239

"Portugal began to colonise the area that became Mozambique in the early 16th century. An anti-authoritarian coup in 1974 in Portugal ended colonial rule and its ten-year war with the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) independence movement.
Mozambican support for armed groups fighting the white-minority rule governments in Rhodesia and South Africa led to those two countries sponsoring the Renamo movement, which fought Frelimo in the 1977-1992 civil war."(BBC Monitoring)




Photograph by Sebastio Salgado


Mozambique. 1994. The photos are of Refugees in Mutarara. Refugee: "a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster"(Webster). During the 1977-1992 civil war an estimated 1.7 million Mozambican refugees fled to neighboring countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa. This number may seem high, but this does not include an estimated four million internally displaced people who also fled.

Salgado says this about these three photographs "A bus has just arrived in Mutarara in Mozambique carrying refugees from a camp at Nyaminthuthu in Malawi. From here, the returnees will continue traveling, by foot, in trucks, by boat, across the Zambeze River, until they are reunited with their families... Born in Malawi and know their own country only from their parents stories...".


Work Cited Page

Bureau of African Affairs. "Background Note: Mozambique." US Department of State
Department of State USA, Feb. 2010. Web 11 March 2010.

BBC Monitoring "Mozambique Country Profile." BBC News.
10 March 2010. 11 March 2010

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 239.

Storing the Masses

Photograph by Sebastio Salgado

Jakarta, Indonesia. 1996.

In indonesia the population has been slowly declining over the past few decades. "From 4.5% in 1961-1971 to 4.0% in 1971-1980 to 2.4% in the 1990s"(Perlman). This declining number, however, grew from a declining rate, to a papidly increasing of 300,000 people a year between 1980s-1990s. The Jakarta Metropolitan Area grew to have 11.5 million people in 1995. This increased by a growth rate of 2.1%. Now with such a rapid growth rate many people did not have homes, forcing them to live under bridges, or on streets. Roughly 6/10 people lived in a kampung. Kampung also called a "kampong" is known as a small village.

Although these numbers seem incredibly high there is help. In 1969 Jakarta implemented a Kampung Improvement Program. "the Program provided infrastructure in the form of roads, footpaths, drainage, public toilets, elementary school buildings, health clinics, garbage boxes and carts, and public water taps" (Perlman). While funding was barely enough to meet the need of the people, the United States contributed $118 a person. While it seems hard to see how you can provide all of the needs of the people for only $118 a person, the program was actually quite successful. "The program received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1980, and was recognized by the June 1996 Habitat II Conference in Istanbul as one of the best tools for overcoming urban housing problems"(Perlman).

If you are interested in more information from this topic you can go to

http://megacitiesproject.org/network_jakarta.asp

Work Cited Page

Perlman, Janice. "Jakarta Indonesia." The Mega-Cities Project: Global Network 2007.
3 March 2010

Photograph

Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 423.

Removing the Past

Shanghai, China. 1998

Photograph by Sebastiao Salgado

In Shanghai, China there is a rush to modernize the city. In most cases, the people being evicted from their house that they have lived in for generations. If you are lucky enough to own your house you might be able to sell it, but you will be lucky to get 2/3 of the agreed payment. The sweep is trying to move so quickly that it is causing the "re-locators" to break into homes. Re-locators will take all of your possessions, box them up, and take them away. Many people have tried running to the police, however, they will just stand aside. While few people have tried seeking the government for aid, failure is a commonality. Whether they try court cases, running to local police forces, all cases have a similar ending. Failure. Being removed, and relocated on these people is extremely hard. Major transitions are happening, because the people who used to be at the heart of the city, are now being sent out onto the outskirts of the city. While these hardships are going on, they are not only moving families, but history. Taking it, sending it away, all for the modernization of a city.


Work Cited Page

Photograph

Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 377.

Looking at the Effects

This week we are going to again talk about Rwanda. In Goma, Zaire there is a refugee camp called Kibumba. In Rwanda on April 6, 1994 their President Habyarimana died. His death lead to several thousand, even tens of thousand of Hutu's(majority ethnic group) to wage a war against Tutsi (minority ethnic group). "President Habyariamana's assassination plungedRwanda into the worst frenzy of killing the world has ever seen"(Morello).This effect caused several hundreds, even thousands of Rwandans to seek refuge.





Photograph by Sebastio Salgado

This photo was taken in Kibumba. "Rwandan refugees die daily of cholera... The photographs show the burials of more than 4,000 persons"(Salgado) What exactly is cholera? "Cholera: an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies"(Oxford). Now there are many ways that water supplies might get infected. I am going to quote part of the book Left To Tell. "The truck then stopped at the edge of a cliff high above the Akanyaru River, a favorite spot of the Interahamwe for dumping corpes. "They threw all the bodies over the cliff and into the river," Florence continued... I woke up in the mud by the riverbank the next morning. My parents and sister were lying there, too, but they were all dead. I looked up at the cliff and couldn't imagine how I survived- it was at least a 200-foot drop."(Ilibagiza)

Work Cited Page

Photograph

Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 193.

Ilibagize, Immaculee. Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Hay House Inc. 2006.

Morello, Debbie. "Best of the 90's." US News and Worldly Reports. 2007. Web. 17 Feb. 2010

Taking It With You

• Rwanda. 1994. In Rwanda there are two main kinds of people. Hutu and Tutsi. "a Hutu majority; a Tutsi minority"(Ilibagiza). "Tutsi were supposed to be taller, lighter-skinned, and have narrower noses; while Hutu were shorter, darker, and broad-nosed."(Ilibagiza)
  
• These two differences had very little effects on the people because Tutsis would marry Hutus, and Hutus would marry Tutsis. However in 1994 a genocide occured. Genocide:"the deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular ethnic group or nation."(Oxford).

• "Between half a million and a million people out of Rwanda's total population of 8 million, died in a few weeks between April and June 1994."(Steven). This was forcing the Rwandans to flee their homes taking whatever they could carry with them, and in some cases not even being able to take anything except for the clothes on their backs. Rwandans had to flee to a refugee camp in Ngara roughly twenty five miles from their homes. They had no cars, motorcycles, or any of the fine luxuries that we take advantage of everyday.
  

• If you are at all interested what happened in Rwanda I would recommend reading a book called "Left To Tell" by Immaculee Ilibagize. The info is in my work cited page. The book isn't about the war, just the person story of Immaculee Ilibagize.
  

Work Cited Page

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 171.

Steven. “1990-1994: The genocide and War in Rwanda.” Libcom.org
8 Sept. 2006. Web. 12 Feb. 2010

Ilibagize, Immaculee. Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Hay House Inc. 2006.

Seeing the Shadows

Soldiers. We hear about them everyday. We see them on the news, and get updates about the wars happening around the world. How are these soldiers gathered together? What is needed to make a soldier a soldier? To start off we need a war, battle, or two people that have a vast amount of power.

Imagine if you will that your country goes through a civil war. Why even here in the United States we had a civil war. What if we had two? In Africa a country named Sudan had just that; two civil wars.

In 1983 the President Nimeiri announced that Sudan would incorporate Islamic Law into their constitution. In 1985 there was a coup with the government. The Sudan Poeple's Liberation Army (SPLA) decided to rescind President Nimeiri declaration. In May 1986 the SPLA and some Sudanese political parties went to Ethiopia, and drew up the "Koka Dam" declaration. This declaration abolished the Islamic Law. However, in June 30, 1989 the military government overthrew the SPLA.

"The SPLA is in control of large areas of Equatoria, Bahr al Ghazal, and Upper Nile provinces and also operates in the southern portions of Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile provinces. The government controls a number of the major southern towns and cities, including Juba, Wau, and Malakal. An informal cease-fire in May broke down in October 1989, and fighting has continued since then.(Sudan Second War)"


Photograph by Sabestio Salgado

With both parties struggling for power, and going through a civil war things started to get out of hand. Villages were broken into, and even burned down in the middle of the night just so the military government, and/or rebels could kidnap these boys. Parents became very aware of this and feared they would not be able to protect their children. Parents would send away their children, and hope they made it to Kenya where there were refugee camps provided by the United Nations. Along the way several were lost, several were taken by military governement, and/or rebels, and several died. Some only had a memory of their family, slowly fading into the shadows.




Work Cited Page


Travis, Truitt "A Sudanese Survivor: Refugee's Journey From "Lost Boy" to Self-Sufficiency Inspired Others" Chicago Talks January 24, 2010. Web. February 4, 2010.

"Sudan Second Civil War" Military. Global Security, April 24, 2005. Web. February 4, 2010

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 71.

The Price

Within a few days of the Haiti incident happening, the United States pledged one hundred million dollars in aid. Why even Angelina Jolie has pledged one million dollars in aid. So why would the United States pledge so much money? Are we not currently struggling as a country?




Photo by Salgado pg. 71

It's beautiful isn't it? The dove is a symbol of the 'dove of freedom'. This wooden replica was made by the two men in the photo. This photo was taken in an entrance to a detention camp on Galang Island, Indonesia in 1995. It was estimated between 1979-1995 twenty thousand Vietnamese refugees came to this camp. What is a refugee? The New Oxford American Dictionary says this, "Refugee:a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster". These people were at one time considered 'boat people'. Boat people had to travel against impossible odds. To start off your boat ride you get into a small rickety boat which was normally packed from side to side with people like you wanting a new life. Once you set off on this journey you have to avoid Pirates who patrol the sea robbing, killing, or even raping you, and then just like that they dissappear into the darkness. Don Hardy writes this about the 'boat people', "They risked everything in the belief that their new lives, or the lives they hoped to live someday in another country, would prove better than those they left behind."

How many blessing do we have that we take advantage of? Why I can't even imagine going through a portion of what these people have went through. Willing to give up everything that they had, just for a shot of freedom. Given the choice do we choose to be egocentric, or are we going to help out, even if only by a small part?



Work Cited Page

Hardy, Don "Boat People." 1991
http://www.twogypsies.com/html/galang.html

20 May 2009
http://www.walkaboutindonesia.com/batamisland.htm

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 71.

Hear the Cry

Lately I can not help, but to think about his situation in Haiti. At first estimated 50,000 dead has now risen to an estimated 70,000 dead. So many people are lost, and so quickly. Now I think death is something that we can all relate to, because we all know someone who has passed on.

Now what does death cause us to do? When someone close to us dies, how do we learn to adjust without them? I would like to now show you another photograph.



Photograph by Sebetastio Salgado

Now this is a photo from Salgado's book "Migrations". What do you see in this photograph? Do you see a building? Do you even think these people know this photo is being taken, why no one is looking at the camera. Who are these people looking at, and why are they crying? Before I completely flood you with questions, please come up with your own conclusions and then read below.

Salgado writes, "73. At the International Airport of Ho Chi Minh City, as several families leave for the United States, there are tears of apprehension from those about to start a new life and tears of regret from those being left behind. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 1995."

It is estimated that 39,111 people left Vietnam every year from 1980-1994. People left behind their familes, friends, and they did it in hope for a new life. The part that sticks out to my is "tear of regret from those being left behind"(Salgado intro packet). In Haiti they don't really have much of a choice on what happens currently, but these situations are so similar. People leaving people. I guess all we can do is do what is described in Salgado's quote "tears of apprehension of regret from those about to start a new life". Whether by choice or of life, we all can hope for a better life.


If you would like to help those in Haiti or other situations here is a link to a website.

http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/



Work Cited

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 78.

First Light

Sebastiao Salgado was born on February 8, 1944 in Aimores, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Salgado was educated to be an economist. In 1971 he moved to London where he worked for the Internation Coffee Organization. His job required him to travel often to Africa, and it was there that he began to take his first photographs. While on his return home these photos he took started to preoccupy him. It was in 1973 that he decided to become a photographer.

Salgado's has taken hundreds if not thousands of photos; all of which are in black and white. Now, how are these photos any different from any other photo we have seen? Is it the black and white? Or is the that these photos are made to make us think and ponder what they mean? Maybe perhaps there is a larger meaning than that which is in the photo? I want you to look at this photo for a minute or two.

Photograph by Sebastiao Salgado

What did you notice? Anything? Salgado once said: "I hope that the person who visits my exhibitions, and the person who comes out, are not quite the same".

Now all the photos I will write about are from a book called "Migrations" published in 2000. Salgado wrote this in the introduction of that book. "More than ever, I feel that the human race is one. There are differences of colour, language, culture and opportunities, but people's feelings and reactions are alike. People flee wars to escape death, they migrate to improve their fortunes, they build new lives in foreign lands, they adapt to extrem hardship..."



Work Cited

Photograph
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 78.


Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. Intro

"Guardian"Biography Sebastiao Salgado. Web. 11 September 2004

"UNICEF." Special Representative Sebastiao Salgado, Web. 12 January. 2009.

Yes That Is Me

Yes that is me on the left hand side. For a recent English class I am taking my teacher asked all of us to start a blog. I decided to take a picture of me, and very briefly describe myself. To start off I am the mystery man on the left. First thoughts, Star Wars yes I am a fan, and I even carry a lightsaber under my car seat in case I get attacked. That purple cord wrapped on my belt is a cord for a microphone. If you ask a theatre person it is called an 'XLR Cord' or if you ask a media person it is called 'DMX Cable'. Either of them work. Also you can't really see it, but wrapped around the left side of my waist is a black/purple bandana. I wore it my entire senior year for two reasons. First, it had one of my high school colors. Second, I had a friend who always used to wear a bandana, the reason why that is so important is because near the beginning of my junior year he died in a car crash on his way to school. . . Well that is enough to "start my blog", but don't worry more to follow.