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Excerpt from 'Crossing The Lines'
I realised a long time ago that it is not enough to produce art, film, and other media in the hope it will create pressure on governments to bring about change. To make a provable
difference it is necessary to be like an NGO and make a difference on the ground. I cross paths with many wonderfully committed people working for organisations like Medicines Sans Frontiers, Oxfam, and Human Rights Watch. All of them believe there needs to be something along the lines of Artists Without Borders. These NGO organisations help to repair the wounds made to communities by war, but the arts can help to bring positive social change and by promoting humanist values prevent it happening again.
When I was in Baghdad prior to the Bush Invasion I was staying at a hotel occupied by a lot of idealistic young people who had come from around the world to act as human shields. They were prepared to put themselves in the way of US bombs and hopefully deterring the US planes from targeting schools and hospitals and essential services. As Bush released his “Shock and Awe”, while boasting that he would bomb Iraq back into the stone age, many of these young people came to me terrified about the decision they had made. It was too late to tell them to simply “go home” so I said “Use this fear as a tool to help you know yourself better and what you truly believe in and stand for. Facing something like this is the quickest way to find out who you are.” Our Yellow House in Jalalabad is an excellent and successful model for what can be achieved when people trained in creativity share their skills in a war zone. The teaching of communication, media, and creative skills in places where there are no art or film schools allows a force of builders to be balanced against the negative impact of the armies of destroyers. Trillions have been spent in Afghanistan training young men to use guns but very little to use communication tools like cameras, laptops, theatre pens and brushes. - George Gittoes, February 2019
When I was in Baghdad prior to the Bush Invasion I was staying at a hotel occupied by a lot of idealistic young people who had come from around the world to act as human shields. They were prepared to put themselves in the way of US bombs and hopefully deterring the US planes from targeting schools and hospitals and essential services. As Bush released his “Shock and Awe”, while boasting that he would bomb Iraq back into the stone age, many of these young people came to me terrified about the decision they had made. It was too late to tell them to simply “go home” so I said “Use this fear as a tool to help you know yourself better and what you truly believe in and stand for. Facing something like this is the quickest way to find out who you are.” Our Yellow House in Jalalabad is an excellent and successful model for what can be achieved when people trained in creativity share their skills in a war zone. The teaching of communication, media, and creative skills in places where there are no art or film schools allows a force of builders to be balanced against the negative impact of the armies of destroyers. Trillions have been spent in Afghanistan training young men to use guns but very little to use communication tools like cameras, laptops, theatre pens and brushes. - George Gittoes, February 2019
