[Currently Untitled] Solidarity and Justice for Laos
This book and exhibition will feature powerful imagery and rigorous journalistic writing strategically designed to influence US-Americans and people around the world to act in solidarity with the people of Laos—pressuring U.S. policymakers to increase the currently diminutive budget allocated for UXO assistance in the country.
Compelling imagery, profound human narratives, and direct information will educate readers about the UXO crisis and its history in Laos. This project aims to foster a deep level of awareness about the problem and will bring accountability to the forefront of the US-American consciousness.
Although the current situation in Laos and its history are abhorrent, there are great opportunities to bring about a positive change. History illuminates the strength of an informed public and the transformative power of photographic storytelling to engender activism.
Please click the tabs above for more information about this project. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to have a conversation about the project or if you have any questions, information, or feedback that you believe would be helpful.
Dakota is leveraging an academic approach that amalgamates the arts and sciences to guide viewers to stand in solidarity with the people of Laos. This project will provide honest and accurate information in a strategic way that inspires action.
Building emotional connections and crafting messaging that resonates with viewers’ core values can be used to effectively trigger desired actions. It’s why people buy things and support specific causes. Marketing is a chisel that shapes western culture, and applying efficacious marketing strategy concepts will help to ensure this project is effective.
Each detail of this project will be carefully considered from a strategic perspective. For example, the medium of communication is vital; presenting information within a book will provide the opportunity to craft messaging that appeals to specific cohorts of viewers. The ability to weave numerous individual narratives into the book will provide opportunities to tell different stories in different ways that deeply resonate with different groups of people.
The United States understood the repercussions of an informed nation, which is why this secret was kept for so long. One needs to look no further than the impact of photography during the Vietnam War to understand its ability to mobilize a nation. Dissection and analysis of iconic photos that have moved the masses provide valuable insight that will help guide the photo-direction of this project. Coupling striking photography with narratives that deeply resonate with viewers’ core values will engender mobilizing emotional responses.
The facts of the UXO situation and its history in Laos will surely mobilize a significant portion of the nation if properly disseminated. Public trust in the U.S.-American government remains near historic lows¹ and the fragmented public frequently mobilizes itself in the name of social justice. Low trust in government and high levels of mobilization provides a great opportunity to use this project and the political solidarity model of social change² to influence US-Americans and people around the world to act in solidarity with the people of Laos.
Developing Moral Sensitivity Through Protest Scenarios in International NGDOs' Communication
The Political Solidarity Model for Social Change
The Transformative Image. The Power of a Photograph for Social Change
Iconic Photos of the Vietnam War era: A semiotic analysis as a means of understanding
Creation and Afterlife of the Iconic Photographs of the Vietnam War
Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War (New Perspectives in SE Asian Studies) Expanded
LEGACIES OF WAR: Cluster Bombs in Laos
House Hearing, 111 Congress of the United States
Present-Day Effects of United States Bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War: Can Injured Laotians Recover under the Federal Tort Claims Act
United Nations Lao PDR: Unexploded Ordnance, an obstacle to development
Congressional Research Service; War Legacy Issues in Southeast Asia: Unexploded Ordnance
• More than 98% of known cluster bomb victims in Laos are civilians and 40% are children, who are drawn to the small, toy-like metal objects¹².
• Data from a survey completed in Laos in 2009 indicate that UXO have killed or maimed as many as 50,000 civilians in Laos since 1964 (and 20,000 since 1973, after the war ended). Over the past two years there have been over one hundred new casualties each year. About 60% of accidents result in death¹².
• During its secret and illegal campaign, the United States dropped 2,093,100 tons (4,186,200,000 lbs.) of ordnance on Laos in 580,344 bombing missions⁸.
• On numerous occasions bombed the civilian population in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions on war to protect civilians and the 1954 Geneva Accords and 1962 Geneva Agreements that prohibited the presence of foreign military personnel or advisors in neutral Laos⁸.
• In the last phase, bombings were aimed at the systematic destruction of the material basis of the civilian society⁸.
• Planes came daily and destroyed all stationary structures; nothing was left standing. The villagers lived in trenches and holes or in caves, and they only farmed at night⁸.
• The U.S. military made a conscious decision to bomb civilian villages, crops, and livestock in addition to military targets in the Pathet Lao–held areas⁸.
• At the astonishing rate of one bombing mission every eight minutes, twenty-four hours a day, for nine years, the United States dropped more bombs on Laos than it had dropped on all countries during World War II⁸.
• U.S. bombing left the tiny nation the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world⁸.
• Up to 78 million unexploded cluster bomblets in addition to thousands of large bombs, rockets, mortars, shells, and landmines were left in Laos⁸.
• The presence of UXO negatively affects the socio-economic development of the country, preventing access to agricultural land and increasing the costs, through land clearance, of all development projects¹³.
• The majority of Lao PDR’s communities rely on agriculture for a living. But in areas where UXO contamination is prevalent, fear rules the fields, hindering farmers to grow food for their families, unable to escape the poverty trap¹¹.
¹ PEW Research Center. (2019, May 29). Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019. Retrieved from https://www.people-press.org/2019/04/11/public-trust-in-government-1958-2019/.
² Subašić, E., Reynolds, K. J., & Turner, J. C. (2008). The Political Solidarity Model of Social Change: Dynamics of Self-Categorization in Intergroup Power Relations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12(4), 330–352. doi: 10.1177/1088868308323223
³ Pinazo, D., & Nos-Aldás, E. (2013). Developing Moral Sensitivity through Protest Scenarios in International NGDOs’ Communcation. Communication Research, First published 2013-06-13. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650213490721.
⁴ De-Andrés-Del-Campo, Susana, et al. “The Transformative Image. The Power of a Photograph for Social Change: The Death of Aylan.” Comunicar, vol. 24, no. 47, 2016, pp. 29–37., doi:10.3916/c47-2016-03.
⁵ Lovelace, A. (2010). Iconic photos of the Vietnam War era: A semiotic analysis as a means of understanding. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 1(1).
⁷ Branfman, F. (2013). Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War (New Perspectives in Se Asian Studies) Expanded Edition. University of Wisconsin Press.
⁸ Khamvongsa, C., & Russell, E. (2009). Legacies Of War. Critical Asian Studies, 41(2), 281–306. doi: 10.1080/14672710902809401.
⁹ Legacies of War: Unexploded Ordinance in Laos, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and Global Environment of the Committee on Foreign Afairs, House of Representatives, 111th Cong. (2010).
¹⁰ Kenneth P. Kingshill, Present-Day Effects of United States Bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War: Can Injured Laotians Recover under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 13 Loy. L.A. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 133 (1990).
¹¹ United Nations. (n.d.). United Nations Lao PDR - Unexploded Ordnance, an obstacle to development. Retrieved from http://www.la.one.un.org/media-center/news-and-features/383-unexploded-ordnance-an-obstacle-to-development.
¹² Legacies of War. (n.d.). Cluster Bomb Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://legaciesofwar.org/resources/cluster-bomb-fact-sheet/.
¹³ United Nations. (n.d.). Unexploded ordnance (UXO): UNDP in Lao PDR. Retrieved from http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/crisis-response.html.
¹⁴ U.S. Congressional Research Service. War Legacy Issues in Southeast Asia: Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) (R45749; June 3, 2019) by Michael F. Martin et al.
About Dakota Brinkert
Dakota is currently working to produce honest and informative stories through emotive photographic narratives and rich journalistic writing. Dakota is currently based in Hà Nội, Vietnam, but will move for this project.
Below are a small sample of images Dakota produced while scouting for stories in early 2019. With a primary focus on humanitarian and environmental issues, the following images provide a glimpse of his current projects; each image is a part of a larger story, and each works as a springboard for future projects.
Dakota graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in Journalism and Advertising with an Art minor and has worked as a professional photographer, retoucher, designer and creative strategist since 2013. Feel free to browse this site for more information about Dakota as well as work samples.
Please reach out and contact Dakota if you have any questions by clicking the button below.
ContactOther Photographic Work
Click the button below to see a small sample of Dakota's other photographic and retouching work
Other Photographic Work