Sunday, June 01, 2008
Romanticising...Or Not...
What I'm about to post really gives insight into the assumptions we make about what we read and what is actually the truth. Jess, this I think is quite relevant to your essay topic about romanticising...although I think maybe this is the opposite of romanticising... O_o
_START_Have a close look at the photograph & read the messages below them. Forwarding this message to as many people as you can. This wouldn't fulfill a wish; nor deleting it will cause any misfortune; but its our moral duty to be concerned... towards humanity. (Click to enlarge)
Kevin Carter
This was found in his diary:
Dear God, I promise I will never waste my food no matter how bad it can taste and how full I may be. I pray that He will protect this little boy, guide and deliver him away from his misery. I pray that we will be more sensitive towards the world around us and not be blinded by our own selfish nature and interests.
I hope this picture will always serve as a reminder to us that how fortunate we are and that we must never ever take things for granted.
_END_When I read this email I was really shocked. And THEN I read the TRUTH about this controversial email:
_START_From Wikipedia:
South African photojournalist Joao Silva, who accompanied Carter to Sudan, gave a different version of events in an interview with Japanese journalist and writer Akio Fujiwara that was published in Fujiwara's book "The boy who became a postcard" (Ehagakini Sareta Shōnen).
According to Silva, they (Carter and Silva) went to Sudan with the United Nations aboard Operation Lifeline Sudan and landed in Southern Sudan on March 11, 1993. The UN told them that they would take off again in 30 minutes, (the time necessary to distribute food), so they ran around looking to take shots. The UN started to distribute corn and the women of the village came out of their wooden huts to meet the plane. Silva went looking for guerrilla fighters, while Carter strayed no more than a few dozen feet from the plane.
Again according to Silva, Carter was quite shocked as it was the first time that he had seen a famine situation and so he took many shots of the children suffering from famine. Silva also started to take photos of children on the ground as if crying, which were not published. The parents of the children were busy taking food from the plane so they had left their children only briefly while they collected the food. This was the situation for the girl in the photo taken by Carter. "God was smiling on Kevin." A vulture landed behind the girl. To get the two in focus, Carter approached the scene very slowly so as not to scare the vulture away and took a photo from approximately 10 metres. He took a few more photos and then the vulture flew off.
Silva stated that he also took similar photos, but didn't win the Pulitzer Prize. "That's just the way things go."
_END_I feel so naive and gullible. Funny how people seem to assume that pictures never lie.
They always do.
...is what I said. Savvy?
12:01 am
friends
June 2006
