The
world has come to know Daniel Pearl as the Wall Street Journal reporter
who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002,
just four months after 9/11. People around the world, along with his
pregnant wife and family, prayed for his release. Since then, he has
been remembered as a symbol of hope: a man who built bridges between
diverse cultures as a writer and a gifted musician.
Danny was born on October 10, 1963, in Princeton, New Jersey,
and grew up in Los Angeles, where he displayed an insatiable curiosity
for music, academics and sports. A gifted writer from a very young age,
Danny's aptitude for journalism became apparent as a student at
Stanford University where he co-founded the student newspaper Stanford
Commentary. He graduated in 1985 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and then
spent a summer as a Pulliam Fellow intern at the Indianapolis Star
before joining the North Adams Transcript and the Berkshire Eagle.
After a few years, he moved on to the San Francisco Business Times and
within few weeks he joined the Wall Street Journal in 1990. Danny
started in the Journal's Atlanta bureau and moved successively to the
Washington and London bureaus, serving as a Middle East correspondent.
After he met Mariane in 1998, he moved to Paris where they were married
a year later.
In October of 2000, they moved to Bombay, where Danny became the
South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal. Danny's skill as a
foreign correspondent was apparent not only in his entertaining Page
One "A-hed" pieces which shed light on other cultures, but also in
investigative stories that uncovered the truth from the rubble of war
and devastation. It was Danny who uncovered that the U.S. had
mistakenly bombed a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant, believing it to be a
weapons factory. Later, he broke the story of Al Qaeda's money
laundering through the Tanzanite gem market. It was from Bombay that
Danny covered the "war on terrorism," occasionally venturing into
Pakistan. He was retracing the steps of "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and
hoped to meet with Sheik Gilani, a spiritual leader, when he was
abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002. For weeks, millions around the
world -- from heads of state, to religious leaders and ordinary people
-- rallied for Danny's release. In Danny, the terrorists believed they
abducted a media figure, an American, and a Jew. But they had much more
-- a true citizen of the world and an embodiment of civilized values,
whose death, like his life, would inspire millions of people in the
cause of decency and cultural understanding. Several weeks elapsed
without word of his fate; his murder was confirmed on February 21,
2002. Four of the kidnappers were convicted on July 15, 2002, including
mastermind Omar Saeed Sheik, although others believed to be involved
are still at large.
Two days before his abduction, Danny learned that his wife
Mariane was expecting a baby boy; he chose the name Adam for their son.
In May, just three months after his murder, Mariane Pearl gave birth to
Adam. Following his murder, Danny's family and friends established the
Daniel Pearl Foundation to carry on his legacy, using music and words
to address the root causes of the hatred that took his life. Like
previous such projects (e.g.
eSACHERe",
"
MAKANNA",
"
Duo Brikcius -
2 Cellos Tour", "
Weinberger
Tour", "
Festival Brikcius", ...),
"Festival Brikcius" forms part of the
Daniel Pearl World Music
Days,
which commemorate the legacy of Jewish journalist, musician Daniel
Pearl, brutally murdered by group of terrorists for defending freedom
of speech. For more details visit websites
http://www.Brikcius.com
,
http://www.DanielPearlMusicDays.org
a
http://En.Wikipedia.org/Wiki/Daniel_Pearl
.
