A House Without Windows

Graphic novel / Interactive media experience about the ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic and how it impacts the everyday lives of citizens. Much of the graphic novel is centered around the health and welfare of children and mothers unintentionally swept up into the aftermath of a conflict they don't have any stake in. Like so many geopolitical events that don't happen in the Western world, I hadn't read a single thing about this and was just depressed reading it. It's very illuminating. Didier Kassaï's art pairs well with Marc Ellison's photography. Not the kind of graphic novel one “enjoys” but worth reading and drawing attention to.

It's 2021. Forget flying cars, where's our absolute-bare-minimum attempt to lift fellow humans out of the cycle of poverty, ignorance, and violence? Where's our awareness of our responsibility to ... oh, never mind. I can be so naïve sometimes.

This is a harrowing read. Painful, brutally shocking, overwhelming even. The artwork is effective, the text powerful without being preachy, recognizing complex nuances without crude fingerpointing. The entire system is so fundamentally broken that it would be easy to fall into despair, and, OK, I'll confess to having done so in a few places. But the book is much more than that. It's not doom & gloom, and it certainly doesn't end on a Note Of Hope, the authors simply present what feels like a responsible honest picture of a situation you and I have not been aware of.

As for my initial question: there's MSF. Every year I grow more awed by their work. Even if it's an embodiment of the “saved THAT one!” starfish gag, even when I rage because the lever principle so clearly suggests that a nudge here (education, outreach, food distribution, listening) would be so much more fruitful than scattered efforts there, sometimes there's just no way to make those nudges. Props to MSF and others for their work, to Ellison and Kassaï for shedding their light.