Um, Humankind’s.

futurejournalismproject:

One Man to Walk Mankind’s Original 22,000 Mile Trek Across the Globe

Well, more or less. Pulitzer winning journalist Paul Salopek is setting out on a seven-year odyssey to report on human culture along the route anthropologists believe humans originally took on their way to populate the earth, from Ethiopia to Patagonia. He’s calling the project Out of Eden.

From Nieman Lab:

No matter what the road may bring, it’ll be important to have the right gear. Salopek will be a solo traveler for most of the journey, so he’ll need to pull off the one-man band routine many journalists are now familiar with. But given the breadth of his journey, Salopek told me he wanted to have a kit that would open up new kinds of storytelling possibilities. “I’m looking at the walk as a journalist’s laboratory,” he told me.

In his backpack, Salopek will carry a MacBook Air, a satellite phone, a Sony HXR-NX7OU for video and stills, a GoPro camera, an audio recorder, and a personal GPS tracking device. The GPS will obviously play a role in keeping him on track, but Salopek said he’s also interested in trying to geocode stories along his path. Location-based information could play a role in the online component of the project, allowing Salopek and his media partners to give a deeper sense of place. A story about climate change, for instance, could be enhanced with temperature and geological data. Another idea would be to pull in tweets or updates from other social networks to sample the online conversation in a particular region, Salopek said. “The reason why it excites me is that this project by definition is a global project,” he said. “It goes across borders and languages and cultures. I want people to be able to follow along.”

Hike vicariously (we know you want to) with Paul on the project site.

Image: Nieman Lab.

poptech:

One Day on Earth

ONE DAY ON EARTH creates a picture of humanity by recording a 24-hour period throughout every country in the world. We explore a greater diversity of perspectives than ever seen before on screen. We follow characters and events that evolve throughout the day, interspersed with expansive global montages that explore the progression of life from birth, to death, to birth again. In the end, despite unprecedented challenges and tragedies throughout the world, we are reminded that every day we are alive there is hope and a choice to see a better future together. 

Support the film on Kickstarter.

If you have been following this blog, you know that I have posted a great deal about the IDF attack on the Freedom Flotilla. At some point I will provide a longer exposition of the path I took to becoming a supporter of justice and a homeland for Palestinians and a negotiated settlement of their conflict with the government of Israel. But for now I want to share something that mulched up out of my thoughts, out of something Juan Cole wrote, in the context of Memorial Day.

I title this post “The First Casualty,” after the aphorism of Aeshylus, “In war, truth is the first casualty,” because of something Juan Cole wrote this morning in his analysis of the UN Security Council condemnation of the IDF raid. In particular, he wondered about the behavior of the commandos, “laying down suppressive fire” before boarding.

It is unclear why the commandos behaved in this way with regard to the Mavi Marmarain the first place, but it is possible that they believed their own propaganda. The Turkish aid ships were supported by a Muslim fundamentalist charity in Turkey, IHH, that has been accused of being sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Hamas, and in Israeli eyes that orientation would make them terrorists. So perhaps the commandos assumed they were boarding a ship full of Hamas operatives. In reality, it was just idealistic humanitarians. But even they could be provoked to active resistance if they thought they were about to be shot down. [emphasis added]

If truth is the first casualty of the lies governments tell their people, then their soldiers are the first to witness it. It is fitting to call to into public discourse the “moral wounds” of soldiers. This is especially salient to me on Memorial Day, having heard the firsthand accounts of the anguish of our own soldiers occupying Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indeed, this experience can be so universal, that as with the Palestinian-Israeli group Combatants for Peace, former enemies may lay down their arms and find common ground. I was fortunate to witness this firsthand when September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows sponsored a visit by Yaniv Reshef and Bassam Aramin to my class. Those who would choose to demonize the Palestinians should watch this video of that visit to hear Aramin talk about how while in an Israeli prison, he stumbled onto a movie about the Holocaust. This caused him to have greater compassion for Israelis and to resist his imprisonment. Those who would call young soldiers of the IDF monsters should hear Reshef, the gentle farmer, who lives in Siderot, within reach of rockets from Gaza. This does not dissuade him from pursuing a course for peace. It humanizes him to hear his amusing story about an IDF raid on a would-be munitions cache, in reality a building where rabbits were raised for food. (Rabbits not being kosher, he never heard of such a thing.)

I’m not saying that there aren’t cruel people in the world who relish nothing more than getting into some big boots and behind a weapon. I’m not even denying there might be a greater proportion of these in an elite commando unit. I am saying we need unequivocally to accept the humanity of combatants and explore the extent to which they, too may be used by their own governments. Like Colonel Ann Wright (ret), of Veterans for Peace, they may well surprise us.

Do you see it?

xynephionnoir:

gilbertmusings:

Check your eyes (via freestylee)