Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Was in central London yesterday so popped into The F. Word. It's a tiny little gallery, one room really, so took all of about twenty minutes to work my way around. What it is is a collection of photographs of people. Next to the portraits are a bit of text about the event in their lives about which they've either seeked for forgiveness or given it, then a bit in their own words. There's a wide range, Archbishop Desmond Tutu about the importance of forgiveness so that South Africa could move on after Apartheid, Brighton Bomber Pat McGee and the daughter of one of his victims, An Israeli and a Jew who are both members of a cross-border group for people who have lost family members, a couple of murderers, the parents of one of the Alder Hay children, Victoria Climbie's parents. Displayed on a plain white wall these testements are often shocking in their simplicity, and the oft repeated message is, the second victim of an act of violence is the person who surrenders to hate.
What was odd though, and made me email the people behind the exhibition to ask, is that one of the photos, in amongst the rest, apparently given no special position, is of the wife of murdered reporter Daniel Pearl. Marianne hasn't forgiven his murderers, quite the opposite. She wrote to the Pakistani government asking for the death penalty for his killers and when one of them asked to see her she refused. So quite what her portrait was doing in an exhibition on forgiveness I'm not sure. We'll have to see what they say.
UPDATE: (28/01) According to an email I received today, the above item was included because it's intended that the exhibition be about all apsects of forgiveness, including Not forgiving.
What was odd though, and made me email the people behind the exhibition to ask, is that one of the photos, in amongst the rest, apparently given no special position, is of the wife of murdered reporter Daniel Pearl. Marianne hasn't forgiven his murderers, quite the opposite. She wrote to the Pakistani government asking for the death penalty for his killers and when one of them asked to see her she refused. So quite what her portrait was doing in an exhibition on forgiveness I'm not sure. We'll have to see what they say.
UPDATE: (28/01) According to an email I received today, the above item was included because it's intended that the exhibition be about all apsects of forgiveness, including Not forgiving.
