What can I say to make you understand?

I think this book is very important.

I read it at a time when Web2.0 conversations were starting to bug me -  because they seem to look at what's happening now as if there was no past beyond (before) Web1.0. As if Web2.0 was in isolation from history, future, philosophy and context.

I was making sure that my reading went beyond those conversations.

The book "Intimate Enemy: Images and Voices of the Rwandan Genocide" is a testimony and photography from Rwandas survivors. "What can I say to make you understand?" comes from one of the génocidaires interviewed about his actions and motives.

The author/photographer writes:

“I believe that ... I am responsible for portraying people without emphasizing my own preconceptions. I want something of each person to come through in the image, to be experienced emotionally and retinally… by closing the space between ourselves and the ‘other’, we can perhaps begin to ask more critical questions ..."

As the author says, by  reducing people to the "other" it  conveniently absolves us of complicity in or responsibility for their actions.

It's a long stretch putting Web2.0 and the Rwandan Genocide in the same blog post, but I have shadows of thoughts that tell me they are connected. And I'm reminded of Shit happens:

Web2.0 is talked about as if it were one big social, collaborative, networking family. But perhaps it's really about providing a space for all "others" who are, actually, not connected.

I am sometimes overwhelmed by the complexity and the seriousness of it all.  And distanced when the conversation is reduced to "Web2.0". There are lives, a future, and changing contexts at stake. And now, more than ever, it seems important to get it right.

Comments

[Steve Bridger]

Thank you for sharing this, Bev. I'm a glass-is-half-full kind of chap... and this quote from an interview with Michael Wesch (he of those videos) sums it all up for me:

"So if there is a global village, it is not a very equitable one, and if there is a tragedy of our times, it may be that we are all interconnected but we fail to see it and take care of our relationships with others. For me, the ultimate promise of digital technology is that it might enable us to truly see one another once again and all the ways we are interconnected. It might help us create a truly global view that can spark the kind of empathy we need to create a better world for all of humankind."

Steve

[Bev Trayner]

Thank YOU Steve. I hadn't read that interview and am very happy that I now have.