Actress and activist Mia Farrow will discuss and answer questions about the worsening situation in Darfur and neighboring Chad at a live, virtual 3-D event in the on-line community Second Life. The landmark program will be open to the press and the public without charge, on Tuesday, January 9, 2007, from 2 PM to 3 PM (Eastern Time)/ 11 AM to 12 Noon (Second Life Time).
Also speaking about the Darfur crisis at the event in Second Life will be:
John Heffernan, who has traveled extensively throughout Sudan and the region, co-authored the 2006 report "Darfur: Assault on Survival" for Physicians for Human Rights, and serves as Director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience, the sponsor of the program;
Ron Haviv, the award-winning photojournalist, whose images of Darfur are part of the virtual event;
Ronan Farrow, who has served as a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth in Sudan, as a representative of the Genocide Intervention Network, and has written extensively about the situation in Darfur; and
Bill Lichtenstein, president of Lichtenstein Creative Media, and Senior Executive Producer of the national, weekly public radio series The Infinite Mind, who will moderate.
The event will take place at a virtual replica of "Our Walls Bear Witness - Darfur: Who Will Survive Today?" the powerful, outdoor photography exhibition highlighting images of the Darfur crisis by leading photojournalists that were projected onto the exterior of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC during Thanksgiving Week 2006. The virtual event in Second Life will allow visitors from around the world to experience the traveling photography exhibit with its moving, thought-provoking photos, as well as to view video of the real life outdoor installation at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The event comes at an especially critical time, as the situation in Darfur continues to worsen dramatically in recent days. Reuters reports that as the conflict enters its fourth year, the fighting, which has driven 2.5 million Darfuris from their homes and killed an estimated 200,000, but was mainly concentrated in remote villages, now engulfs the main towns. As a result, the world's largest humanitarian operation in Sudan's remote west, involving 14,000 humanitarian aid workers, is becoming increasingly threatened.
Mia Farrow just returned from Chad, following three earlier trips to Darfur. "We're seeing atrocities of an indescribable kind . . . [with people] clustered under trees, dazed and terrified," Ms. Farrow told the Associated Press. "The situation continues to deteriorate, and ending this human catastrophe will require the engagement of citizens from all walks of life. Activism begins with education, and I am proud to be working with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in calling attention to genocide unfolding on our watch," said Ms. Farrow, who will be returning to the region in February 2007.
The event in Second Life is being held at The Infinite Mind virtual broadcast center, and will be simultaneously broadcast in two other locations in Second Life: Camp Darfur, and Global Kids, on the Second Life teen grid.
The virtual "Our Walls Bear Witness - Darfur: Who Will Survive Today?" photography exhibit will be open in Second Life until January 31, 2007.
I'll try to make it.