The videos and comments from Peter Gabriel, Angelina Jolie and Gillian were awesome and inspiring. However, the main event for me was Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. He talked about how his life started as a happy kid who played soccer in the streets. As the war swept across the country, he survived the loss of his family and fled from village to village as he watched them being ravaged by the war. He eventually ended up being recruited as a child soldier. He was able to leave the military and attended college and appear before us last night to express his hope for lasting peace in Sierra Leone. It was an extremely well delivered and moving speech and really highlighted the strength of the words of a witness.
The festivities were also great. There were a number of great performances, but my favorite part was when Nile Rodgers and CHIC rocked the house with their classics. They did an auction with some pretty cool things. The only thing I bid on was the Nano programmed by Lou Reed, but I wasn't able to keep up and didn't get it in the end. ;-)
In total, the event was the best fund-raiser gala sort of event that I've ever attended. It had a clear and moving message and vision, it was fun and it was extremely well executed. Congratulates to everyone involved.
What exactly does WITNESS do? Where can I find out more?
Ooops. Just added link to their website. It is:
http://www.witness.org/
Interesting and worthy project... and I am curious what Lou Reed put on that nano!
Now I know why you did not want to come to Les Blogs, nothing to do with it being justified businesswise or not, it was Angelina...
We had great fun and missed you, I hope you kissed Angelina for me :-P
It's realy good human rights program that attracts the eyes of the world and inspires those who see - to act.
Peter Gabriel. Wow!!
Ching Chiao :At you all albums Peter Gabriel?