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.