Thoughts on Freedom Next Time

I will admit that reading two chapters from the expository text Freedom Next Time, written by British journalist John Pilger, wasn’t the most enjoyable experience. Reading through the political jargon, statistics and long-winded interviews did have me drifting in and out of my daydreams, struggling to keep up with Ms Edwards’ reading of the text in class. As tedious as the task was to read Freedom Next Time, the text does convey a message that we need to hear.

I found much of the facts Pilger had researched and informed me of shocking. Pilger effectively exposes just how bad poverty, health standards and education are in India. Before reading the text, when I thought of India I would think of Bollywood musicals, the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games and annoying telemarketers. The text has definitely changed my perspective of the country and has made me realise how an issue as devastating as widespread poverty can go unnoticed by us. The “Liberating Afghanistan” chapter was very confronting. The anecdotes Pilger includes in the chapter strongly convey the brutal suffering innocent men, women and children are living with due to the actions of George Bush. I knew that the situations in Afghanistan were bad, but I did not realise that they were that bad. It was also shocking and thought-provoking to see America portrayed as the terrorists and Afghanistan portrayed as the victims, a representation that I have rarely seen or read about. This also proved to me just how influential the media can be to alter our views and attitudes towards certain groups.

Perhaps including the text in our curriculum may have been the only way that we would have been informed of these issues. I’m sure none of the 2006 year eights from Brearley at Kinross College will forget the surprise we got when we realised that we were going to see An Inconvenient Truth at the cinemas for our ‘reward’ excursion, to which the teachers said “If we hadn’t taken you to see it you probably wouldn’t have seen it yourselves”, even though we would watch the film at school another three or four times to come. But our teachers were right; if we hadn’t seen that movie at school, we probably wouldn’t have watched it outside of school and wouldn’t be aware of how the current major environmental issue of global warming is developing. I think that reading Freedom Next Time was no different. It informed me of what life is like for young people, just like me, in India and Afghanistan and how underprivileged they are compared to me. I have a roof over my head, access to clean water, food and an education as well as comfort and a safe environment, while others don’t. It made me gain respect towards the people I had read about who struggle to survive but still keep optimistic. Reading the text definitely made me gain an appreciation for the lifestyle I have and made me realise how fortunate I am to be living in a country where I have those privileges.