Posted by Benjamin on: 09.12.2007 /
This wikinews story from yesterday reminded me of this TED talk by musician Peter Gabriel. Witness works with human rights groups around the world distributing cameras and helping people to document human rights abuses.
From the TED talk:
The thing that really amazed me that I had now idea was that you could suffer in this way and then have your whole experience, your story, denied, buried, or forgotten. And it seemed whenever there was a camera around, a video or film camera, it was a great deal harder to do, for those in power to bury the story
From the Witness website:
WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.
I love this because in a sense witness is about giving away power to the powerless, which is one of my favorite ideas, and really one of the great redemptive ideas that lies behind a lot of the great stories that I find most moving. It makes me want to somehow get more involved in that power transfer, helping to make it happen.
Leave a Reply
Comment by: David H
1 09/12/07 10:21 PM | Comment Link |A camera can be just as powerful as a gun and far less destructive. But it isn’t enough to just hand them out. There have to be mechanisms to distribute the pictures and people here who will say they must be seen, the voices must be heard, and those with influence must apply it to make the effort meaningful.
Comment by: benjamin ady
2 09/13/07 9:01 AM | Comment Link |david
yeah–the sense I got from the video and the web site is that they are working to do just as you said and go further than just distributing the cameras. They have education and lots of other things going on to help see that the images get distributed and are used to help bring about change. I thought that was pretty kewl.
Comment by: Rachel
3 09/17/07 9:25 PM | Comment Link |Me too, Benjamin! That was an excellent video and I am very impressed by the work that Witness is doing. There is something so powerful about bringing the truth, no matter how awful, into the light.
I agree, David. Even as I was watching that video clip, when Peter Gabriel said he was going to show some footage from Uganda, I had to fight the urge to turn it off. Something in my brain is saying, “I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to hear it.” We need people who are willing to see, to hear, to be shocked and horrified, and thus driven to action.