Relentless Reporter

Indeed, the most rewarding aspect of his job is the opportunity to research "everything from shrimp farming to the intricacies of Burmese politics to international capital flows to urban-rural migration. What other job allows you to do that?"

Bardacke credits his Wesleyan background with giving him the ability to "go into just about any situation and figure out what is going on." Writing ability, the other prerequisite for reporting, is also largely a product of Wesleyan. Professors like Ann Grene and Ann Wightman helped develop his writing style, and his CSS major trained him in the discipline of writing under deadline. Of his liberal arts education, Bardacke notes that "there is no better training to be a reporter." As if breadth of coverage were not enough, Bardacke is also responsible for absorbing vast amounts of information about particular issues. The fundamental difference between reading about a story and actually reporting it, he says, is "the amount that gets left out." Whether suspicions which he is unable to confirm, intelligence told to him in confidence, or facts deemed tangential to the central story, Bardacke is exposed to far more than ever appears in his articles.

Absorbing all of this information and turning it into a story that is both accurate and meaningful to an outside reader is the central challenge of good reporting. Bardacke likes working for the Financial Times because of the leeway given to reporters to present an intricate story in all its complexity, without the artificial simplification demanded by many other papers. The Financial Time's international readership base is another boon: In reporting a significant story, Bardacke is not forced to justify its importance specifically to Americans. Finally, the Financial Times gives Bardacke a great deal of independence in terms of what to report. The ability to handle that responsibility also stems from his undergraduate experience: "From the beginning at Wesleyan, I was forced to choose what I was and was not going to do [and to] learn how to make those kinds of mistakes."

A notable absence in conversation with Bardacke is any mention of the challenges of working in places such as Bangkok and Mexico City. After all, his entire professional life has taken place outside the US: "The biggest adjustment," he says, "would be if I went back." Of his two postings, Bardacke simply notes that "Bangkok is a place where it is very easy to lose one's moral compass, while Mexico City is quite the opposite; one is constantly bombarded by moral and ideological questions."

Even having adapted to Bangkok and Mexico City, Bardacke is not yet blasé about the places his job takes him. For most of us, secretly visiting monasteries in Mandalay to find out why monks there rioted is an adventure beyond the realm of imagination. For Bardacke, it was a day at work - although one he describes as particularly moving. Similarly tumultuous events also highlight the reporter's conflict between covering events and getting swept up in them. Speaking of the assassination of the man who had been presumed to be Mexico's next president, Bardacke recalls, "When he was killed, I remember crying because of the emotion of the moment. But I remember that I had to overcome that in about five minutes, because I immediately had to go to work."

Another story from Mexico shows how interwoven Bardacke's personal and professional interests can become. He speaks with obvious inspiration and emotional connection about Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - the man who currently heads Mexico's leftist opposition party. In addition to writing a number of stories from the man's home state of Tabasco, Bardacke accompanied Lopez Obrador for part of his 2,000 kilometer walk from Tabasco to Mexico City. These are some of the stories Bardacke describes as "dear to my heart."

While Bardacke enjoys the opportunities to learn which reporting provides, there is a definite downside: "It's pretty relentless, there's very little downtime." Given the impossibility of scheduling in breaking news, "you have to be willing to drop everything on a moments notice, change plans on a moments notice, and break commitments with friends or loved ones because something has just happened."

Despite the negatives, Bardacke enjoys his job, and has achieved a good measure of success at it. Still, he notes, his current position was never "inevitable," but rather the result of a series of fortunate events and opportunities. Equally fortuitous circumstances might take him elsewhere - geographically, professionally, or both. With the same adaptability he had on graduation day, Bardacke says, "If someone from Wesleyan interviews me in ten years, they might find me doing something completely different."