WHAT'S THE STORY
DOVE Tales, a Scottish charity formed by author and journalist Jean Rafferty, is holding an event today focusing on how war affects lives, entitled The Human Cost of War. The event is part of the Celtic Connections programme and is taking place at 4.30pm in the City of Music studio at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall.
Described as a “conversation”, chair Rafferty is hosting a selection of writers and journalists to discuss the impact of military conflict on society, believing that war has as severe an effect on those who “inflict” it as on those who are victims of it. Admission costs £5 and includes live music as well as a picture exhibition.
Driven by shared humanitarian values, the charity says its members are “joining together to try and bridge the gaps between people and to ask hard questions of those in our society who try to make money from other people's misery”.
WHO'S INVOLVED IN THE EVENT
PANEL guests include The Herald and Sunday Herald foreign affairs editor David Pratt plus Mary Smith, an author and poet who worked in Pakistan and Afghanistan for 10 years where she established a mother-and-child care programme providing skills and knowledge to women. Also joining the talk is Billy Briggs, director of the online investigative newspaper The Ferret. His experience reporting from conflict zones includes staying with al-Qassam fighters in Gaza and meeting female Kurdish rebels in the mountains of Iraq.
A short music set comes from piano and fiddle duo Charlie Grey and Joseph Peach. Meanwhile, attendees have access to a series of photographs shot by Pratt and photojournalist Angela Catlin, as well as stills from poet and photographer Ray Evans.
Rafferty said: “Dove Tales tries to use the arts to raise consciousness about war so we like to have music and images at our events as well as words.”
WHAT IS THE CHARITY'S MISSION?
FORMED in 2017 in response to an increasing sense of global unrest and social upheaval, Dove Tales uses the arts to call into question militaristic culture and to oppose the arms trade. Also identifying as the Association of Scottish Artists for Peace, the charity aims to promote awareness of the realities of war through poetry, prose, music, images, movement and food – “all the beautiful things in life that we share and that bring people together”.
The organisation, which is staunchly opposed to nuclear weapons, cites examples of the detrimental effect conflict has. These include the fact that “four countries in the world face famine” because of war, that there are 20 million refugees “either on the move or in settlement camps” and that “the gaps between those who have and have not, those who believe and who don't, have become wider than ever”.
The charity’s goal, ultimately, is to encourage cultural exchange in order to increase understanding of war and, in turn, reduce incidences of it.
Also ardent proponents of freedom of expression, the peace-seekers believe that states seeking to censor and repress this are violating the human rights of their citizens.
Dove Tales pledges that “the only weapons we use will be … art in all its forms; that we bring love, not hate; that the only war we will fight is for peace”. Some members contribute poetry to the charity blog which touches on issues such as nuclear threat and the plight of refugees crossing the Mediterranean.
The group of creatives will release an anthology of poetry and prose on the subject of war next month.
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