newspaper here in the U.S. I haven’t seen printed newspapers in Ukraine for years. We get our news online. We are a digital country. We even pay our taxes through our iPhones. As far as AI, it is a tool to be used in people’s work. The critical thing is to control AI. In Ukraine, we already see negative influence of AI in journalism. Russia and Ukraine both use AI to spread disinformation. Too many people cannot see the difference between fake news and truth.
K.C.: When you have a dictatorship, the journalists always find some way to distribute stories. Journalism shapes public discourse. People turn to news stories when they need it—natural tragedies, war, political problems. The big Tech companies created AI, and they are unregulated, and they need to be regulated. Even when researching on Google, the results can be wrong.
A.Y.: I think people will always need journalists for the insight on what is happening. But I think newspapers in printed form will totally go away and become digital. But feature stories may still be in the print media.
And keep in mind that people’s attention spans keep getting shorter thanks to technology, the internet and iPhones.
A.Y.: Exactly.
