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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| January 19, 2004 |
What on Earth is Happening Now?
- Destruction of a Planet – Kazuma Momoi |
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| Mr. Kazuma Momoi offers his theories on the link between environmental destruction and conflict |
Mr. Kazuma Momoi is a photojournalist from Japan who has traveled all around the world to preserve in pictures evidence of environmental damage and acts of violence committed by human beings. The Peace Boat invited him to join the 44th voyage from Mumbai, India, to Mombasa, Kenya.
In his first lecture onboard, "What on the Earth is Happening Now? - Progressive Destruction of the World," he presented a slideshow of his powerful images coupled with majestic music in a pitch-black room. Mr Momoi believes that combining his visuals with emotion-stirring music helps stimulate all our five senses, which we do not normally use to the fullest in our daily lives. There is no doubt that we benefit from advanced technology today, but in return for convenience, we have allowed many of our innate senses and abilities to become numbed. Mr. Momoi thinks that now is the time to reawaken our inherent ability for imagination, and to allow pictures to become poetry in the sense that we can hear their voice and listen to their stories.
Mr. Momoi holds the theory that environmental damage is linked with conflicts and wars in the world, which result from the growth of hatred and ignorance. Deforestation leads to a depletion of water reserves, the loss of natural resourses, and ultimately hunger and poverty. As an example, he mentioned the outbreak of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, which was triggered by the long-lived ethnic conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis. Over the three month period before the cease-fire, some 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were murdered by the hands of radical Hutus, the majority group in the country. Mr. Momoi said that deforestation and destruction of the environment that proceeded the rise of the ethnic clash was definitely a causal factor of the violence that cannot be ignored.
Destruction of the environment is a visible indicator of what is happening in our collective psyche - a growing indifference for nature. Mr. Momoi pointed out that we have the tendency to believe that human beings are the center of the world, and therefore leading to exploitation of resources, the destruction of the earth and the rise of violence. Mr Momoi reminded us that our power of imagination is essential for us to respect and live in harmony with nature, and ultimately to promote peace on the earth.
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