Shahdai's Multi-media Blog

Human rights activist and photojournalist, Paula Allen did her presentation titled “Against Odds: Women Around the World Demand Justice” in the Student Union Cape Florida Ballroom, Thursday afternoon. The event was organized and hosted by the University of Central Florida Global Perspectives Office and several other sponsors. Go to Shahdai Richardson’s Twitter page to see live coverage of the event.

The presentation highlighted three of Allen’s on-going international photojournalism projects in Chile, Asia, and the Congo. Here presentation explored the human rights struggles women face around the world. With every photo that Allen displayed on the projector screen, she shared the story of the specific women and children photographed. Each story and photo explained the violence and the injustices that many women of Chile, Asia, and the Congo have suffered.

Allen began by inquiring about the emotions that people in the audience may have already been feeling about current human suffering around the world caused my wars, disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti  and economic issues including unemployment.

“Do you feel anxious, enraged, paralyzed,” Allen said. “Do you feel motivated and determined and inspired?”

For Allen, feeling these emotions are what pushed her to take action in three different regions of the country that she said are very connected by the strength of their women who have experienced loss, rape, and ostracism .

“They are women who are fighting against all odds, and women who refuse to be silenced no matter what potentially grave consequence might be against them…,” Allen said.

Chile

After watching the documentary, “Dance of Hope,” in 1989 Allen became aware of the women of Camala, Chile who had lost their loved ones to the “Caravan of Death” in 1973. Under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinoche, the “Caravan of Death” consisted of soldiers traveling through several cities of Chile and arresting and murdering many men who they were accusing of committing crimes, Allen said.  

According to Allen, these men were innocent. Allen reported that the “Caravan” killed about 72 people and those that were taken but never returned home were known as the “disappeared.”  Allen said that the crew of the “Caravan” was ordered with the backing of the United States government.

The women that Allen photographed and got to know are the relatives of the “disappeared” who at the time of her project had been searching for the remains of their husbands, fathers, and sons for 16 years. They had been seeking information for about 32 years, Allen said.  

“During the first year after the disappearances many of the wives, mothers, and sisters of the men met secretly,” Allen said. “Frustrated by officials’ unwillingness to provide the truth about their relatives’ fates, the women set off into the desert with their shovels to find the graves of their loved ones.”

There was complete silence in the room as Allen went through the photographs and told the individual stories of these women and their search for the truth.

 “While she was up there you could hear a pen drop,” said Global Perspectives’ Public Affairs Coordinator, Mark Freeman. “Everybody was giving their 100 percent attention.”

After many failed attempts and searches, Allen said that the women finally found the mass grave site on July 19, 1990. However, entire bodies were not found. Only scattered pieces of bones were found.

Allen read quotes from the women describing the scene of the grave site and their reaction.

Allen read the words of a woman named Victoria Saavedra whose brother Jose was one of the “disappeared”:

“’ Violeta and I arrived at the site before they closed it off and lying on top of the earth were pieces of skulls, pieces of ribs and jaws,’” Saavedra said, according to Allen. “’Some pieces of the ground were soft and if you stepped down little pieces of bones would pop out of the sand.’”

The women built a mausoleum in the local cemetery and put the bones there.

It was several years after the women’s discovery before any of them even knew that some of the bones belonged to their relatives.  Many of the women still had not found their family members’ remains. The women were later told by a witness that the grave site had been dug up before they found it and the human remains were dropped into the sea by a plan. The pieces of bones were what was left behind by the plan.

“The Comfort Women”

Just as she spoke about the testimonies of the women of Calama, Allen presented her photographs of women of Korea and the Philippines who were made sex-slaves and rapped by the Japanese Army during World War II. These women who were taken from their homes and made slaves were known as the “Comfort Women,” Allen said.

She said that many women all over Asia were victims of this type of rape and enslavement. Unlike the Flipino women’s experiences, the Korean “Comfort Women” were taken from their country to be enslaved and raped. Of those that survived, many were ostracized by their families and were too traumatized to marry once they returned home. As a result many of them now live together or alone, Allen said.

One of the photos that Allen showed during the “Comfort Women” part of the presentation was a photograph of an older Korean woman showing a scar from her sexual-enslavement experiences on the side of her body and at the same time exposing her breasts. Allen explained that several of the women she photographed for this project were taking off their clothing for her to photograph their scars.

“Of course I felt incredibly invasive and that it was wrong, but I also did it, then thinking carefully how I would then use those photographs,” Allen said. “I realized that for them having their bodies photographed was a way of giving evidence even though the criminal acts had been 40-50 years ago at this point, but for them the wounds were really still very evident.”

Allen also read the testimonies of some of the “Comfort Women.” She said one woman talked about the time she was taken and how she was searching for a grenade to blow up the Japanease soliders around her: “‘I wanted the rapes to stop, but I did not want to die. If I died I could not testify.’”

Now, every Wednesday since 1992 these women and their supporters have held demonstrations in front of the Japanease embassy, according to Allen.

The Democratic Republic of Congo

Like the “Comfort Women,” rape has horribly impacted the lives of women of the Congo as well due to the ongoing wars and conflicts within the repulic’s boarders. Allen told the stories of women of the Democratic Republic of Congo who await fistula surgery to mend their bodies that have been brutally hurt from being raped.

According to Allen, more than five million people have died in the Congo over the past 13 years. However, there was little pubilished information on the genocide these women face until recently.

“It is a war of exploitation and rape of the earth and of women, the the most precious resource on the planet,” Allen said.

Allen also  showed photographs of the Congo children, some who were conceived through the raping of their mothers. These children who stay with their mothers at the hospital awaiting surgery often do not get the care and attention they need, Allen said.

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Several student attendees walked away from Allen’s presentation inspired and more educated about what is happening and what can be done. Read Student Expectations and Reactions to see what three of these students’ thoughts on what they heard and saw.

John Bersia, the Special Assistant to the President for GP and Director, who coordinated the event introduced Allen by recognizing her 30 years of experience as a photojournalist.

Allen’s Experience, Bersia Said:

• Photo coverage of European nuclear disarmament movement
• Coverage of solidarity movement in Poland
• Coverage in war zones in Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Angola, and Afghanistan
• Published in Newsweek, The New York Times magazine, Marie Claire, U.S. News & World Report, and Paris Match

Allen has more details of her experiences on her website, www.paula-allen.com .

The Turn Out

According to Freeman, about 160 to 175 people were in attendance at the presentation. The seats were so filled that some people even sat on the floor in the back. Freeman said that not only was the overall turn out pleasing, but the presence of the men was good to see as well.

“Having spoken with Paula through out the day, I know she’s big on getting men involved,” Freeman said. “This is a women’s issue, but men need to be involved too.”

Here is a link to Paula’s photo of a man in The Congo who Allen said is among those that reassure everyone that there are great men in the world.

 

Journalism and Activism 

Despite the golden rule of journalists to maintain objectivity, Allen has taken an active role in helping the women and children she has photographed and at the same time building trusting relationships with them so that she is able to accurately tell their stories. She said that she sees herself as more of an activist than an journalist.

“I’m an activist with a camera,” Allen said. “I choose to use that medium because it’s what I feel is the most expressive for the things I need to say, but I’m interested in activism.”

She explained after her presentation that she doesn’t believe in objectivity because in order to do what she does Allen said her work is all about the connections between people.

“I’m detrimental to journalism teachers, but I don’t believe in [objectivity],” Allen said. “…It’s the way I work. I don’t want to work any other way.”

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My Take on Twitter Coverage

Covering a story via Twitter was a very interesting experience for me. The main thing that I learned from this assignment is that Twitter coverage can be great for your Twitter audience, but can take away from the information gathering time for the journalist. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone except reporters covering sports events.

I know I will probably have to do this again as journalist, but I honestly don’t see what the Twitter coverage adds to the coverage of your average event. Via Twitter I covered a speech/presentation. Tweeting made the actual story much harder to write later on. Since I was tweeting during the presentation, I could not take any significant notes for the written story. I had to record the presentation, and transcribing a two hour speech before I could begin writing my story was the most miserable and time consuming task ever. Good notes are always more valuable to me than a recording. I usually just like to use recordings to double check my quotes, not as my primary means of gathering information.

The other challenge with the event I was covering was that the person speaking, Paula Allen, was showing photographs. I was missing looking at or taking a photos of her presenting several of her photographs because my head was down tweeting. What I would do differently next time is maybe tweet about four or five times instead of the twenty-one times that I did. That should give me some extra time to take notes.

The advantages of Twitter are that you can tweet links to photographs and you can tweet links to video as well. Next time I will try to incorporate even more of that into my Twitter coverage. I think those are more of the type of things people want from Twitter coverage of non-sports events.

~SHAHDAI RICHARDSON