Face to Face: an interview with
Bianca Hein

Your husband, Robert Hein, described you as an innocent. What did he mean?
Hein: [laughs] I think he meant that I have no guile. That, in the main, I take people at their word. That I tend to see the best in people and am surprised when they have other agendas.

Other agendas? For example?
Hein: A favourite news filler is anything to do with piracy. There is also an inclination among some in media to talk about acting in the name of the people while not being conscious enough of the people. This is what I mean by having other agendas. And this is why Piracy in modern Southeast Asia, setting the record straight was written.

Is there any separation between you and this report?
Hein: This report began as a promise to myself to write back in ‘96. Certainly it was my initiation. Certainly I asked Scott Neuman to write it with me so the reader would have independent third party reporting. This was very important so this report would not be seen as “opinion”. And certainly some will be offended. My job as a journalist is to keep my eyes and ears open on behalf of the public, and I heard that addressing this issue was long overdue.

Let's talk about your sea time. Why did you choose the marine industry?
Hein: It was for pure adventure. And I liked men of action [smiles].

What did your parents say?
Hein: They were very neutral. Their decision to give us girls a rubber raft at age 9, motorcycle lessons at 15, and flying lessons at 17 had an effect. I went to sea the following year. Eventually I logged enough seatime to sit for the captain’s license at 21. Curiously, while in the waiting room of the Coast Guard office to get my license, I sat next to a man who told me a profound story on the importance of writing. In short, he said, ‘if it’s not written, it doesn’t exist’. He was the youngest supertanker captain in the world.

Tell me about Piracy in modern Southeast Asia, setting the record straight?
Hein: The contributors tell the story themselves. Scott Neuman and I have first-hand experience in the region both as sailors and journalists. In 1983, at the height of the “boat people” exodus, I was sailing in the Gulf of Thailand for nearly one year.

What did you learn from the contributors stories?
Hein: That any long term success in the region will not materialize until the piracy issue is finally addressed. This is an embedded issue that needs to be transformed.

Transformed?
Hein: It behooves the tourism and yacht industry to understand that only through a change in consciousness can this issue - the perception of piracy in modern Southeast Asia - be transformed. If we can bring this awareness actively into the world, so to will the world be changed, and for the positive.

But can you remain neutral on such a hot topic and still be a good writer and editor?
Hein: I believe so. It is certainly a learned skill [laughs]. There is a lot of responsibility with freedom of press. Fortunately, I am also a mariner. For I know of no other people on earth, meaning sailors, who are more generous, who are more open, almost to the point of distraction. I know of no other people who act with better motives, though that doesn’t mean they always do their best. So I aspire as journalist and as a mariner to stand for the best of journalistic values and the openness of the mariner. And I accept the responsibility to do what I can to keep the marine industry I cover honest and to see that injustice doesn’t go unnoticed.