Recently I came across the Intended Consequences project; my latest conundrum. Intended Consequences is a book and now a gallery exhibit portraying Rwandan women who were raped during the genocide of 1994. It's a series of portraits of mother and child, captioned with a description of the rape and often the mother's feelings toward the child. The dilemma for me is in determining whether this project is a sincere attempt to better the lives of women and children in Rwanda, or an exploitative project designed to bulk up a short list of aide organizations at the expense of these children.
The issue of sex crimes is very sensitive especially when children are involved. Typically it is unethical for journalists to photograph victims of sexual violence or even describe in much detail these types of crimes. There is certainly a 3rd world, African aspect of this situation that somehow makes it acceptable to do this sort of thing with these children in Rwanda. Let's not forget that these are just young children, who are well documented in this project as being unwanted and unloved. Does it make sense for a mother quoted as saying, "I don't love this child," to give proper consent for that same child? Wronging Rights has a great "take" for the argument that this project is not looking out for the best interest of these children.
But it is always my instinct to side with projects like this. Maybe it's just my bleeding heart, but I live for stuff like this. I'm in North Carolina right now, what do I know about rape victims in Rwanda unless somebody does something like this. There are reports that similar systematic rape is currently taking place in Darfur. What are we doing to stop this? The truth is that rape is quite common whenever a military force invades an enemy territory. The only way to fight this fact is to bring the issue to the front of conversation. It must have been a devastating blow to the moral of our US troops in Vietnam when images of child rape victims were published in the media, but I have to believe that this type of exposure now serves as an effective deterrent for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If anyone is doing something to prevent large scale rape, it has to be Jonathan Trogovnik, the creator or Intended Consequences.
But above all, there is something about this whole project that is very raw. I almost wish that the intent of the book and the gallery wasn't to raise money for any kind of cause, but just to shed light on this issue. These are such beautiful women and children, stained with an incredibly horrific past. I want to hear them. America gave Rwanda a large collective cold shoulder back in 1994, and the worst thing we could do now is have similar attitude once again. I'm not entirely comfortable with Intended Consequences, but I am infinitely more uncomfortable turning my back on a group of people unhappy about their circumstances.
