Speak Truth to Power PBS Home Video

Speak Truth to Power is a powerful mix of poetry, music and documentary footage dedicated to human rights advocates from more than 40 countries. Taping the show before a distinguished audience at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, the all-star cast creates a unique special that includes on-location footage from India and Guatemala, and interviews with leading activists including Oscar Arias, Sister Helen Prejean and Harry Wu. Musical offerings include appearances by singer-songwriter Jackson Browne and South African jazz master Hugh Maskela. The program, part of an initiative to draw attention to the ongoing battle for human rights, features the premiere of a new work, "Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark," by poet, play write and activist Ariel Dorfman.

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, “In 1981 I started working at Amnesty International where I learned about men and women around the world who are imprisoned because of their beliefs. . . I was so inspired that it directed my life.” This is a celebration of defenders from 40 countries and 5 continents. Their stories are documented in the book, Speak Truth to Power. It is not about the repression, it is about the resilience. These are the voices that are crying out from the wilderness. These people are the Martin Luther King’s of their country. They have long records of accomplishments. Extra ordinary feats of bravery. When we begin to connect with people globally, we begin to see connections that you didn't see before. And it builds an energy. Singer song-writer Jackson Browne: I am a patriot and I love my country. I want to be with my family. The people who understand me. I've got no where else to go. I ain 't a capitalist, communist, socialist, imperialist, democrat, republican. I belong to one party and it is freedom. I am a patriot. President Clinton: For freedom to prevail we must do more than open markets and hook them up to CNN. Real change depends on real people. When the danger of persecution is real. Men and women like those we honor tonight. If you believe that every person matters. What human rights workers do everywhere is worth doing. Let us never develop the sense of futility. The people we honor tonight proves Martin Luther King adage “The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice. “ Gabor Gombosh. I am from Hungary. I visited an institution. A man was held in a cage all day. Young man in a cage with severe mental retardation. I asked them Why do you keep this person in this cage? The phone rang. The man said I know who you are . I know your name. I know where you live. I know your name Marina. I’m going to kill you. . . . I started the first domestic violence hotline in Russia in 1993 almost by accident. When a button fell off her friend's husband’s suit, he took off his shoe and hit her in the face. She asked why don’t you just leave him? Where would I go, Marina? I depend upon him completely. I started thinking. I should help her. There was nobody to help her. So I started a hot line. And in 1997 we started a new program training lawyers in domestic abuse cases. Doan Viet Hoat spent 20 years in Vietnamese prison. As I had no books, I had to use my mind. I managed to secretly write a report about the conditions in the camp. If I kept silent in prison my captures would have won. If we don’t do this, who will. My name is Rana Husseini. I am a journalist. In the name of honor. Here in Jordan. She went to interview the victim's two uncles. She was killed because was raped by her brother. Why would she seduce her own brother? She had tarnished the family image. Blood cleanses honor. The only way to rectify. The average term served for honor killings is only 7-1/2 months. This is what they know. They know what it is to wait in the dark for torture. . . .to wait in dark for the truth. This is what they fear. What they really fear is that nobody cares. That people watch TV and say these are not their problems. They have dinner. The people go to sleep. One night when I escaped Uganda I found myself in a police cell in Kenya. I was naked and woke up in water. I stayed in that water for one month. They could freeze the water so you shivered uncontrollably and make it so hot that it felt like you were suffocating. . . He lied about the treatment of forest workers in Kenya. He lies all the time. We should have thrown him off the roof. My name Dianna Orteze. I want to be free of these memories I came to the western highlands of Guatemala to teach people to read and write. But the Dianna I just descried seized to exist on November 2, 1989. I have memories of the torture. Even now at this moment I can sense the presence of my torturers. That policeman raped me again. I was lowered into a pit with bodies—children, men, women—some decapitated. Caked with blood some were alive and were weeping. The men who tortured me were never brought to justice. The American who was in charged of my torturers was never brought to justice. Now I know what few U. S. citizens know. I know my own government actively eschewed my case because it caused political problems for them. A scene from March 27, 1998. I know what it is to wait in the dark for torture . . to wait in the dark for truth. My torturers told me that if I survived no one would believe me and no one would care. Dianna Orteze believes this event (Speak Truth to Power) shows that people do care. . . .that there are people who care about human rights violations around the world. . . and not sit back and have an attitude of indifference. Bruce Harris. Guatemala. What we are trying to do give children back their childhood. We started by giving them food and shelter. But that was naive. A priest told him that when I feed the poor they call me a hero, but when I ask why people are hungry they call me a Communist. It is a noble task to feed the hungry. But as an agency we have matured. So we began pushing for a investigation why police were killing street children. We are challenging the status quo. . .challenge the assumption that if the policeman had a gun he could get away with murder, literally. Soon after we started, we began getting phone calls to the crisis center which were threats. . . . The police came and took away all the bullets (evidence). It shows how naive we were. Guatemala has 9 million people and just came out of 36 years of civil war. 6,000 children are living on the streets of Guatemala City and no one seems to give a damn. Wendy was hit by another street person because she was using crack. Crack and heroin are abundant on the street. They have no future. Where the family ends, the street begins. This is our crisis center. The children we bring off the street stay with us for two to four months. When Bruce Harris comes here he always goes to the graveyard so kids that are no longer with us are not forgotten. This is the only program in the agency that has a budget line item for a graveyard. These are all kids we know. And it makes me mad. . . Bruce Harris took Jonathan to see the White House. During testimony Bruce Harris said: Have you seen a 14 or 15 year old child with his eyes gouged out. Bodies of children who have been kicked to death by the police with complicity by U.S. government. And what do we do? We turn our backs on them. They die because of our indifference. Three billion children live in poverty. We consume twenty-three trillion dollars worth of goods. Yet 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 dollar a day per year. They fear that nothing is going to change. Dogma Achoiya a nun who started life as a lawyer. It is injustice that motivates us. When they run into a woman otherwise insignificant to them and dresses monk like who shouts at them, they are paralyzed. One time we filed a habeas corpus for a man who had disappeared for 20 days. The authorities denied they had them. We knew he was in the state hospital. During a change in shifts I slipped in. Opened the door violently. And yelled at the federal judicial police and told them to leave immediately. I was a lawyer and had to talk to him. They didn't know how to react so they left. She had two minutes . . enough time to explain who she was and got his signature to prove he was there. My name is Desmond Tuto. I did what I had to do. Anything else would have tasted like ashes. It would have been living a lie. God took me by the scruff of the neck. My god says get up and dusts me off to try again. My name is Kashwa. I spent time in a village in Burma. I walked to another village and began making interviews. I made the decision to begin working for these people. In the beginning I had no pen or paper, but I was committed to working on testimonies. We were very poor. There was a time I wanted to shoot myself. In the rainy season it was tough. It was very cold in the hills. Leeches had fallen from the trees and sucked our blood. I can’t quit. If I walk away who will do this work. Courage. No. The first time Harry Wu was in prison, he said I cried every day. After two years there were no more tears. Life only belongs to you once. No I want to see Lau Gai a word in every dictionary. Lau means labor. Gai means reform. We must expose the word Lau Gai. How many victims are there. I want people to be aware of the products made in China by prison labor. . .toys, footballs, surgical gloves, etc. Today people in China can choose their shampoo, but can not say what they think. Harry Wu survived two decades in Chinese labor camps. During the day and night during those 19 years, I totally turned myself from a human being into a beast. They almost starved me to death. My weight dropped to 80 pounds. For months I can’t stand on my own feet. We are forced to labor seven days a week. We find rats in the field to eat. Don’t think about human dignity. Don’t think about your rights. Don't think about your freedom. Don't think about love. Don't think about your family. I think this is how I survived. We then saw scenes of executions in Chengdu, China 1989 My name is Kairlarsh Satyarthi. When I was 5 or 6 years old, the very first day I went to school, I noticed a cobbler and his son cleaning and polishing shoes of children. He asked why is a child my age polishing shoes? Why am I going to school? And he is not going to school? And I went to the cobbler and asked why isn't he going to school. He said I am untouchable and we are born to work. How does it come from. “It made me a little bit of rebellion.” I couldn't understand who should I ask. Nobody had a good answer. And now I’m dong something about this. . . Kidnapped children made into slaves in carpet factories. Scenes were shown of rescuing children from carpet factory. “You'll be going home now.” They have "no believe" in other people. Do you understand what is going on? See your parents came to us and told us you had been working here for two, three years. We are free. We are free. We are free. We are free. He brought one child to America. The child said I really want to liberate other children. India has16 million children in full time jobs. Ten million children in slave labor. There are people who are fighting and will eventually win the battle. Bobby Muller said one of things that pissed me off was the romanticizing treatment of his work in the media. Muller won a Nobel Prize for working on landmines. People think because there is an international treaty that it is over. We live a life that is largely insulated from the poverty of the world. Making us into heroes is bull shit. We must say that this kind of thing must be condemned. The world community has to say that kind of thing cannot be allowed. Marian Wright. Edelman. God has blessed us with more riches, a nine trillion dollar economy. Here we have poverty killing children. If we do not save our children, we are not going to save ourselves. There is a point in life where you have to change things. This is not what life is about. You have to change things. If that means dying that is fine. We must open envelope of our souls My name is Mohammed Yunis. We provide access to credit for the poor. "They" say development involves multimillion dollar loans for enormous infrastructure. But I work with real people, in the real world. The night before she receives her $35 from the bank she is restless and cannot sleep. She won’t believe she can pay it. She won’t believe we would trust her with that much money. She will tremble and tears will fall down her cheeks that we would trust her with such a large sum of money--$35. She goes on paying off the loan for fifty weeks. When she finishes her last payment she can stand up and challenge the whole world. She felt she was nobody and did not exist. Now she can almost challenge the whole world. Helen Prejean said, when I came out of the execution chamber with Patrick the first time . . . One is either paralyzed or galvanized by the experience. Patrick was dead but I didn't have a choice. I would take people there through my stories. For the last 15 years I have been working to eliminate the death penalty which is an act of supreme despair. We don’t know what else to do, so we imitate the criminals worst behavior. The worst thing is apathy. It would be better to die early. Faussia Kassingia, from Togo, said I wouldn't do it. But once you get kakia you will learn to love him. I was 17 and and he was 45 and had three wives. I got to the U. S. with a false passport and asked for asylum. But she was told it is up to the judge. She was put in prison. "I had done nothing. They put me in chains." There I met Cecilia Jeffrey. Faussia said she might as well go back to Togo rather than stay in prison. Cecilia said Do you know what you are going back for? Do you know? The next day she was in the shower and asked Faussia to come in with her. She was standing in the shower. She opened her legs apart. Look she said. Is this what you want to go back for? Is this what you want to go back to? Do you know what this is? It didn't look anything like female genitalia. Nothing. Like a really plain thing. Like the palm of my hand. The only things you could see was a hole. No lips. No nothing. Kakia. You live with this? I live with this all the time. I cry all the time. I feel defeated all the time. She made me stay and win my case. Names that I won’t forget. I we don’t do this work who will? The spectators goes home. They flick on the TV. It is time for dinner. It is them and me. Aware out there are the others. The ones who don’t have a spotlight. Their voices never recorded or transcribed. Them and us. My turn always comes. The expendable ones. Them and me again. Sharing in the deepest recesses of the night. My turn always comes. I also know what it is to wait in the dark. My name is. . .My names is. . . I cannot reveal my name. I am from the Sudan. Our parents taught us to love our people, however simple, however poor. I learned to regard all the Sudanese as part of my family. If I reveal my name I could not work. Anyone who is working on human rights is tortured, put in prison or worse. The poor of the world are crying out for schools and doctors. If we bring people to their own best hearts. We did what we had to do. The work has just begun.

See also Speak Truth to Power and the Amnesty International