The people of the Mae Sot dump site
LONDON (AlertNet) – The poignant story of Myanmar’s refugees living in and around a putrid rubbish dump on the Thai border town of Mae Sot speaks volumes about the resilience of human nature.
Despite the poverty, health risks and harassment they face from the Thai authorities on a constant basis, many refugee families have lived at the site for years, struggling to earn minuscule wages for the plastic they collect for recycling.
“Every human rights violation on the planet is there in its worse element,” Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj told me in a phone interview.
“However, these people on the dump site are actually happy because they know what they have left behind in Burma (Myanmar) is much worse,” he added.
For more than five decades, Myanmar has suffered conflict between the repressive ruling military regime, political opponents and ethnic groups, resulting in the displacement of over 3.5 million Burmese.
The exact number of Burmese living in and around the town of Mae Sot ( known locally as “little Burma”) is unclear but aid groups estimate the number could be some 200,000, most of them are illegal refugees.
from Russell Boyce:
Asia – A Week in Pictures January 23 2011
As India heads towards their Republic Day celebrations, Prime Minister Singh makes minor adjustments to his cabinet while outside on the streets people demonstrate over food and fuel price inflation and corruption. Adnan Abidi produces a great picture as a middle-aged demonstrator gets to feel the full force of a police water canon. In stark contrast, B Mathur gets a glimpse of the dress rehearsal of the full military parade planned to celebrate India's independence where the security forces are deployed in a somewhat different manner. Danish Siddiqui added to the file this week with a well seen picture to illustrate a government spending initiative with a man pulling a pipe across a building site, the shadow creating an eye like image that almost seems to wink at the viewer.
Police use water canons to disperse supporters of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during a protest in New Delhi January 18, 2011. Thousands of the supporters on Tuesday in New Delhi held a protest against a recent hike in petrol prices and high inflation. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers ride their camels during the full dress rehearsal for the Republic Day parade in New Delhi January 23, 2011. India will celebrate its Republic Day on Wednesday. REUTERS/B Mathur
A labourer pulls an underground cable at a construction site of a commercial complex in Mumbai January 20, 2011. India plans to spend $1.5 trillion over 10 years to revamp its creaky infrastructure, which is seen as a brake on its economic growth. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
from Russell Boyce:
Asia – A Week in Pictures 12 December 2010
This week the blog should be called A Week (and a few extra hours ) in Pictures as I wanted to share a couple of images that came in late last Sunday and evaded my net as I trawled through the file. Both are from Thailand and both were shot by Sukree Sukplang. The first is a strong portrait of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej as he leaves hospital in a wheelchair to attend a ceremony to celebrate his 83rd birthday. The picture seems to me to mirror the respect that the Thai people have for their King. What makes me think this I am not sure; maybe its the side light which creates studio-like modelling on the king's face highlighting every detail of his appearance, the crispness of the clothes, the beauty of the ceremonial medals and the rich colour of the royal sash. Or maybe it's just the way he is looking back into the lens, his eyes full of dignity and determination.
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej leaves the Siriraj Hospital for a ceremony at the Grand Palace in Bangkok December 5, 2010. King Bhumibol celebrates his 83rd birthday on Sunday. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
The picture of people releasing balloons into the air has amazing diagonal composition with the eye being led up into the darkened sky by the use of the disappearing lanterns as they float up into the darkness, the black space on the left holding in the picture so we don't float away too.
People launch floating paper lanterns into the sky to celebrate Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 83rd birthday in Bangkok December 5, 2010. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
So to the business of this week - In Korea lawmakers from opposing parties fought it out at the National Assembly as the government forced through laws on spending; fist fights, barricades and party members being lifted to safety all in a day's work for the lawmakers and great photographic fodder for Yong-hak. Another roller coaster week with swings from the cool control and military order of the launching ceremony of the Women Reserve Officers' Training Corps to the tears and cries of the relatives mourning those civilians who were killed when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island on November 23.
Hardship deepens for South Africa’s Poor Whites
Children walk through a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly
Sitting in a deck chair at a white South African squatter camp, Ann le Roux, 60, holds a yellowing photo from her daughter’s wedding day.
Taken not long after Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black president in 1994, it shows Le Roux standing with her Afrikaans husband and their daughter outside their home in Melville, an upmarket Johannesburg neighborhood.
Sixteen years later, she lives in a caravan and a tent shared with seven other people, including her daughter and four grandchildren, at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans.
She is one of a growing number of whites living below the poverty line in South Africa who blame affirmative action and the ANC-led elected government for their plight.
Le Roux had to sell her house after her husband died and she lost her job as a secretary at the city planning council — where she had worked for 26 years — after she took time off work to recover from the loss of her husband.
“They wouldn’t take me back because of the political situation,” she says, looking down at the fading photo.
@ rewdy41.
Your response is the exact image of what the previous comments were saying; this just proves that with the new south africa comes just another new attitude. The persecution and starvation they found in their own lands? It was the age of discovery! Your speaking like your barely educated.
I quote
“You fill Isreal with white European jew converts so you could claim the biblical stories and paint Jesus as a white man, and therefore make god into a white man.”
Jesus was a dark palestinian at the time and therefore was not white, acknowledged. European Jew converts? The Jewish population in Israel fled from their European countries because of persecution and at no time were given the chance to convert because the ruling authorities wanted to class them as Jewish.
But this convert idea is nonsense, for pitty sake the war with the palestinians is because of religion; they would not let themselves be converted by another.
Try reading a history book or two before you start judging and abusing it.
from Africa News blog:
PHOTOBLOG: Children in Kenya and Haiti forced to grow up fast, if they survive
I had a flashback the other day when I was looking at photographs from Haiti of 15-year-old Fabianne Geismar, shot dead in the head after stealing wall hangings from a Port-au-Prince store, crushed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.
The image of Fabianne sprawled on the ground, blood trailing over the paintings she'd grabbed, took me back to my own childhood in Nairobi and the sight of a 7- or 8-year-old-boy - probably the same age as me at the time - who was caught stealing sweets from a street vendor and was beaten and burnt with rubber tyres. They called it mob justice.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
To this day, I'll never understand why that poor boy had to die such a violent and senseless death for something so trivial. I feel the same way about Fabianne - she survived one of the most catastrophic events in living memory, only to be shot in the head for petty theft. And for stealing wall hangings where there are no walls.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
UNICEF, RedCross, and every other organization out there should address problem #1, HAVING BABIES.
You can’t fix the problem when women are having tons of babies starting in their teen years.
SPEND MONEY ON BIRTH CONTROL AND EDUCATE THESE IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE ON WHY THEY NEED TO STOP HAVING KIDS.
Let me guess, it’s politically incorrect or RACIST to do that, right? Ok then, good luck fixing the problem.
-
Resident Photographers Blog Expert
-
The Wall
