I am not sure I understand you. Are you saying that Traavik just scoffed the money and did a runner? Did the show ever take place? Was the ‘Vogue’ magazine ever produced? It would be good to know as the Angolans hate being conned and this guy might be reckless enough to try coming back here.

I just wanted to add that Morten Traavik, the artist encharged has considered the implications of the project, as I said I have contacted him and some other elements of the team back in 2006. And I received no reply to this day.
So just like this other danish artist i suspect “backfiring” might be what he really wanted from this project. In fact he is the only to profit from that.

Dear Mr.,
I am writing to you expressing my concern with an event you are organizing entitled Miss Landmine
which came to my knowledge while browsing the internet and of which I and the general public have
no access in no other language rather than the English or Norwegian.
My concerns are with the following points:
(1) The event purposes
(2) The event is organized mainly with revenue for the organizing team hence it seems there will be no
financial counterpart for the contestants involved and presuming the organizing team doesn’t live
annually in the place of such an event the financial budget involved in a country like Angola with
one of the highest costs for travelling and living must be high.
(3) The event organizers in linking children/teenagers under 18 victims of mines with an
entertainment show where these same children are paraded and taken pictures and voted by mainly
foreigners seems to ignore the fact that human zoos were part of sad history of racialization,
Imperialism and Colonialism in the late 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and have made its
come back with recent events in Germany and Belgium.
Of which Sarah Baartman is the most known case only solved with the return of her remains to her
homeland in 2002.
(4) Solidarity and mutual communication/information/ understanding are a questionable side of this
enterprise and seem to be in contrast with exhibiting, subjugating to the public children victims of
mines in the internet for no money for the participants but in clear financial and promotional advantage
of the organizers.
(5) None of the elements of the team seem to have experience in working with children or with film or
with photography which questions their ability to take part in a project like this more, none of them
seem to be fully able to speak Portuguese or any other local language fluently.
Which leads to question of the artistic nature of such project and any possibility of communication
between team and contestants..
(6) Images such as this similar to those dating from old times contribute to the stereotyping of
Africans as miserable, poor or freaks which sometimes are these days promoted as multiculturalism.
(7) The contestants participation seems to have no legal documents, i.e., are there contracts between
the organization and the adults responsible for the contestants in their own language explaining their
rights what use their image will have, their gains and the risks of such images being exploited so on.
And again in their own language?
(8) Is the organization aware of the sexual exploitation of children in African countries not rarely by
highly respected institutions like UN (recent example abuse of children under 13 DR Congo) and if so
what measures has the project instituted to avoid such abuse inside the organization and from other
parts.
(9) Are the pictured contestants images protected and for what and under which circumstances will
they be used. And is this written legally and accepted by both parties involved.
(10) In the current global economy when marketing of difference is big business and when educational
institutions and so called charity , humanitarian organizations such as NGO’s need to generate more
revenues, the incentives towards racialization and towards sensationalism seem to become a more
common practise.
(11)Because of all this: racialization , paternalistic and exploitative aspects are facilitated by events
like this, (promoted in English and Norwegian and not in the language of the children involved ), and
are not harmless or inoffensive . This because they fall back on the purposes enumerated before andon a past history. Therefore a project of this nature can contribute to more discrimination and induce
in perverse images of Angolan and African people. Sadly enough its similarity with freak shows is
frightening.
I will develop some of those points furthermore with the information that has been made available to
me which is little, hence all of it is in English or Norwegian.
The event: Financial characteristics of the event, financial interests , other interests
1) The Team
Financial Advantages, its Background
The idea of organizing an event like this comes from a team where the majority of the elements has
never worked with cinema or photo. Plus who have never worked with children and have no
preparation to work with children victims of mines.
I do not know which institution is the main donor for such enterprise but it seems to me as it is
explained in the text it is a cultural event for which the sum of money must be really high.
Just in transports, per diem, hotel for a team of five people who live in Europe that accounts for a lot
of money involved.
However to my surprise no money is attributed to the contestants.
I will point out furthermore on the financial nature of the donors in the late point connected with the
Policies for Culture in Norway.
2) The contestants
Financial advantages, psychological/social advantages, positive versus negative influence on
self-esteem, legal protection against any forms of abuse by people involved in the project, legal
contracts considering the conditions of such enterprise
Many points regarding this project seem obscure on the side of the participants. First of all they are
mostly underage so for their participation in such an event the adults responsible for the contestants
should have fully knowledge of what event the children are taking part and the full conditions of their
participation in the form of a contract.
The organization is obviously using this event to publicize their humanitarian activities and probably
to raise more funding for such events and for their work.
The launch of a website not in Portuguese but in English but also interviews in Norwegian leave no
doubt about that matter. However raise the following questions what are the advantages for the people
involved (contestants) in the project and for the Angolans specifically, none, I could not get any
information about such project in Portuguese and neither in any other local language.
More taking in consideration past initiatives like human zoos and the racialization of African people
through Europe I raise my questions if such project does indeed profit the contestants involved and the
Angolans.
I also question how is it that such an event where reasonable money is involved on the part of the
organizers has no financial counterparts for the participants and how is it possible that no specific
actions have been put in practice to protect the children involved: Who will be able to use this
pictures, is it possible to download them from the net, will the organization be able to make profit with
them without any revenue for the participants …..?

3) The Promotion of the event
From what I could access from the event :
The promotion is mainly directed to people who speak English or Norwegian which is the same to say
to people living in Europe and not the contestants or the people of Republica Popular de Angola.
There is no information about the event in local, national news and the promotion of the event in
English in the website raises more questions towards who is the real audience of such an enterprise
and what are its purposes and points towards the direction evoking the sad parades of human beings
in zoos not rarely for unusual characteristics of their bodies . In the past these people were paraded
through Europe photographed made fun of, insulted and even sexually abused by Europeans.
4) Isues of exoticism, weirdness (freak shows), Tolerance and Mutual understanding,
Exchange
As pointed out before the use of people with “exotic” characteristics to promote events in
“faraway lands” , dates from long time in European Colonial History.
The use of pygmies for their short stature, the use of people with certain unusual body
different characteristics case of Sarah Baartman, or very simply the display of African people
wearing traditional dresses to sell an idea is part of the history of such enterprises.
I question the mutual understanding and tolerance that such an event can generate for the
people of Angola and Norwegians or for the countries that continuously sell mines to other
parts of the world. Hence there is not even a common language shared between the majority
of the team and the country of the happening.
The question is from the beginning answered: It is impossible that real exchange and real
communication can take place.
5 Role of Humanitarian Organization involved
The information provided on the website about the problem of mines is rare if not almost null.
What is the role of the Humanitarian organization in such an event I ask myself. Why is it that
there is no information about which countries sold these mines about the historical
background of the war in Angola etc.
6) The question of the event as educational
Again we are confronted with the following points none of the people of this team have as
native language Portuguese not even to speak about native languages from Angola, none of
them are educated as teachers or pedagogy, very few have ever worked with children, more
which is frightening none of them seem to have any kind of education in dealing with issues
of psychological problems caused by people affected by mines, there is nobody with
knowledge about historical issues concerning Angola or sociology connected with the
questions I raised before and last but not least if we could even consider the artistic side of the
event none of them have professional experience in film directing or photography and finally
none of them has experience in the beauty market ( beauty magazines, beauty contests) which
raises one more time what are the real characteristics and purposes of such an event.

7) Issues on Knowledge of Angola and Africa, Exoticism and Stereotyping Africa,
Charity versus Paternalism, Financial Exploitation
Is this a positive image that the event wants to promote of Africa and the mines problem.
How will that be made, what are the implications of such an event and its launching of a
website which does consider all the points above mentioned.
How will people that read your news and website will think about Angola and Africa.
Does the team encharged of this event are aware of that.
Do they actually believe they are contributing to the self-esteem of the Angolan people with
such an event and with the launching of such images completely descontextualized from their
source and the country they are happening.
What is the purpose behind the availability of these images to whatever purpose or if not why
isn’t there any information about how they will be used.
Unfortunately the all event has many points in common with the human zoo of the late
centuries:
- Financial and promotion interest of the organizers
- a certain European superiority ( all the information available can only be accessed and is
direct towards Europeans),
- paternalistic ideas about Africa, the educational aspect of those who can look at those
pictures and see how ”the real mined Africa” is, Europeans are to learn about how children
victims of mines merely look like as exotic sub-human beings.
The inequalities on economical power are also obvious there seems to be no benefit for the
participants involved with a plus on it: nobody knows where and how the material that will
result from such an event will be used. Unfortunately the points above make us take the
obvious conclusions, let us just hope that the children are not also victims of sexual abuse like
it happened in many human zoos but like it happens nowadays with many UN personnel and
NGO’s.
Deplorably it seems like the organizers have never considered such dangers in staging such an
event this lack of sensibility and perception is scary and makes the contours of this all
enterprise as very much a sensationalist event with many similarities of events made in the
past. There are many historical examples of such events such as Sarah Baartman who was
displayed through Europe as a freak and as an exotic different being almost animal like. The
lack of concern from this event of taking into perspective the context and history of what
they are working with is shocking.
Humanitarism, Charity and Cultural Politics of Norway
The background or landscape against this project is placed: humaniratism and charity does not
make necessarily see the parts involved as equal and from analysing the different points the
fact is that portraying people (children) who were victims of mines and place them in a
beauty show without any other information is only a contribute to the general idea of Africa
as a poor continent and seeing Africans as freaks. I find it hard to see how such an event could
improve and benefit such people and Angola in general.
Broader issues such as who sold the mines to this country and who is in fact now profiting
from its rebuilding should be accessed so the public in general could get the all picture.
It is also not by coincidence that a recent report on perspectives for Culture in The European
Community points out that Norway uses its cultural policies to implement its political agenda.
I will state as it is in the EC document that addresses the perspectives of Cultural policies :
“…while Norway is propagated internationally as an environmentally responsible and peace
campaigning nation with culture as important ingredient. No mention is done to the fact that
Norway assisted the American war in Afghanistan with special Forces and is investing its oil
revenue in environmentally damaging fish farms in Chile.

From 2003, Norway has had a vision of being one of the most innovative countries in Europe
The consequences are as follows:
More State subsidies than ever are invested in art. The funds are employed to a greater degree
through means such as Forum for Culture and Business, and as projects that are directly
politically initiated and temporary, such as through foreign aid to countries in the southern
hemisphere. Indirectly, the state supports commercial companies through support for cultural
exchange connected to larger development projects in the Third World, and through the inter-
Nordic collaboration Nordic Creative Alliances, a business-based cultural exchange forum.
The differences between commercial and ideal foundations are blurred.” Tone Hansen
It seems to me that this project of yours fits well to this description.
Finally I would like to say to misuse children to justify cultural subsidies by pointing out its
charity or the educational importance of art is nothing else than exploitation. Good art unlike
entertainment is always political and bound to society and the people involved.
Gary Strümpel