Profile: Stef Biemans
March 18, 2008
Stef Biemans, reporter in Managua
Name: Stef Biemans
Location: Managua, Nicaragua
Age: 30
Stef Biemans is also presenter and maker of Metrópolis Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan version of Metropolis TV. Watch his videos here.
What politician would you like to interview, and why?
Arnoldo Aleman, the most corrupt president in Nicaraguan history. I would love to interview him at his home where he has been imprisoned for all his wrongdoings. I wouldn’t be asking tough questions or make critical remarks, just showing the fat guy with all of his wealth.
What is your favourite spot?
My favourite spot is La Libertad, a tiny village in the center of Nicaragua where everyone makes a living from gold mining. Equipped with pickaxes and candles the strong men and women of the village dig for lumps of gold in small, deep tunnels. They let me go along into the mines once and that made a great impression on me. I tend to return there regularly, the atmoshpere in the village is great and the people are about the friendliest you can find.
If you would be able to export a characteristic of your people, what would it be?
Their flexibilty and their ability to be happy while having little.
If you would be able to ban a characteristic of your people, what would it be?
Their inability to elect a good president.
What would you change in your country?
The educational system. And the president. And the healthcare and sexual education. Along with that I would like to change the macho culture and all the trouble it causes and if I had any spare time left I would improve the infrastructure.
What are you doing ten years from now?
I want to be a multimedia tycoon. I don’t really care where, but if it could be here in Nicaragua that would be nice. If I don’t succeed, I hope I will still be able to do the same job I’m doing now and I hope my wife won’t have changed too much, not drastically anyways.
Theme of the first episode: Bad Neighborhoods. What do citizens and city authorities all over the world do to combat trouble in their worst neighborhoods? And what is the best way to improve the ‘hood?
From building a large wall around the poorest neighborhoods like they did in Rio de Janeiro, to rounding up the drunkards and homeless in Nicaragua or Los Angeles. Or perhaps the Chinese way works best? In Shanghai a combination of strict social supervision and the death penalty assure that one of the world’s largest cities hardly has any bad neighborhoods at all.
