Product Description

Inspiring interviews about the quality of courage with fifty remarkable men and women, including Wangari Maathai, Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama. Kerry Kennedy explores the issues that compel human rights defenders: from free expression to religious self-determination, from minority rights to environmental activism, from child soldiers to sexual slavery.

Kerry Kennedy established the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, serves on numerous boards committees, and is chair of the Amnesty International Leadership Council.

Eddie Adams, among the most decorated and published American photographers, has received over five hundred awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #280238 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com
Anonymous wears a black shroud and a hangman's noose. Unnamed and masked, perhaps he or she will avoid the fate suggested in the haunting photograph that graces the cover of this remarkable book. Anonymous is one of the mostly unsung heroes interviewed by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo who are fighting for human rights in places where torture, imprisonment, and death are the side effects of speaking out against such atrocities as child soldiers, sex slavery, honor killings, and repression of political rights. In Anonymous's case, teaching Sudanese women their rights where a civil war is being waged by Islamic extremists could land him or her in a "ghost house" of torture, or, if lucky, in prison for an undetermined amount of time. In an age when heroes seem almost a thing of the past, these 51 human rights defenders demonstrate that real moral courage is alive and well on planet Earth. As Kennedy Cuomo writes in her introduction, these are the Martin Luther Kings of the world, and "courage, with its affirmation of possibility and change, is what defines them."

For instance, there is Ka Hsaw Wa, who, after hearing stories of horrific torture and abuse from Burmese villagers, took the bold step of bringing a lawsuit against the American oil company Unocal for using human rights abuses to further its profit margins. To protect himself as he gathers documentation, he travels the jungle in black clothes and has had to interview victims using only his memory for lack of pen and paper. Fauziya Kassindja came to her work through no choice of her own--when she fled Togo to escape genital mutilation she found herself shackled and abandoned in the U.S. prison system, and has become a force for change in both countries. Others have seen a need and filled it, such as Muhammed Yunus, who has achieved miraculous results in Bangladesh by giving small loans to those who no one else would entrust with money--poor women without collateral. The results have been nothing less than the transformation of the women, their families, and the political landscape of a nation.

There are also the famous here: Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Rigoberta Menchu Tum. Václav Havel speaks on becoming a dissident and the divine, while the Dalai Lama talks about compassion, suffering, and nonviolence. These are extraordinary people, and yet they are as human as the rest of us. As Oscar Arias Sanchez says, "One works for justice not for the big victories, but simply because engaging in the struggle is itself worth doing." An inspiring work made beautiful by photographs by renowned photographer Eddie Adams. --Lesley Reed

Review
I cried tears of sadness, joy, and hope. Eloquent and illuminating, these people, from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America have much to say and much to teach us about courage, personal fulfillment, and the human spirit. They are an inspiration.
-- Muhammad Ali

Speak Truth to Power gives us an insight into the power of the human spirit. It tells us why and how men and women all over the world struggle against oppression, injustice, and cruelty. There is horror but there is also immense hope in this world where dedicated people translate their commitment to human rights into action.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Prize Laureate

You cannot kill an idea, you cannot imprison freedom. The lives of the common women and men in this book, heroes every one, inspire all who believe in liberty and justice. This book is a tribute to the human spirit and proof of the capacity of one person of courage to triumph over overwhelming evil.
-- President Nelson Mandela

In one of the most compelling and remarkable examples of exemplary journalism, Eddie Adams and Kerry Kennedy Cuomo have achieved the most breathtaking storytelling possible.
-- Walter Anderson, Parade Publications

From the Inside Flap
Speak Truth to Power presents an inspiring rainbow of heroes from more than thirty-five countries and five continents. In searing and uplifting interviews, veteran human rights defender Kerry Kennedy Cuomo examines the quality of courage with women and men who are dramatically changing the course of events in their communities and countries.

Imprisoned, tortured, and threatened with death, they speak with compelling eloquence on subjects to which they have devoted their lives and for which they have been willing to sacrifice -- from free expression to the rule of law, from women's rights to religious liberty, from environmental defense to eradicating slavery, from access to capitol to the right to due process.

Accompanying the interviews are a powerful series of portraits by world-renowned photographer Eddie Adams. This is his first book, representing two years of crisscrossing the globe to make these deeply felt and insightful images of courageous individuals, including the internationally celebrated, such as Vaclav Havel, Baltasar Garzón, Helen Prejean, Marian Wright Edelman, and Nobel Prize Laureates the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Oscar Arias Sánchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, José Ramos-Horta, and Bobby Muller. But the vast majority of the defenders are unknown and (as yet) unsung beyond their national boundaries, such as former sex slave and leading abolitionist Juliana Dogbadzi of Ghana, domestic violence activist Marina Pisklakova of Russia, mental disability rights advocate Gabor Gombos of Hungary, and more than thirty others.

Speak Truth to Power is accompanied by a major exhibition opening at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., then traveling nationally, beginning in January 2001 at the Newseum, New York. The authors also plan a fully integrated Web Site as well as an education and advocacy campaign by Amnesty International.

In addition, a theatrical presentation, written by Ariel Dorfman, based on the stories featured in the book, will be performed by internationally known actors, including Glenn Close, Edward James Olmos, Sigourney Weaver, Alfre Woodard, and others, opening at the J. F. Kennedy Center, September 19, 2000.

Customer Reviews

Powerful and frightening
In the interst of full disclosure, I have not read through this book in its entirety. Nor to I contemplate doing so soon. The perils faced by the men and women who work for justice are often too hard to read in large doses. The savagery of the human heart is grotesque and seemingly insurmountable. Yet men and women of good will, as beautiflly told in this book, find the courage and strength to look into the face of evil and tell it "No."

The stories are taken from all over the world -- the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. They tell of the lonely struggle of those who seemingly cannot stop themselves from pursing freedom and dignity for their fellows. The stories are simultaneously ennobling, terrifying and challenging. Why are we not all fighters for the rights of our neighbors? WHy are we so often craven and complicit with oppresive powers? Why are so few able to face and withstand the fire of persecution?

As I said, "Speak Truth to Power" is not a light read. But the stories are inspiring and need to be told. For this, I thank Kerry Kennedy Cuomo for her introductions and her selection of material, and to Eddie Adams for the stark and powerful images of the men and women who raise us as a species above the level of beasts.

Excellent, touching reading
I bought this book for the sole purpose of a class where I was required to do some outside reading. This book was on our recommended reading list. I read the entire book, only one story was required. It was astonishing how these people change the world. I was moved by these stories.

almost religious in its power
The stories and photographs are deeply moving profiles of several of the most courageous people in the world. There are few terms to describe the total power, since I turn to this work on many occasions to gain some inspiration.

For someone not immediately interested in the field of human rights, the work is probably not quite as affecting, as personal stories about those who are involved in human rights will be unlikely to move the unconcerned. "Speak Truth to Power" is essential sustenance for the converted.