Gina Albert: I worked in the newspapers way, way, way before, after I graduated from college.

Mon: So, what's your educational background?
A: I really took up AB Arts History. And then minored in journalism.

Q: Ah, okay. Where did you take it?
A: In Assumption. And, ah, it's something that I really, really liked. I liked reading, I liked writing. So I was in college and I was with another friend of mine, we were in charge of the Assumpta, which was the college paper or newsletter. And we were also doing the Regina, which was like the main album at the end of the year.

Q: Ah, the yearbook.
A: The yearbook, ya. So that already from the very beginning was something I was familiar with. I used to go to the press, you know, do the printing, etc., etc. Then I went to abroad right after I graduated. And, from all that background, what I did to be able to survive was to sell. I went into sales, which has nothing to do with print media.

Q: What did you sell, adds?
A: Nope. Eh, refrigerators…haha… flowers, I was selling flowers. Uh, we sold illegal license plates, for a time.

Q: Where were you, what country?
A: In Spain. We would go to Seuta, which is like a free port. And then we would buy those machines to make license plates because there was a time in Spain when the changed the license plates from normal to luminous. Cause at that time there was no luminous ones, so when you'd put the light on, you still wouldn't see the plates. So there was an order from the government that said all license plates must be brought to the official garages, and they must be turned into luminous ones. My friend and I decided to go and do something illegal. We got our own press. Then we called up everybody, we charged them three times more and we said that 'we would go to your garage while you're asleep and work on that.'… (Interrupted by phone call)
A: Imagine that, at 55 you have to start philosophizing

Q: You're 55, you don't look it.
A: Well, that's why. But 55 the number is just a number. Like when they tell you you're 10 or you're 20, sometimes you're 20 but your brain is 40. Or your body is 60… it doesn't make sense, right? Sometimes it's the opposite. You see a 50 year old and then that person looks younger… it really depends on the way you think. It's not really the way you look so much, it's the way you think. So anyway that's it. So I went to Spain and after that somehow, I got involved with the local papers. Eventually, in Spain.

Q: Particularly what paper in Spain?
A: Lekturas, I remember, which was a magazine. And then after that, we did Actualidad Economica, which is an economic review. So I did the economic magazines. But what we were doing at that time was basically, I went in there through photography, cause I was a photographer. I had taken up photography. Remember I told you I took art and journalism. So photography was one of my main things. So I would be sent to do the pictorials. I would go to Dominican Republic and do work on tourism. So I would do tourism work and I would go to Haiti. It was not like reporting. It was basically all the photographs to back up the features. So let's just say they had a feature on the rights of the blacks. So I would go and take all my pictures of the blacks and see what they were doing. You know, when they were rioting or they were picketing, and so on and so forth. So basically it was photography. From there, what I realized was what I really liked was the marketing part of the newspaper, which meant advertising. I got really from there, I jumped to advertising.

Q: But how did you do that? I mean, with no background or anything.
A: It's so easy! All you got to do is to know how to sell. And to be able to sell, all you got to do is to be able to communicate. And once we are able to communicate, then you are able to make people understand that this is something that would be interesting to them. That's it, you got a sale done. So, I went on that line and then, um, at a certain point I stopped working with my bosses at that time. And then we worked with a French magazine called Paris Madge .

Q: You still worked on the marketing side?
A: Always on the marketing side. I belonged to a company based in Madrid, and I was doing marketing in Spain. And all over the world, my area was Spain and Latin America. So I was always in Chile, in Argentina, I was always there. And then we would try and market for them (the papers) and get country reports.

Q: But then when you, as you said, would sell the advertisements, you would only cover adds? What would you do?
A: No, it was always… in the beginning it was just advertising, pure adds. But then after that, from there it went to advertising with a feature. Which is what you call Advertorial. Which is this, look at this. (Shows us/ points out the most recent product their company has come out with.) It says here, 'Hong Kong chief executive Tu Muk Sha', he's the CEO. Well, we interview him and then, in some point here (referring to the paper) will be an add of one of his companies. So what happens, in the end, you're really interviewing this person and he's really advertising himself and his company. So your whole product is a publicity product. Every page is labeled publicity. So this isn't news, it's publicity.

Q: So when you interview, for example, the CEO, is it about him or about his company?
A: Both, because definitely a CEO is about himself and his company. Whether you like it or not, he will connect himself automatically to his company, right? So that's, you know… there's a oneness there. So all the people that we interview here are people who, after we interview, at some point… (interrupted by secretary)
A: So what else?

Q: You mentioned that you worked for a newspaper in Spain as your first job. So can you describe your circumstances, the location of the newspaper, the facilities they had, your colleagues, etc.?
A: Well we worked with this paper called Acalidad Economica, actually I worked with three Spanish Magazines. But the one I Most worked with was Actualidad Economica. Then we were making reports for them, as I told you, in Latin America. So actually what we would do every… we were not in the hub in Madrid, at all. But we were doing, let's just say the international arm. So we were based in Argentina, or Chile, or Paraguay; why I got to know Latin America like the back of my hand. I practically spent two years there just hoping around. And then let's just say there was a happening going on, we would interview. We would use it as the entry point to interview people. Cause let's say it's their two hundredth anniversary, and then we would sell them the advertising space. So there was always advertising connected, we were never reporting for the pure end of just coming out with a feature report. It's always connected with adds.

Q: Ok, so when you would go on interviews to your different locations, you'd be a group?
A: We would always be a group. Sometimes two people, sometimes three. There was a time that I was left alone three months, I remember, in Jamaica. Because we had a problem and we couldn't solve it, so I got stuck there. It's a good thing Bob Marley was still alive at that time. So I was in Island Records most of the time.

Q: You've met Bob Marley?
A: I met Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Rita, Peter Tosh. I mean the people we were hanging out with were, at that time, I mean the top of the Reggae world. And Island Records was just like a big hippie, it was a hippie tenement area. You went in there, anybody could walk in and walk out. Everybody was always, well everybody was always flying because they were smoking ganja all day and then they were doing all their, al their… What do you call them? Jo: Dreads. Dreadlocks.
A: They were doing all their dreadlocks. And then they were smoking and singing.

Q: So did you ever get to interview them?
A: Of course! And what was very, very… it was interesting because they became like friends. We would hang out together, we wouldn't sleep all night. Maybe that's why I got stuck there for three months because I could hardly do my work. I couldn't wake up.

Q: Was he nice, Bob Marley?
A: Incredible. Very, very… an incredible man. Very quiet, very spiritual, but the whole thing about him was his music. And then, the year after, he died; he passed away. He got brain cancer. But I got stuck there for three months. I said 'this is the happiest stuck I I've been in my life.' I never wanted to leave. So we would go, we would do normally, two to three people.

Q: So what was your relationship with your editor? Or did you even have an editor in all this?
A: we had an editor, but the basic thing with him was that he would correct, like you know, we would do the interviews, which was really what we would feature. It's ver, very simple to write this because you don't editorialize. You quote and quote. Let's say I interviewed Mon Mon Tuason and we talked about the latest gig he's into. It seems now he is into painting abstract, he's into abstract painting. He said this about the art world today, quote, unquote. We agree with him in what he's saying and we think… so it's, ah how do you call it? You really, instead of interpreting what the people are saying, what you do is you editorialize, but in very responsible manner by making them the speakers. And then they are the ones talking to the audience. So it was not a very difficult way of writing.

Q: So would you even see your editors?
A: We would see them, ya, we would work with them.

Q: Do you have any memorable editors that you worked with? Like a terror, or maybe too nice?
A: We would have terrorific ones, and we would have very, very nice ones. But normally we were always fighting, basically.

Q: How come?
A: Well if you think about it, when you're in advertising and your in marketing, there's always an editorial conflict. Cause many times, advertising… you know, the editors want to feel very pure and pristine. They don't want to be tainted with advertising, etc., etc. While we were the bread earners really of the newspaper, because if you don't sell any adds, you can have everything you want, but if you have no adds, you have no paper, correct?

Q: With deadlines, were they strict with deadlines? Of course they're adds, they had to be published.
A: Always. Totally on time. That's the one thing, if you didn't make it, you didn't make it, well you're dead. Cause there's the press run. And at that time, the way we were doing press at that time was we were at this thing where you would set it one by one. It was not at all in electronic, or anything like that.

Q: How would you communicate with them if you were like away? How would you give them the adds for the paper?
A: Ok, you would send it to them via, we always sent it to them via DHL. We always used couriers. Everything was really, really, really quick. It had to be done. Then we would loose them. You know there is always the drama that I sent it, I sent it on a Tuesday. They promised me it woul be there on a Thursday. But it didn't arrive on a Thursday. The DHL plane was whatever. And then we'd go running to the DHL depot and we would have our air waving number. Then we would be going like that (motioning digging), trying to look for our packages. Sometimes it's damaged. I mean, you know there was a lot of a, there was a lot of tension on deadline time. And up to now, the way we live; up to now, the way we're doing what we're doing, you think about it, I have people now in all over the world doing more or less the same thing. It's just now I'm in the center of it all. But they have to send me all their reports on such a day. We have to get all the advertisings on such a day because if that is already going to press, and this goes to press in Japan.

Q: So how has it changed from the time you were doing it, and now that you have peole around the world? Is it much easier now? Do they still use couriers? Or is it through the internet?
A: We still do courier, but basically everything is electronic.

Q: What do you mean?
A: Well, you set many times art works are sent already, via internet. So you scan it and what not. But, it's not as good as when you send your actual art work. You know the color separation, etc., etc. So what you do, what we still do, if we get any kind of artwork, or lay out that's going to be published, we set it electronically, and we send a hard copy.

Q: Ah, just to make sure.
A: Ya, so you have a backup.

Q: Any memorable colleague that you've worked with?
A: Memorable colleague? A lot.

Q: How, or why were they memorable?
A: Well, let's say whether you like it or not, you end up in this business with the weirdest people on earth. Cause I don't think normal people would be working, you know, traveling around the world, going on your own and literally meeting with absolutely anybody and being very comfortable about it. And being taken by the importance of the people you're working with because when you interview, which is what we do, we interview the top people in the country. You know, we interview the President, we interview the government people.

Q: Out of all the people you've interviewed, have you interviewed anybody famous, or as you said, politics? Or who was the most memorable?
A: Of course! One of the most memorable was the Sultan of Brunei.

Q: Wow!
A: We went to Brunei and I remember my colleague and I, he's a French fellow. He's name was Eve May. It was the two of us, we went to Brunei. We went to the hotel, at that time, about fifteen years ago before the Sultan of Brunei was known to be THE Sultan of Brunei. But we already knew about him so I wanted to interview him so I requested for an interview. And we were there and they told us we had to wait for three days in the Hotel and after three days, we would get the interview. So we were in the hotel and we realized everyone there was waiting to see the Sultan and some had been there for months. And they had not yet been able to see him. I said 'My God, what if they're making us sit here and they'll tell us next month that you finally have an appointment'. Anyway, we were lucky three days later, we were called in the palace… (interrupted by a phone call)
A: So, you're turn. (Talking to JO)

Q: So can we continue first the story of the Sultan of Brunei.
A: So I was with Eve May and we went to Brunei and we were called. They said that we could see the Sultan. The only thing we had to submit our questions ahead. So you cannot just go in there and say question, question, question, question. And then after that, you cannot turn your back on the Sultan. So you always just wait for him. So we were there waiting, and he was there up on his throne, he comes with his cousin. The nicest old man in the world. Old man, must have been seventy years old. All of a sudden he sits down there, he picks up his paper, exactly the question, and he would go 'Question number one', then he would read. 'Where is blah blah', then he'd put it aside and 'answer'. Then he'd go straight on. 'Question number two'. That's it! We didn't even talk because he read the question, answered the question, read the question, answered. Then after that he said 'Finished'? And we said 'yes, that's it. We're finished'. And so we had to go back, back up like this, cause we were in front. And he said you may now go, but he was not leaving so my friend and I, we started going out of the room like that. After the interview the only thing he said was 'I want a photo session tomorrow.' I said 'fine, perfect.' What I didn't know was he wanted us to take photographs, first of the oil fields. You know Brunei is all natural gas and oil. So here comes this helicopter and we're going to go up on the helicopter and take shots on top of the… cause the fields are in the water, in the sea. And we're there, we're going to go up and the guy tells me 'I'm sorry but your photographer (and at that time it was the French guy), he cannot sit inside. We will strap him and we will leave him outside.' You know on that thing of the helicopter. And I asked my friend, I can see him he's getting paler and paler and he says 'Gina, I've never done this in my life.' I said 'well, let's try. Let's just try.' So he goes on top, they strap him, the helicopter starts going up and before I know it, he's throwing up. He's throwing up on the side of the helicopter. So we asked the helicopter to go down. I ended up being the one strapped outside; Thank God I didn't throw up while taking the pictures! By the time we got down, the Sultan was waiting for us. He was there with his… he has this car collection. He has twenty one different cars, and he would sit in each one, one with zebra seats. He'd sit down and we'd take pictures. The other one with, I don't know what, the latest Massarati. Then driving, like that. He was always… he loved it! He was like a kid, posing with all his toys. Then he said 'now, I want you to take pictures of me on my horse, playing polo.' Then he would go like that (motioning the act of playing polo), like that the whole day. We must have shot about twenty roles of film just to finish the whole photo shoot.

Q: Good thing he didn't ask you to take pictures of each of his wives.
A: Ah no, no wives. It was cars, and sports.

Q: So it's not about the age. It's how you think.
A: Exactly. And of course at that time, think about it, fifteen, twenty years ago. You're talking about a Sultan that was thirty years old. He was a kid with all his toys, and he just had so much money, he didn't know what to do with it. So that, I think, is one of the most exciting, exciting interviews we had because it was just him. And nobody knew him, and we put him out in the Paris Madge and everybody was asking 'The Sultan of Brunei? Where is Brunei? Who is this Sultan?' So it really became a curiosity piece.

Q: So how did you get the notion to interview him if he wasn't…?
A: I heard about him. You know why? He use to come to Manila to play with Enrique Zobel, polo. At that time, he would come on his air plane with all his horses. So I remember and I said 'Who's this guy who comes here with all his horses?' And you know, they said the Sultan of Brunei. And so I talked to Enrique. I said 'Enrique I need to see him. Can you write a letter for me, introduce me. I need to interview him.' He said, 'Sure.' You know we've interviewed quite a lot of interesting people. Endira Gandhi, before she died, we interviewed her. Before she got shot in the temple, the Golden Temple in India. We were interviewing her. We had an interview that came out in practically all the European papers. It was one of the last interviews that Endira Gandhi gave to the press.

Q: So, among all the people you've interviewed, who's the most interesting person?
A: I would say Endira Gandhi. Definitely.

Q: Why?
A: Why? Because she was a visionary. She was a great woman. And she was tragically killed, you see. I guess there's that drama. So ah…and way before we interviewed dictators in Haiti, who were, afterwards, they were sent out by the revolution, the people. Like Papa Doc of Haiti, I remember him. He was sent out by… there was a big revolution in Haiti afterwards, and they kicked him out. But he was the one who stated out the Tom Tom Mckutz. He had these people who would be with their masks and they would voodoo. He was there and they were into voodoo. And they would literally control everything that was against him. They would go in the middle of the night and they would kill you, if ever they heard that you said something against Papa Doc. He was like a President, but a very, very… not a President, he was a Dictator; Very, very rich, although the country was very, very poor. The usual, we know that right?

Q: So can you describe your best memories as a young reporter back then?
A: I think the best memories, if you think about memories is the fact that you were sent from one country to another. We got to really meet, head to head with different cultures. So there was this culture shock you would constantly be faced with. And at the same time, you had to work with that culture. You know suddenly you'd meet up with people who were very, very difficult to work with. Um… like the Koreans, I find the Koreans very, very difficult because they don't trust you. So everything you ask… you say something then they ask is that true? So they try to figure out whether you're telling the truth or not. So before you know it they're investigating you, and all you're doing is asking them something. So you have to find a way to make them feel that you're not ah…you're not there to fool them . So there are people who are very, very difficult, you make ten appointments… like the Greeks. By appointment number ten, maybe you get to see them. But many times you go in and they're not there, they forgot they had an appointment. So I think the wonderful part about the memories is, you got to know the people, found out how, and learned how to work with them. Because in every culture there is no such thing as a barrier. You always say there is a barrier, it doesn't exist.

Q: Of all the people, or of all the different cultures, who is the most welcoming, the most warm?
A: Ah, the bloody Australians. The Australians are the warmest, nicest. You know, they're very brute. But Australia is not just Australians. It's full of Chinese, Arabs, everything! Everybody is in Australia, they're so sweet. And the Irish. The two people that are the most friendly; the Irish and the Australians.

Q: Let's go to the, uh… Do you have any, were there any significant events that you've covered? Let's say like Martial Law.
A: No. I mean when it came to that kind of… not really. We were in the middle of the Civil War in Sri Lanka, but we left. It was really dangerous. I would say that that was the one thing that we were doing, we were in Sri Lanka, there was a big outburst. That was in the early… I think seventies. And the first thing the paper did was to pull us out. They said 'no, you're not going to stay there. It's too dangerous. We don't want to play with that.'

Q: So more or less, you didn't do events, but you've interviewed people who were key players in the events? Like you said, Papa Doc.
A: Of course. Why, because all our interviews were composed of the government people and the private people who were controlling the country. When we interviewed the drug lords in Colombia, it was an incredible thing. Cause you know these are the people that, you know, we met Noriega in Panama, one of the biggest drug lords of all. We met uh, what's his name, I forget his name now in Colombia, he was also an incredible drug lord. Why? Because they were practically owners of the country. So they were economically involved. After that the president… they were sent to jail. You know, they're still languishing in jail up to now. So that was interesting. I remember interviewing them and they're exercising. We were in a gym, they were doing they're exercise. While doing they're exercise, we were interviewing them. You know, that's the way they are. They were like super hyper, they must have been totally high. And then when we offered them an add, I remember offering an add to one of them in Colombia and he said 'why not.' He asked me how much is the advertisement. I said 'well, it's twenty-five thousand dollars.' And he said 'yeah, that's fine.' So I said can you sign this contract, you know, that you're going to be getting an add from us. He signs the contract, opens his drawer, pulls out twenty-five thousand dollars and he tells me, 'here it is.' I said 'no, I'm not going to accept cash. What I would like is a check to my magazine for twenty-five thousand dollars.' I was sure if I had accepted that cash, I would have walked out of there and somebody would have poked a gun on me and pulled it in the me next two seconds. It's very, very dangerous to walk, you know, in a country like that with hard cash. But we did, we interviewed them. Why? Because they were the heads of the biggest companies in Colombia. They were controlling it. Who was the head? Well, the mafia. Many interesting stories, many wonderful experiences. And I can only thank this career, and God for. And now, the people who work for me are doing the same thing. And that what makes it for me, you know even more exciting. I work with young people, send them all over the world. They do what we used to do before. They get all these experiences. They come back and they're different. Their eyes are open, they feel empowered, they feel they can do things. Why? Because all of a sudden you can make them work with an Italian in Italy and they don't speak a word of Italian, yet they can work with them. They can go over the language barrier and manage to work with them. And I think that is an accomplishment.

Q: And it's such a wonderful experience. All the traveling and meeting different people.
A: And the one thing that you do when you travel, which is also part of the work and part of the magic of this, is that when you travel, the one common denominator that you have in every country, in every culture is yourself. Everyday you meet yourself in front of the mirror and you see your limitations, and you see your strengths. So you get to know yourself and you get to work with yourself. When you are challenged every time, you meet yourself. So you become a bigger person. That's it.

Q: So, do you have any tips for those aspiring to get into this field of work?
A: I feel that it is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful career. But to not limit yourself to a local career. That's the one thing that I would advise everybody. Why? Because a local career is like going inside a room. One room, and staying in there. You knoe, you're not going learn much. You're going to learn, but not much. Get out of that room, go to another place. Travel, discover the world. That's the real secret, because now, the world is a global community. The only way to survive is because you can work here, you can work there. You can be there, you can be here. You can be with this people. You can eat vegetarian, you can eat meat. You can be in a wintry place, you're not dying. You can be in the heat of the summer. And you can be with people without any kind of prejudice. You can be with somebody without having to laugh at that person because that person has a different way of thinking, way of eating, way of dressing. Why, because you get to respect them. Why, because you get to know them. Many times we laugh at people and we stay away from people not because of anything. Simply because of ignorance, so they don't make us feel comfortable. But when you've gone everywhere you can be with anybody. An eighty year old, a ten year old and you can be with a black or a yellow or a green person and you fell perfectly happy, and comfortable. That is my advice. Get into this job, but do not limit yourself to one area, or one country because this is a global, small, small world. J and Q: Alright, thank you very much!!!

Gina Albert was born.