Attending a screening yesterday of videos created by the indigenous people of Mexico, it became clear what an important role media has in the right hands. The Chiapas Media Project is a nonprofit organization created in order to provide a voice to the world about the people which directly are affected by the world's actions. From videos shot in Chiapas concerning women's empowerment, to documentaries about water accessibility (something we never question in our own comfortable and excessively used settings), to coverage of Guerrero, Mexico, which has become the largest exporter of heroin to the united states, and how their militarized state has deeply threatened the human rights of women and poor natives in general, the videos provided by the CMP has allowed a peek into a world we would never have exposure to.
The importance of this project, and other similar acts is the exposure provided to the outside world. Hearing about potential troubles withNAFTA, FTAA, and CAFTA is great for informative purposes (and when it is only through heavily filtered corporate media sources we learn less and less), but to see the actual effects and the victims of the global policies is a different situation. Through the videos of the CMP, we are offered a glimpse at the suffering and vicitimization of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, who are left in the shadows of the empire which is america and neoliberalism.
The Zapatista movement in 1994 utilized the internet, media, and technology to create a force unmatched by those without severe military power. They acted (and continue to influence others who do the same) as a model of how to create a movement which extends beyond the small towns and villages in the rural hills of Mexico. They reached out across the globe and used the tools of globalization for good, as opposed for the greedy and ruthless methods they are designed for. By using those tools against the machine which created them, it created a new alternative for those who are seldom heard, for those whose backs are stepped on to support our levels of comfort and "safety".
The Chiapas Media Project should be seen as a model for providing a voice to those who do not know they have the option of speaking out. Those who have access to this technology, which we take for granted all too often, should be using it to allow those who do not have access to tell their story, to have a voice. Empowerment of the oppressed, exposure to actual crisis, identification of issues beyond a political email alert or short corporate media blurb, this is a direction worth traveling. Even if we cannot leave our countries, or even our towns, everywhere are the poor, the victims of capitalism, those at the bottom rung of our societal ladder. Providing sources of empowerment to all people should be a goal for all of us. The priviledged life we lead comes at the cost of others. To live without recognizing those is to live blindly.
The Chiapas Media Project is "a bi-national partnership that provides tools and training so that marginalized indigenous communities can establish their own information outlets. The project provides video cameras, editing equipment, computers and appropriate training so that communities in Chiapas can tell their own stories in their own words." They can be reached at http://www.chiapasmediaproject.org
Posted by craig at February 26, 2005 12:17 PM