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.
