thursday lunchtime is perhaps an odd time for a demonstration, but this was no usual demonstration. make poverty history was a chance to hear one of the great figures of the last century, nelson mandela, announce the major campaign for this century, announcing "in this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains.
They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free." and he ended on a rousing note, calling on "all humanity now to rise up. make poverty history in 2005. Make history in 2005.
then we can all stand with our heads held high."
i arrived rather late to find the square already packed with over 20,000 people. as someone who doesn't like to shoot with long lenses, the formal part of the event wasn't too productive for me, but i did manage to get some pictures of the speakers - oxfam's adrian lovett, an impassioned kumi naidoo from south africa, secretary general and chief executive officer of civicus, the world alliance of citizen participation, bob geldorff and, the man we had all come to see and hear, nelson mandela.
looking frail, walking slowly with the aid of a stick, mandela still showed
the power to electrify an audience when he started to speak. after his address,
he presented the white armband he was wearing, a symbol of the 'global campaign
for action against poverty' of which 'make poverty history' is a part, to
schoolchildren from scotland. they will take it on to the the gleaneagles
g8 meeting in july, along with millions of other white
bands from around the world. as on earlier occasions, i was impressed by
the dignity and humanity of the man, who geldorff announced as "the
president of the world."
more pictures
after mandela left, there was an emptiness in the square despite the crowd, and we wandered around unsure what to do. we had all been touched by history and the man. i walked around photographing some of the supporters (and a surreal action-aid interview with a cut-out of mandela). then i found a samba band i recognised playing on the steps to st martin's in the fields, and went over to photograph them, before they went with people and planet demonstrators down towards the treasury in whitehall to continue their protest.
part of the campaign by this student group asks for urgent action over aids, aiming to increase the number of people on treatment from 0.6 million to 3 million in 2005. they are also promoting feb 14 as 'fair trade love day', with a service to deliver your fair trade valentine message along with a fairly traded 'divine' chocolate heart, bar or cake.
fair trade - trade justice was the first of three steps mandela called
for. the second was "an end to the debt crisis for the poorest
countries. The third is to deliver much more aid and make sure it is of
the highest quality."
more pictures
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some of my work gets put into nice organised websites.
this isn't meant to be like that, but you can see some of the rest at
london pictures
londons industrial history
and you can read what I think about photography at
some of my work gets put into nice organised websites.
this isn't meant to be like that, but you can see some of the rest at
london pictures
londons industrial history
and you can read what I think about photography at