Belén Fernández

Belén Fernández is a journalist who travels extensively throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe, observing first-hand and reporting on political and social events.^[1] In her 2011 book, The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso Books, Belén critiques Thomas Friedman as a chief apologist for what she sees as problems of the neoliberal order.^[2]

Background

Belén was born in Washington, DC, on March 7, 1982, and grew up in Austin, Texas, where she engaged in a wide range of activities, from Irish dancing to synchronized swimming. She attended Columbia University in New York City and spent one year at the University of Rome La Sapienza before earning her bachelor's degree with a concentration in political science in 2003.

After graduation Belén traveled to Crete to become certified in teaching English as a foreign language. There she met Amelia Opalinska and the two promptly abandoned teaching aspirations in favor of hitchhiking throughout Europe as well as Turkey and sections of the Middle East and Africa. They were employed for a time at an avocado packing facility in the south of Spain, among other adventures. Belén speaks English, Spanish, Italian, and is proficient in Turkish. She maintains a nomadic lifestyle with no fixed residence.

Belén has traveled extensively throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe, observing first-hand and reporting on the political and social events. She has been derided by some, including Pamela Geller, who called her a "useful idiota" for the "Al Jazeera terror outlet."^[3]

Others view her work with praise, such as blogger Freddie de Boer, who included Belèn in his 2013 short list of "Throwing Heat: Nonfiction essayists and bloggers who bring it."^[4]

"To me, the writers who write best about injustice and oppression are not so much those who beat their chests the loudest, but rather those who reveal, with every phrase, the cold absurdity of entrenched power. Fernandez doesn’t write like a polemicist, though she could, and she doesn’t write with malice, though she’d be perfectly entitled. She writes with the reservation and concision of a coroner delivering an autopsy; the deed is always already done. That might sound cold, or cruel, but it reminds you that the greater part of "things are not as they should be" is "this is how they are." Fernandez is an activist, but first she’s a clinician."

The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work

In 2011, Verso Books published Belén's critique of Thomas Friedman in The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work. In an interview with Robert Jensen for Truthout, Belèn explained that her analysis was based on a systematic review of Friedman's books and his columns, including all published following his appointment in 1995 as foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times.^[5]

Writer and critic Pankaj Mishra declared "there is no wittier or sharper account of Thomas Friedman’s intellectual and moral atrocities than Belen Fernandez’s The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work."

More "Kudos for The Imperial Messenger" are presented below.

In 2012, The Imperial Messenger was named a Truthout "Progessive Pick of the Week"^[6] and a "Gawker Book Club" selection.^[7]

Other Works

Belén also is the author of Coffee with Hezbollah, an account of a 10-week hitchhiking expedition with photographer Amelia Opalinska through the rubble of Lebanon following the Israeli invasion of 2006.

Belén is a prolific writer of shorter analysis and opinion pieces. Her articles on such topics as environmental injustice, human rights offenses, and other socioeconomic problems are regularly published by Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera America, and Middle East Eye. Belén's shorter writings as well as information about her published books are gathered at belenfernandez-writings.blogspot.com. Selected titles are presented below.

Belén's December 2012 article "Dirty White Gold"^[8] for Al Jazeera was listed in Project Censored's Top 25 Most Censored Stories of 2012-2013 and reprinted in Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times.^[9]

Belén is a member of the editorial board for Jacobin magazine, a contributing editor at Ricochet, and blogs for TeleSUR English. Her articles have also appeared in the London Review of Books blog, VICE Magazine, Salon, AlterNet, In These Times, Al Akhbar English, Guernica Magazine, The Electronic Intifada, Upside Down World, and Venezuelanalysis.com, among others.

Representative Writings

All of Belèn's shorter articles are collected on her blog.^[10]

References

External links

• Belén Fernández' blog