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.
I love the point you make about how a celebrity is giving the same amount of money as the government. I see it in a different way then you though. I mean don’t get me wrong its great that the U.S. is helping out, but seriously Angelina is giving just as much? Why couldn’t we all just help out a little more, and are other rich celebs donating too or are they buying fancy cars and cloths? Yes the nation is in a tight fix with the economy right now but people in Haiti are dying, which is a little more important. I really like how you put the definition of a refugee in your post. I think it will help people remember why all of these people come to the U.S. It’s not always because it was their choice it's usually from a disaster.
ReplyDelete