Darfur Event with Mia Farrow Scheduled in Second Life for January 9.

As UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Ms Farrow will be in-world at the Infinite Mind virtual broadcast center in Second Life to discuss and answer questions about the worsening situation in Darfur and Chad.   She has just returned from her fourth visit to the region and will be returning there again in February. 

The mixed-reality event is scheduled for 11:00 - 12:00 noon (SLT)/2:00 -3:00 p.m. EST January 9, 2007.  It will also be simulcast to two other regions in Second Life:  Camp Darfur and Global Kids on the SL Teen Grid.

This is a re-schedule of an event, sponsored by the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocast Museum, that was to take place in early December, however a real world fire in the building housing the Infinite Mind studios prevented it from happening.

To accompany the radio discussion and interview, Lichtenstein Creative Media, producers of the Infinite Mind radio show, created a visual exhibit on the Infinite Mind sim that replicates the photography exhibit, Our Walls Bear Witness: Darfur  – Who Will Survive Today? The original exhibit was projected onto the walls of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. last November during the Thanksgiving holiday.  However virtual the exhibit may be, it is powerful, moving and an excellent example of  media in Second Life.  See my earlier post about this Second Life exhibit space.

According to the press release Bill Lichtenstein, president of Lichtenstein Creative Media sent over today there will be several others speaking at the event:

John Heffernan, who has traveled extensively throughout Sudan and the region, coauthored the 2006 report “Darfur: Assault on Survival” for Physicians for Human Rights,  and serves as Director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative for the United States Holocaust  Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience;   

Ron Haviv, the award-winning photojournalist, whose images of Darfur are part of the virtual  event;   

Ronan Farrow, who has served as a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth in Sudan, as a  representative of the Genocide Intervention Network, and has written extensively about the  situation in Darfur; and 

Bill Lichtenstein, president of Lichtenstein Creative Media, and Senior Executive Producer of  the national, weekly public radio series The Infinite Mind, who will moderate.

To quote from Bill's email:

The event comes at an especially critical time, as the situation in Darfur continues to worsen dramatically in recent days. Reuters reports that as the conflict enters its fourth year, the fighting, which has driven 2.5 million Darfuris from their homes and killed an estimated 200,000, but was mainly concentrated in remote villages, now engulfs the main towns.  As a result, the world's largest humanitarian operation in Sudan's remote west, involving 14,000 Humanitarian Aid workers, is becoming increasingly threatened. 

The event is free and open to the public and press.  The Infinite Mind sim is located here.

If you cannot attend the live in-world event, don’t miss the chance to see the exhibit.  It will be open in Second Life until the 31st of January, 2007.

January 2, 2007