A report from the Amnesty WIRE gathering in September


lyndon nixon ([email protected])
Wed, 2 Dec 1998 12:08:46 -0800 (PST)


... ahhhh so nice to be home, to be at work again, to be reading WIRE
daily again in the comfort of an university computer centre rather
than bombing around the back-beyonds of America in someone elses Dodge
Caravan visiting every bizarre sightseeing spot in the great desert
and making do with sneaky hours in small town libraries to satiate my
internet addiction, and yet, in this chilly early December with the
Christmas shopping capitalistic overkill starting I cant help feeling
I have left something undone.

Oh look an email from that nice lady who let me go to that posh New
York Amnesty do back in September for free and only wanted me to write
a report of it afterwards.....

a report of it afterwards......

OH SHIT

well, I plead guilty due to travelling, insanity and a peculiar fetish
for lemons. But now, at last, may my story be told....

so whats a wee Belfast lad doing sitting in some big hall in New York
City in late September surrounded by Hollywood glitzarama, tucking
into well prepared delicacies, sitting in a seat that I am told was
worth $250?

it all began with U2 of course, and a group at my university that
participated in various human rights campaigns. I joined Amnesty, went
to America to work in a summer camp in Pennsylvania and read WIRE
whenever I could kick off one of the camp kids from his computer. I
never dreamt that I�d end up on the first night after camp ended
helping represent WIRE at an Amnesty event in America, but life does
that. It surprises you.

As did the revelations we had that night. I didnt think Hollywood rich
movie type people bothered supporting human rights, what with all
those film shoots and magazine interviews and scandals they are having
all the time. But there was a veritable list of famous people there
that night: Patrick Stewart, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Suzanne
Vega, Harry Bellafonte, Natalie Cole, Wes Craven... and thats just the
names I recognised.

Neither did I think American TV actually had meaningful documentaries
about international issues. Maybe I was just tuning into ABC, NBC and
CBS at the wrong times but I only ever found a media overly obsessed
about Monica Lewinsky and feeding its populace shallow superficial
bubble-gum entertainment. It was reassuring that some of the media is
still using its power for raising our awareness of world issues and
for placing the issues of importance before our
too-often-satisfied-with-meaningless-crap eyes.

I had to meet Maggie and David, my WIRE escorts, in New York City, an
idea that sounds great in principle until you try it. Fortunately I
was able to locate the correct strange sculpture to wait at and found
Maggie on the second attempt and David not long after. Wandering into
the event I suddenly became aware of how I am not part of the same
social grouping... all the men in dark suits except me, who had
tastefully chosen a colourful shirt and green trousers in order to
stand out from the group as �Mr. He Must Have Wandered In Accidentally
>From The Street�. Fortunately I was not ejected from the hall and was
able to take a seat, eat hors d�oeuvres of various origins and fight
attacks of celebrity-itis (the sudden compulsion to run up to famous
people and exclaim loudly Oh My God You�re So-and-So!!!! as if they
had forgotten their own identity momentarily). But, I felt it strange
to still feel somehow inferior to these rich & famous (certainly thats
how the press pack treated us - not even got a photo taken out of
sympathy) and out of place when we were here to affirm that all people
are equal.....

We watch videos, congratulate media stars who went into foreign
countries and told the world sitting comfortably in its lounges about
the evil that was being perpetrated and perpetuated elsewhere, and eat
rich food while luxury boats cruise by the pier outside. We celebrate
the cause of truth and human rights surrounded by millionaires whose
celebrity lives are often maintained by a lie, yet I realise that in
our hearts I might be no different from Richard Gere or Harrison Ford,
that in all of us prince or pauper, Holywood star or gutter-lying
stargazer, there is a pain for those suffering persecution and
oppression, a wish to make the world a better place, whether we are
able to produce startling documentaries for national television airing
or just watch them.

And that night, I might not have left in a limousine, I might not have
even worn the standard issue black suit or known the proper social
etiquette when consuming the various hor d�oeuvres, but I left knowing
that I too can be a celebrity, a star that glitters in the night sky,
another glimmer of light to combat the worlds darkness.... and the
wonderful thing is, so can all of us.

�Better to light a candle than curse the darkness�

Support Amnesty.

ZeeK.

==
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
 -- Stephen Wright

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