Wednesday, November 3, 2010
I Waterboarded Myself.
Here's my waterboarding video. After finding the piece on youtube, the Wall Street Journal wrote a front page article about my experience. In it I confirmed that the practice was in fact torture. This goes to show you that anyone with access to a video camera and a free youtube account can make an impact. The video that I made was a form of alternative media. The mainstream media showcased it to take an indirect stance on a controversial subject that, at the time, they themselves could not. The video is an example of advocacy by itself, but I believe that it's best taken within the context of my blog postings where I could further describe my experience and make a judgment on the practice.
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Jean-Pierre, you have a copy-cat. I imagine this Vanity Fair experiment is because of yours.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58
Let me say I am so super impressed by your blog. And additionally - I hope you didn't think I was comparing my stupid blog to your high caliber work - as I was only trying to further evidence the amazing power of blogging. (thats all).
ReplyDeleteLOL Julie. That's the money version. LOL
ReplyDeletehttp://rendition-2007.fullmoviereview.com/plot.html
ReplyDeleteRendition is a movie about An Egyptian married to a white woman in the US and how he gets tortured in what is assumed to be 'Egypt'. Anyway, every time I think of waterboarding, I think of this movie. The link above is just a review of the movie and not the movie itself. You probably would need a Netflix account to watch it.
Thanks for sharing your video and your blog! Although your experiment was not necessarily fun for you considering the fact that it is torture, I appreciate that you are putting your voice out there. I agree with statements in your blog when you compared the evils that Eichmann has done with our potential to be just as evil to others. As humans, we have the tendency to easily look over our own faults without honestly critiquing how we are responsible. This realization is so important if we are ever to look at our "enemies" (that is, the enemies our nation tells us to hate and torture) as humans. Without questioning how torture would affect us (i.e., if we were the ones being tortured), we will not see the evil we are capable of. I also appreciate that you gave us tremendous hope because "we are perfectly capable of rising above our evil," and "we must stand firm and give no opportunity for the monster in each of us to emerge." These types of messages are what the world needs to hear if we are to make a difference. The way you used media to discuss how waterboarding is torture gives me a lot of hope that there is another world possible and we can be actively involved to make that happen if we so choose to be agents for change.
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