This is the picture I made after my friend from Baghdad, Mohammed, got given
a death threat and his colleague was murdered. I did not know what to do. I
went and bought a map of Iraq and found where he was and where he was going.
Baghdad to Sulamaniyah in the North. He had asked me to help him in any way
I could. It turned out that a boy who I do kung fu with's father is the
governer of Sulaminyah. I asked him to help. The father took Mohammed in for
a few days, but there was only so much he could do.
In the middle of my picture I stuck Orpheus and Eurydice, the moment she was
dragged back to the Underworld. I have the same terrible sadness when I
think of Mohammed and the limits of what I can do for him and all the others
who really live in terror. The photo is Mohammed and me in the sea in
Barcelona, the weekend we met. It was only when I got there that I realised
it was the first time he had seen the sea. It was cold in March but we ran
in anyway. He shouted out 'this is freedom!' and 'I love life.' He swam for
ages and then sat on the sand looking out at the endless water. When I said
goodbye and walked across Plaza Catalunya I had tears running down my face.
When we meet people and make friends with them immediately we care, these
conflicts do not seem so distant then. When we parted Mohammed gave me an
Iraqi banknote and wrote on it 'Do not forget Iraq.' I won't. More than that
I want to try to change things for the better.Chloe Davies, 27 yrs, UK

This image has been stuck in my head for years. A mother feeds her baby with her last milk in a field of dead bodies, some of the 800.000 people that died in 1994 in Rwanda, a country I love with everything I have.This symbolises survival in the extreme, trying to stretch death as long as possible, holding on to the little hope there may be.

These terrible events can be prevented, you can see them comming from miles. That it wasn't stoped before it started is a diverent story.

Terrorist attacts are something different, all of a sudden it's there. It didn't build up slowly, but "bang" there it is, someone decided you should die.

When a mother can keep up this long caring and having hope, I think we can as well. Extending this caring, hope and love might spread and change the negative into the positive. Something I still beleve in. In the end it all starts with yourself.Peace!

posted by Puddlepuff