English Teachers Are Happy To Share

English Teachers Are Happy To Share

Random Thoughts by Pauline

December 28 2013, Saturday

Seven Billion Others Project

Today I want to recommend a project that opens my eyes and touches my heart. It reminds me that this Earth of ours is really big and that there are more than 7 billion other people inhabiting the Earth. They speak different languages and hold different beliefs but we all share the same fear and harbor the same hopes.


As I am writing, the world population stands at 7,198,881,680 and is fast growing. 


It is the 7 billion Others project (previously known as 6 billion Others Project). In 2003, after The Earth seen from the Sky, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the famous French photographer together with Sybille d’Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire, launched the 7 billion Others project. A total of 20 directors filmed 6,000 interviews in 84 countries. The Project is one gigantic collage of portraits of humanity.


The interviewees can be a Brazilian fisherman, a Chinese shopkeeper, a German performer or an Afghan farmer. They were all posed with the same questions about their fears, dreams, ordeals and hopes. There were 45 questions in total: What have you learnt from your parents? What do you want to pass on to your children? What does love mean to you?


Here are the words of Yann Arthus-Bertrand explaining why this Project is important to him and to us:


There are more than seven billion of us on Earth, and there will be no sustainable development if we cannot manage to live together. That is why 7 billion Others is so important to me. I believe in it because it concerns all of us and because it encourages us to take action. I hope that each one of us will want to reach out and make these encounters, to listen to other people and to contribute to the life of 7 billion Others by adding our own experiences and expressing our desire to live together.

We can view 7 billion Others project online. Click on the following link to listen to people from some remote corners of the world talking about family.