Look at the wordle above. Can you make some links between the words that catch your attention?
The word that stands out the most is “RIGHT”. Think of yourself as a person, as a citizen of your own country. Are there any rights you think you are not guaranteed? What about other countries? Can you think of any right that is not safeguarded? If you refer to what you read in the papers or what you watch on newscast on TV, that may help you.
Look at this poster created by Simone Verza. What malaise do you think he denounces?
The title of this poster is: When lying on paper human rights can hurt.
(source: http://good50x70.org/2010/2007-edition/human-rights-violation/)
So one important article of the Human Rights Declaration is not respected in Simone’s view. What is it?
Look at the Human Rights Declaration, find out the aricle that is violated and while reading the document jot down on a piece of paper the other possible articles that you think you see violated in your own country. Obviously be prepared to provide examples.
If you find it difficult to read the above poster, you can download the following pdf document, which mentions the number of the articles: eng
Look at the following images, what aspects do they have in common?
Watch this video, it will give you a general idea of what we are going to investigate together!
Now watch another video meant to disclose to people what human rights are. What extra information do we learn from it?
Which video do you like better? Why?
What are human rights then? How would you define them? Do you think most people know? Watch just the first 43 seconds of the video, then stop it.
The very fact that most people do not know how to define human rights implies that we need to “do a little bit of homework” (as one speaker says) to make sure that we know what our rights are and we can do our best to safeguard them, for our sake, but also for the sake of other humans.
Now let’s go on watching the video and let’s take notes on the history of human rights.
I had asked you to go to the photograph exhibition by Pierpaolo Mittica entitled “Ashes” (a very powerful name, imbued with painful meaning!) dedicated to the safeguard of human rights. Ms. Cimetta dedicated a nice post to the exhibition, look at it!
I asked you to carry out two CREATIVE TASKS:
1. Choose a photo (the one that strikes you the most, the one that speaks to you deeply) and write a monologue through the eyes of something that catches your attention: it could the sky in the chosen photo, or the shoes of a child, etc.
2. While looking at the photos and watching the videos jot down thoughts, feelings in key words. Use those words to write a poem entitled “Ashes”.
These are the photos I chose along with my “creative pieces”.
This is my contribution:
TASK 1
At the beginning we did not like each other. We were both used to being worn on the left, but the little boy did not let us be ourselves. He forced one of us to change habits. The ankle boot was furious. I was blessed (the sandal!), I was free to follow my own nature. This is the reason why I (the sandal) and Mr. Fashion (the ankle book) got on each other’s nerves straight away. I despised him and he loathed me.
Things changed after a short while. At the beginning we were blind, we did not know what was happening, we did not think of things. In other words we were superficial. Then, we both started grasping things and we understood we were lucky and we made a difference once again. We realized we had been dumped, the owners who had loved us once, had thrown us away heartlessly. How ungrateful! They could have kept us for longer. We were not worn out at all, but you know how things work in the “upper spheres”: the more money they have the more they squander. They think they make the world go round by buying things all the time. To me, they are just spoilt, their life acquires meaning only in the act of purchasing something. They exist because they buy. Poor them. That’s why our masters were so ungrateful. When they dumped us, they did not make sure that we were not going to be separated from our twin shoe. Ruthless bastards. Where is my twin brother now? I miss him.
I have another brother now, though. I jokingly call him Mr. Fashion because he is trendier than me. He belonged to a higher caste. You can see that immediately. He must have cost his master a fortune, but…now he is in the same sinking boat with me. We used to tread the floors of nice houses, the pavements of safe places in Calcutta. Now we are smeared in dust and at times in dung too. You may think that our existence sucks. Well, it may stink at times, but it does not suck at all. Know why? We have a mission. We make a difference in the life of Amal. His name means “bright, clean, pure, hope” in Hindu. He is not clean, because he lives in the dumpsite, BUT he is bright, yes so bright. One day, while sifting through the trash, he prayed and prayed for shoes. His feet were swollen, sore; there were deep cuts on the soles of his feet. A broken bottle was to be blamed, he had not seen it, so… Well, to cut a long story short (you’ve understood I love words so I am pretty long-winded!) his mantra went like this:
- Om Bhur Bhuva Svah
- Tat Savitur Varenyam
- Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
- Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodayat
- On the absolute reality and its planes,
- On that finest spiritual light,
- We meditate, as remover of obstacles
- That it may inspire and enlighten us.
How couldn’t his prayers be listened to? He delved his hook deep inside the huge fuming heaps of rubbish and I was the first one to resurrect. You should have seen Amal’s face. Beaming with joy. He hoped he could find my twin brother. So he continued with his mantra and he plunged the hook repeatedly into the smelly trash. His eyes were like the eyes of a maniac. He wanted to find the pairing shoe. He longed for it. The hook was drawn out of the mound heavy with discarded things and with them Mr. Fashion popped up. Amal was incredulous at first. That was not what he was hoping for. His disappointment elapsed in a few seconds. As soon as he put us on he collapsed on the trash and started weeping. He was so grateful. He was so joyful. Mr. Fashion and I were irate at first, but when we heard Amal’s sobs, when we felt his bleeding feet, we were touched. Never ever had anybody loved us so much, so dearly, so purely. We have been with him for a while now. We are seeing things you cannot even imagine. Dreadful scenes, appalling conditions, yet we are dignified. Amal’s dignity gives us dignity every single step we take with him.
TASK 2
Ashes
Anguish surrounds the boy’s existence, silently
Ashes
Appalling scenes hurt my eyes and my soul
Ashes
Anger surges inside of me, to the core of my very being, surreptitiously engulfing my hope
Ashes
Thus I ask myself why?why?why? The “why” blasts in my brain
gives me no peace till the day
all humans
will be dignified with humanity
Till that day
We are all
Ashes
TO BE CONTINUED!
Poem “Ashes”
Murky grains are flying in the smothering air,
Side by side.
Flocks of swallows,
Looking for the right place to perch.
They keep on carrying the weight of humans’ mistakes,
Trying to go back to their owners.
But
They are lost.
Nobody wants them, nobody cares,
They are just bringers of bad luck.
Grains are clinging desperately to their creators,
They are one, this is their home.
Little by little we drown,
Covered by the mantle of ashes,
Shedding tears, screaming
Loudly.
Nobody wants to be here,
Nobody wants to leave.
And you thought you could not write a poem? Well done! Keep on writing, keep on experimenting, keep on discovering the great capabilities hidden in you 🙂
Ashes
We live here.
In the middle of desolate cities,
destroyed by wars and radiations
outcome of humankind’s ambition.
Oh man, did you learn from your mistakes?
Why do you continue poisoning your planet?
Why do you prey upon your counterparts?
Wherever you go a cloud of smoke raises,
and then it lies down
revealing the horrible image
of what you left behind you.
A gray thin layer covers everything,
it hides your mistakes,
that layer is made of us: ashes.
Beautiful. Written by a great young woman with a wonderful heart.
Ashes
Lost in the wind
of time fragments of each and of everything.
They wander in the immense,
Carried aimlessly.
Maybe the voracious universe
swallowed them all.
Only in its
dirty odds will remain their memory.
And I look at myself dissolving in those pictures
That to me cause suffering, fear, loneliness ,misunderstanding
Nobody talks about this,
Nobody knows,
Nobody wants to understand that we have to keep what we have.
ASHES
Our world is a mess of contradictions.
The phenomenon that makes our life possible is the one which provokes a Tsunami.
One of the most fast growing countries is actually one of the poorest.
The nuclear reactors that give us a lot of energy could make life on our planet impossible.
The recycling of trash gives work to poor people in Mumbai and an the same time kills them.
But the problem is not the inconsistency of our planet,
the problem is the HUMAN kind: human but not kind yet we are the humankind!
We just ignore the problematic regions of our world,
we simulate not to see anything
We close ourselves in a golden globe in the middle of the stench of misery.
We want to develop and progress without caring about the other people or nature.
But then someone cares,
someone tries to help people see the bad situation our world is in
someone speaks with the voice of the poor that cannot speak their mind
someone sees with the eyes of a partially sighted.
When a man shows you a three-year-old baby with leukemia,
a family living in a bidoneville,
a dad bringing up his children on the street,
a boy without any protection carrying garbage into the compound for recycling,
elderly that cannot go back to their villages because they are an exclusion land,
you understand that something must be done.
There is a crack in everything.
And instead of working united to create a better place for everyone
we go on fighting
We are so dumbly blind and we do not understand that wars beget losers, not winners.
When there is a war, there is death
When there is death, there is not life
When there is no life, there is no humanity
When there is no humanity, there are ashes
JUST
ASHES
Great Giulia. See whether the minor changes I made are in tune with what you originally wanted to say. There is just one line I cannot work out the meaning of. Please let me know so that we can find a clearer way to render it: “elderly that cannot go back to their villages because they are an exclusion land”.
It’s not easy to talk about a similar issue just writing a comment but I’ll try to do my best.
When I read the article a word caught my attention, though it could seem banal: RIGHT. What does right means? And why do we need rights, especially human rights? This is an important point to me.
Because I think rights are necessary to decree what we’re allowed to do but I think they’re necessary just in a certain range which to me is the legal one.
The reason why we’re speaking about human rights is absurde, I mean..everyone should respect other human beings. The problem is that human rights are necessary to live quietly. Being respected shouldn’t be a matter of rights.
The problem is at the very beginning.
After that we can comment human rights.
All of them safeguard the integrity of people which is jeopardised by people who want to prevail on others damaging them.
Although human rights exist they’re not everywhere respected even because they’re not recognised as laws which is absurde because they are fundamental and they would make people being more respectful.
These 30 statements could be abused because it’s good to have freedom of speech for example but it means that depend on you how much you can speak. And this is another problem because rights are not always used properly.
It’s true that they establish fundamental thing but they are not weapons so it has no sense to intimidate someone bu using human rights.
The most important thing expressed in the declaration is the right to choose which is to me extremely important and it makes pur life fantastic. Because the world is wonderful because there are different types of people and it’s taken for granted but not everywhere people have this right. We must have a free life where we can choose what we want to become and fight for it is our right. The right to be the human we want.
I know that a single post on a blog cannot express the dignity and depth such an issue deserve. Yet, as a teacher of English, I aim at killing two birds with one stone: introuding themes of debate (which I deem relevant and necessary to investigate) and making my students express themselves freely in English. Obviously we are just laying the basis for investigations you will carry out in the future or at present, investigations you will do by yourself or in other subjects. It is impossible to deal with an issue in great depth on a blog and most of all in just a few hours of English you have. However, we cannot possibly limit ourselves to the school book only. So we must find a compromise. Here the blog comes in.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Human Rights. A deep concept, maybe too deep and complex to have a clarifying explanation. As we saw in the video “The Story of Human Rights” we all give our personal meaning to those two words. And at the bottom there are some people who are not so conscious of what their rights really are and what they guarantee us, and I am one of those people. This because, in my opinion, there’s not enough information and debate on this theme: some people think that since we are humans we already know what our rights are, but it’s not so obvious. I think that nothing that concerns our freedoms and duties can be obvious. In fact, for example, if we ask a boy that works as a slave in some parts of the world, I hardly think that he knows what his rights are, as a human being. So first of all, in my opinion, there should be more information about human rights, for anyone and everywhere. I think that it is important, above all for students and pupils to know for what they will fight in their future to safeguard the people and the world we live in.
The Human Rights represent and protect all the capabilities and ideas that make human beings so extraordinarily beautiful and intelligent. So, only if we know them, we can really understand who we are. For this, I think that the first step to make them applied is “to kill” the ignorance of people through education. But certainly this is not enough.
Like everyone, I have my own explanation for human rights, too. In my opinion what makes human beings so unique is their freedom. We are the only specie in the world that can be considered truly free (it is the ideal rule, because unfortunately in the reality very often it is not so). We are human because we are free. Our human rights are like the special wings thanks to which we can achieve our freedom. So the words that in the wordle above have caught my attention the most are freedom, human and everyone. Yes, because we have to remember that the universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) guarantees our humanity and our rights in front of everything and everyone. And very often this is not respected in the world.
Our rights are the demonstration of how much and how long we fought in the past to have them guaranteed, so there should be honor and pride in applying them, but the reality it isn’t evidence of that.
Even if we live in a democratic country we watch on tv everyday a lot of injustices and violence. Too many. This make me ashamed of my Italy. And if we see the situation outside Italy it is becoming more and more unbearable. Slavery, violence, prostitution, mafia, wars, terrorist attacks, racism: these will be the basis for the world of the future if we continue to do nothing. There are places where people cannot express their opinions, ideas or have an education or profess their own religion. There are women who are treated like useless and insignificant objects, that are beaten, exploited and segregated. I cannot even imagine that one day my son or daughter could possibly live in a world like that. And I do not want to!
In my opinion the solution is the collaboration and cooperation between the countries and the people, because only with unity we can really reach the concept of Human Rights. The problem is that there was not cooperation in the past, when the Declaration of Human Rights was written, and there is not even today, because there is not the will to improve things yet.
While all the Governments claim they are doing their best, everything possible to ensure rights and freedom, there are million of people in the world that are starving, dying, suffering: maybe what governments call “possible” is not enough. I have hope in the human race, but If we really imagine a world where rights are applied and respected, I think we will only find a big, wonderful illusion. This is what my world shows to me: no interest in becoming free and independent. In this world materials things replace human aspects and this is really sad. If we want to reach that wonderful illusion there must be collaboration among governments, states, countries, friends, humans: all united without thinking of their own business, but only to fight for their rights of life. All brothers and sisters. Everyone line up for us human beings. This is my wish for the future.
I hope your dream will come true and this is the reason why I ask you to work on issues like these. As you point out, if you know you can take action and you can become a more responsible citizen. This does not mean we will be able to solve all the ills in this world, but at least we won’t be passive eyewitnesses to our own end. You strongly point out that you want a better world to live in for your children to come. Since I am an adult and not an adolescent like you, I want a better world for my students, I want to equip them with more sensitivity and compassion, I want them to think about others and themselves at the same time, I want them to share ideas, express their own thoughts and work in team to aim at the same target: living together in peace, supporting one other, caring for one another. Is this a naive objective? Is this just a dream? Am I a gullible middle-aged teacher of English? Be so, but at least I do not want to be a dull and passive cynic.
Human rights are an important theme. Obviously if I talk with somebody of Human rights he/she will know what I am pointing out but such as we can see in the video no one can give us an exact definition. I think we take them for granteed now because in a country like Italy an Italian person does not daily fight against the system to impose his/her rights. But we need to imagine that people in other countries every day fight for their lives and their rights because of the reality they are living, some are held in slavery, others cannot speak freely because they go against the system maybe because they criticize it but they have to because they are not considered human beings unfortunately. Even in Italy some rights are violated, people that are powerful impose themselves brutally to others that are ordinardy workers and make them do what they want even if they go against the law. But I think the main problem is the prejudices we have of foreigners. I am dealing with the fact that we are, many times, used to believing that others are inferior and I speak for Italians. I could notice that many people think that foreigners are bad company because of some events caused by extremists, or for their different culture and religion. In my short experience I have seen people accused unfairly only because they are black and people are inclined to think badly of cultures different from theirs.
The video I liked most was the one entitled “We are all born free” because it caught more my attention, I was more involved than by the others because the man explains the point clearly and we don’t have to read.
ASHES
The man who lives knowingly
documents humanity’s life
we survive
an existence to the limits of life itself
for what?
to guarantee us a “superior” humanity?
OR
to enjoy a wealth that makes all others
slaves?
We are all slaves
of pollution…
of diseases…
of ignorance…
of poverty…
We will all be ashes very soon
I like the way you created pauses of reflection through the use of questions and then curt and straightforward undeniable/unquestionable answers.
Looking at the words on Human Rights the words that catch my attention most are RIGHTS EVERYBODY and FREEDOM and if I think of what human rights mean I immediately think: “the freedom everybody should have”. Sadly that’s not true in the majority of countries, human rights aren’t rights at all because they aren’t guaranteed all over the world altough these rights are at the root of a pacific and respectful society, they belong to us, to everyone. We are lucky to live in Italy because more or less we are guaranteed, we have almost all those rights: we can freely express our opinion, we all have an education and everybody in Italy can believe in whatever he/she wants to, we can vote and we can travel wherever, we aren’t slaves, we have justice and privacy. But are all those rights effective? We can be homosexual without being judged? We really have privacy, online or talking on the phone? I don’t think so. Have all adults got a job? Have we got, as adolescents, the prospectse to find a god job? Definitely (and unfortunately) no. But probably the most important problem we have, as humans not only as Italians, is the lack of awareness. We don’t understand the importance of these rights because we, as European and democratic countries, take them for granted and so we forget how much these rights are necessary in the poorest and less developed countries. But we MUST take in consideration all the parts in the world in which there’s child exploitation, where women aren’t emancipated, or just think of all those people in the world who haven’t got a secure place to live in, who haven’t got enough food or water, of the slaves, of the violence. Human rights are many and all are important, fundamental, necessary. We have to fight for them to make them real, to make everybody free and conscious, to help those who cannot do it by themselves. Going on with this idea I really appreciate the first video in which rights are explained by children, it is touching and easy to understand for everybody, as human rights should be.
Profound considerations. Well done Anna.
Right.
Everyone.
Freedom.
Protection,
Equal.
One.
Law.
These are the words that have caught my attention.
These words are the bases of the “Human Rights”.
Human Rights have to guarantee freedom, protection, equality to everyone. The law should guarantee the respect of them.
But, as history teaches us, the majority of Human Rights are just words written on a piece of paper.
Let’s give some examples.
In some countries there isn’t the right to education (Malala is still fighting for it).
According to the Human Rights, in the world there shouldn’t exist slavery, tortures… Yes, the Human Rights are really not safeguarded!
In Italy we don’t have “freedom of press”, namely we could say that we don’t have total “freedom of expression”. This is the right that Simone Verza wants to denounce with his poster.
All the three imagines have in common the meaning: we all have the right to have Human Rights.
Nobody can take them away from us.
Both videos are nice but my favorite is the second one. It is more fun and shows us Human Rights as something common, as something that anybody should know.
But, as the interviews that the third video show us, few people know their Human Rights.
And here lies the problem: if we don’t know what Human Rights are, how can we expect to safeguard them?
I agree with that boy: people need to do a little bit of homework.
In this picture the word RIGHT is surrounded by many words that are closely connected to the law and the information, and for me this is very important because the majority of people in our country do not know all the cases where human rights are not applied, so newspapers, television news and books must inform people to really change thing in the world. Than the states of every country could do something to safeguard human rights, but unfortunately it isn’t like that. In our country there are some rights that are not safeguarded, like gay rights. The criticism of Simone Verza is that is not necessary that the human rights remain written and not respected. He denounces all cases where human rights are not respected even if all states are in agreement with “the universal declaration of human rights”. All the images support the idea that all men are equal and have equal rights. I like more the second video because is more original and fun. From this video I can learn some articles of “the universal declaration of human rights”
Human rights are rights that have to be assigned to everyone and nobody can take these rights away from people because they belong to us. When I try to think of “human rights”, the words that occur to my mind are: rights (that a person should have), freedom, equality, everyone, protection and respect. These words have a link in common, infact, rights should be for everyone, they permit you to be free, to be equal, with no discrimination, to be protected and respected. Everyone has rights, but unfortunately not always they’re guaranteed. There are many rights that aren’t safeguarded, for example Article 3. It says “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”: it isn’t true. In so many countries there’s still slavery and it is intolerable because nobody is entitled to take people and enslave them. Other article that isn’t respected is the number 19. It says “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”: this article isn’t guaranteed because in many countries there’s censorship, so journalists can’t voice their opinions or can’t let the wolrld know how the news is really.
In Italy, fortunately, almost all the human rights are safeguarded for the majority. But we need to open our mind and think of people that are corrupted or think of mafia. This organization let work many people illegaly. Mafia also does human trafficking or does work children because they can’t be arrested. It’s all unjust, doing as mafia does is a infringement of most of human rights. There are many others article that aren’t safeguarded and it is unfair and people should know these human rights and fight for them, but, the problem is that not everyone knows what they are.
I think we have to open our eyes, let know people what human rights are (via mas media, social, newspaper -even if there’s censorship, we can try it-) and defend what is our, that are human right. There are many others article that aren’t safeguarded and it is unfair and people should know these human rights and fight for them, but, the problem is that not everyone knows what they are.
Monologue
MEMORIES OF A TYPEWRITER
I’m alone. I’m alone in a little piece of a Bosnian road.
Nobody will never pick up me. I’ll be alone forever.
I’m sad. Near me there are only ruins, all the people have run away because of the war. Among me there is only sadness, melancholy and everything is ash gray.
All the houses have been bombarded and they will linger abandoned because, I think, nobody will come nevermore. Here there are no laws, this is not a nation anymore. There isn’t respect and those who survived have to live in a country where there isn’t life and where there is no hope.
I think nothing will change back as before.
Look at me, please.
I’m old, I’m riddled, but I’m still alive and this are the scars that show how much I fought during my life.
I’ve seen things that humans should never think about. How many dead people have I seen? But, the most important and disgusting thing: how many babies have I seen dying?
Even if I’m only a dumb object, it breaks my heart to see people degenerate in that way.
Why destroy such a beautiful world? It is not a pastime. You create a happy nation, where all the people are carefree and joyful. I truly don’t understand why you have to destroy it! Think about it; I’m sure I’m the only one living here now. And I’m sure I’ll be the only one living here for the rest of my life. But, try to think: what would the world be like if there were wars everywhere? I beg you to think about it. There wouldn’t be people anymore and all the houses and the stores would be empty, dark and almost scary and disturbing.
You, human beings! You have to fight for your own rights and especially for peace.
Don’t make war. Look, you will be alone like me if make war.
Do you relly want to become like me? I don’t think so!
So, listen to me: fight, fight for equality, for rights and for all you think it would be important to you. But please, no violence.
I safeguard you: violence leads up to war and war leads up to death.
REMEMBER THIS: A WORLD OF DEAD PEOPLE, IS NOT A WORLD ANYMORE.
Don’t forget wars. Remember them.
Don’t make the same mistakes! Don’t sink into oblivion.
This letter in this wasteland is my testament and these are the last words I wanted to write to you.
ASHES
Ashes, only ashes,
this is what is left in some parts of the world;
all around is gray, pitch dark.
And trees?
Trees speak little, you know,
but their expression shows the lonliness of deserted places, empty but full of sweet past memories.
Silence.
There’s only the soft blowing of the wind;
you can’t even hear the howling of wolves…
There’s nothing left, nobody is around,
all is abandoned,
all is dead, sad
all was burned down by fire.
Silence.
Darkness.
Ashes, only ashes.
You are great Valentina. I am proud of you!
Ashes
that’s our world
that’s what is left of it
after humanity has definitively burnt and exhausted the fecundity of the soil,
its aboundance, its prosperity.
This will be our fate —- nothing else:
still a few days ahead
before we plunge into the dark and gloomy hell we ourselves created for us.
Powerful poem, full of the bleakness characterising the negative connotation of the word ashes.
We hurt ourselves,
Our own world,
We exploit the environment,
We ravish nature,
We turn once-prosperous havens into bleak deserts
Unaware of the damage
We are blind to the destruction we are causing
We are wasting
Our planet.
We are jeopardizing our unique and only source of life, that is sad I know.
ASHES
Panic.
Blasts, flames, heat.
Smoke, shout, pain.
People were running, falling, stumbling,
screaming, crying, dying.
Peace.
Silence, desolation, death.
The streets are sinister,
the days are colder.
No warmth remains,
just ashes…
of a fire that once burned.
Awesome
Ashes
Images of a sad town
there are no people around
the sun doesn’t shine.
The sound of the Sunday
people can’t be heard
they want to flee
someone has the courage to stay.
In the horizon only smokestacks
with their grey fumes
Ashes that fall on people’s lives
Ashes grey with pain.
Is progress worthwhile?
Progress is worthwhile if it is in tune with humanity, if it is done for the benefit of human beings and not for the profit of some. The latter brings about sufferings and devastation.
ASHES
In a moment everything changes.
One moment you have everything, a moment later you have nothing left.
Like when you build a sand castle by the sea, and a spiteful wave takes it away.
In a moment everything changes.
One moment you are someone, a moment later you are no one, and loneliness, desolation, anger and frustration reign in your eyes.
In a moment everything changes.
One moment you can see the colors, and a moment later everything is black and white.
There is no more hope. Now hearts are home to dispair, sadness and fear only.
In a moment everything changes.
One moment you do not know how to cry, a moment later you have already learned.
You are disoriented, and the only thing you can do is to remember the happy times, when everything was ok.
In a moment everything changes.
One moment you are alive, a moment later you are not here anymore.
You wonder: “Why me?”, and the only answer you get is silence.
Silence kills, doesn’t it? Not knowing why, not getting an answer, this is terrible, you’re right.
I was very impressed by this exhibition, I didn’t know the author, but after having seen it I did reseaches on his behalf. He deal, in all his photographs, important topics, real and critical facts that happen around the world. Through his photographs, taken during his various trips in different continents and nations, he wants us to have a look, wants us to get closer to these issues that afflict, not us directly, but many other people, enviroments and ethnicities. Through his photo, although many are in black and white, he manages to make us recognize the seriousness of these event, he manages to raise our awareness, to make us think. Landscapes, cities, territories devastated by the past, by man, poor children less fortunate than us.
I’m glad to have seen it, I was pleased to see these photos, to learn something about this photographer, born in my same city.
I am happy to read I did the right thing then! Asking you or better inviting you to go and see the exhibition was then worthiwhile. 😉
– Monologue Pierpaolo Mittica photography exhibition
I chose the photo called “Kindergarten”, taken in Pripyat (Ucraina). It struck me because in the photo you can see a room of a kindergarten, with some cribs in it. Close-up: there’s a crib with a doll inside. This doll is different from other toys, it’s without arms, dirty, naked, with uncombed hair…destroyed. On the floor there are ruins, broken toys and drawings made by children. The photo location is sad and dark. I think this photo is a metaphor created to explain the pain and the fear that people, above all children, felt during the explosion. They weren’t prepared to such a disaster and they felt defenceless. The Chernobyl disaster changed many lives: children couldn’t play with their toys (because of the explosion), with their friends, adults were living in fear.
I tried to identify myself with the doll of the photo and I wrote a little monologue, here it is.
“My name’s Alisa, I’m a doll and fortunately I survived (so to speak) the terrible explosion. It was horrible and I lost my little mistress Karina. That day, Karina, the other children and I, were playing all together when, suddently, we heard a blast. Everyone ran to see what was happening and we panicked. Then there was a fire and the kindergarten started burning. All the people there ran outside and after about ten minutes, help arrived. Karina tried her best to take me away but someone pulled her from me to take her into a safe place. I’m happy that she managed to survive and I hope she’ll remember me (or maybe reclaim me).”
-Poem
What remains
are ashes.
Lives were devasteted,
cities destroyed,
all was deserted.
There was fear in people’s eyes,
everything disappeared,
many people died.
Ashes
ONLY
Ashes
That’s what you can find there.
You chose a very touching photo. When I visited the exhibition I was immediately touched by it myself. You gave life to it.
ASHES:
Everything is destroyed
Empty, sad, silent.
I feel hopeless,
I see ashes, ashes all around me,
ashes of many lives.
Kids who play in their houses,
now devastated,
they smile turned into ashes, why?
People stare at their house, at what remains of it,
that was their only home, they can’t go anywhere else.
Lonely children forced into adulthood, innocence lost
Beggars everywhere
Street life is now a rule, not an exception.
Sick children can’t be cured.
Rag dolls wet, dirty, on the ground.
Evacuated, abandoned buildings.
I hear nothing but silence.
I am surrounded by ashes
Ashes everywhere
Well done
I think that in Italy some Human Rights are not guaranted like the right to freedom or the article7 who sad that we are all equal before the low.
In the other countries it depends, in the more developed countries there are less rights that are not guaranted respect at the countries less developed, but the two i wrote before i think are not guaranted all over the world.
I think more or less all the human rights are not safeguarded.
Simone Verza in his poster I think he denounce the censorship that prevents us to say what we want.
Unfortunately we live in a world where you cant say what you want, because if you say disagrees with what an influent pearson think you can be died.
In some countries this happens and we don’t think at this because we think that in our country we are really free, but it not so
You are referring to the freedom of press which is not completely safeguarded in Italy. We discussed this in class and we looked at a world map showing which countries guarantee complete freedom of press and which are doing pretty badly (Italy included). What about other rights that are not safeguarded? You do not mention them. You mention something we did in class together, so you did not add anything new.
ASHES
The darkest clouds I’ve ever seen in my life, running on the horizon, overlooking the cities full of ghosts…desperation in their eyes.
Children are still crying, but nobody answers…everything keeps silent in the chaos of destruction.
Baths of tears, as red as blood, in the blackness of ashes.
Life ran away from this places like a criminal, a wanted…
Inanimate objects and dead bodies, lying down on the streets, trying to save themselves from pain
Fleeting shadows cross my way crying, screaming…but they are not alive anymore
And lo! light reappears, cold
It seems to be aware of everything that happended.
It lights the most horrible things which have remained.
We can start again, never go back
I love the metaphors you created to express the pain and desperation triggered in you by the exhibition.
Ashes
A day had come, when you woke up as a person and at the end of that day you were a survivor.
At the end of that day the only things you own are fear, pain and desperation.
Your sight is blurred, you can’t breathe, you gasp looking for no toxic oxygen.
Trying to run away, you stumble upon an empty and dirty cradle, that lays on the top of a pile of rubbish.
You try not to think about the baby, who belongs to that wreck, and other million babies who have no future.
You feel the devastation deep in your bones, and you can’t possibly remedy this situation.
This is a war where there aren’t good or evil, where everybody is guilty, where everything has changed and nothing will be the way it used to be.
Cities, that never look so lonely, now are deserts of dust, ashes and terrible loss.
There’s nothing left to do now.
Just hope that one day you’ll be part of the ashes that cover this unfortunate Earth.
A born poet! Great poem Valentina. I loved reading it, thanks for the pleasure you’ve given me.