December 6, 2011

Human Rights Gets a Hollywood Anthem

Hans Zimmer probably didn't get his this star for his work on "Muppet Treasure Island."<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7727815@N07/5612693538/">jaimedetorres</a>/Flickr</a>

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First, international human rights got an official logo (with a little help from Qaddafi’s old PR firm). Now the universal yearning for freedom has its own anthem, written by Oscar-winning Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Amnesty International, the man who’s scored everything from Gladiator and Rain Main to The Lion King and Kung Fu Panda 2, has bestowed the group with what it calls “a deeply moving composition that pays tribute to generations of human rights activists whose achievements have meant the difference between life and death, freedom and terror, justice or repression for people around the world.” And all that in a little more than two minutes.

Here’s a version of the anthem released earlier this year:

That’s pretty much standard Zimmer fare: A not too subtle attempt to wring tears from your eyes via a barrage of etherial vocals and relentless percussion. But there’s more: Amnesty’s just announced a contest to remix the official (and as yet unshareable) version of “One More Voice for Freedom” (the winner gets $1,000).

You really have to hear it—it’s somewhere between airplane boarding music and the most stereotypically inspiring movie montage ever. Still, it was very nice of Zimmer to contribute a fraction of his output to Amnesty on its golden jubilee. Now, if you’ll excuse him, he has to get back to putting the finishing touches on his soundtrack for Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the first animated 3-D movie about the International Criminal Court.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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