Exhibit of mankind's evil a sobering reminder

We really do live in a bubble, don't we?
Admittedly, I rarely stop to think how good I, and those I love, have it in comparison to what's going beyond my small piece of this earth I inhabit. But every now and then, something comes along that gives me, and hopefully many others, sober pause for thought.
Living With Land Mines, a traveling exhibition of life-size portraits by photographer V. Tony Hauser, is at Trent University's Bata Library this week through Friday. In May 2006, Hauser was in Siem Reap, Cambodia, documenting children who live in a dormitory at the Cambodia Land Mine Museum. Imagine. A museum dedicated to those who have been senselessly maimed by the cruelest of means. Innocents forever disfigured by strangers. In this country, museums are generally dedicated to man's greatest achievements, be they in the arts or science field. In Cambodia, and many other countries, museums are dedicated to horror; to mankind's evil in its purest form.
Since its inception in 1997, 157 countries, including Canada, have signed on to the Mine Ban Treaty. Still, one-third of the world's nations remain affected by land mines. If such an exhibit has any purpose, it's to remind the "inside the bubble" people that the "outside the bubble" people deserve the same security we enjoy but take so much for granted.