Our thoughts go out to his family, their loss is utterly incomprehensible.
Rest in peace my friend, we will miss you for the rest of our lives.
With love,
– The Empty Room
Sunday 25 March 2012
In Memorandum
Last week, we suffered a great tragedy; our dear friend and colleague, Sarmad Iskandar, passed away suddenly on Friday March 16th 2012. Sarmad will be greatly missed by all of us, he was an incredibly talented Actor and Musician, and he was our friend.
Our thoughts go out to his family, their loss is utterly incomprehensible.
Rest in peace my friend, we will miss you for the rest of our lives.
With love,
– The Empty Room
Our thoughts go out to his family, their loss is utterly incomprehensible.
Rest in peace my friend, we will miss you for the rest of our lives.
With love,
– The Empty Room
Thursday 15 March 2012
A response to Kony 2012
In the wake of what has been one of the most successful viral campaigns in history, and its ensuing criticism, I would like to offer my response.
While I still believe that awareness is hugely important when it comes to human rights issues, I do not believe we benefit from the solutions proffered by movements such as Kony 2012. It is not, as with many things, a case of catch the bad guy. This is far too simplistic an approach. I defy any advocate of military action who thinks that more violence will serve us as a people. Violence begets more violence, and we should not stand for it.
The biggest obstacle we face when campaigning against human trafficking and modern day slavery – including the abduction of children to be used as soldiers – is the fact that we, as a society, feed the demand for such actions. It is our commercialism, our consumerism, and our voracious appetite for over-sexualized and objectified women that feeds this demand. The fuel in our cars, the rare metals in our consumer electronics and the modern, unrealistic conceptions of beauty that we buy into day after day are the things that cause these wars over oil and precious natural resources, and force women to be exploited and paraded around as commodities in front of a rabble of willing customers.
Yes, there are a number of people who profit from this. They are the hungry dogs salivating before a juicy bone – but it is us who are the ones wielding that bone.
This is what we need to spread awareness about: not just the fact that this is happening at all, but the fact that we are the ones causing the demand for it. Let the dogs go hungry I say.
– The Empty Room
While I still believe that awareness is hugely important when it comes to human rights issues, I do not believe we benefit from the solutions proffered by movements such as Kony 2012. It is not, as with many things, a case of catch the bad guy. This is far too simplistic an approach. I defy any advocate of military action who thinks that more violence will serve us as a people. Violence begets more violence, and we should not stand for it.
The biggest obstacle we face when campaigning against human trafficking and modern day slavery – including the abduction of children to be used as soldiers – is the fact that we, as a society, feed the demand for such actions. It is our commercialism, our consumerism, and our voracious appetite for over-sexualized and objectified women that feeds this demand. The fuel in our cars, the rare metals in our consumer electronics and the modern, unrealistic conceptions of beauty that we buy into day after day are the things that cause these wars over oil and precious natural resources, and force women to be exploited and paraded around as commodities in front of a rabble of willing customers.
Yes, there are a number of people who profit from this. They are the hungry dogs salivating before a juicy bone – but it is us who are the ones wielding that bone.
This is what we need to spread awareness about: not just the fact that this is happening at all, but the fact that we are the ones causing the demand for it. Let the dogs go hungry I say.
– The Empty Room
Tuesday 13 March 2012
5% in 48 hours!
Thank you so much for all your support so far, we have reached 5% of our goal in just 48 hours! Please keep spreading, emailing, posting the video wherever you can, we cannot do this without you. Keep checking back for more perks – some awesome ones to be released soon!
Love to all,
– The Empty Room
Love to all,
– The Empty Room
Monday 12 March 2012
Born Free* – The Movement Has Launched
Slavery did not die with abolition, there are more slaves today than any other time in history – and it's even happening right here in Canada.
Slavery is here. It is right in your back-yard. It is there in your grocery store and your laundrette. It is in the wiring of your laptop, your smart-phone and your portable ultra-sleek tablet computer. It's in every newspaper, trash can, and in every cup of designer coffee. An estimated 27,000,000 people worldwide are victims of modern day slavery. It's time we woke up and made a change.
This project is about doing just that.
Born Free* is a collective of performing artists trying to spread awareness about the issue of modern day slavery. Using the tools of our trade – Music, Theatre, Dance, Spoken Word – we are creating a multi-disciplinary performance piece that tells the stories of those affected by this industry, how this issue impacts us in the 'first world', and why it is still happening so long after it was supposedly abolished two centuries ago.
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