posted
WARNING about the following link... don't click if you're sensitive about sad things happening to babies and children.
An email about this picture is going around again.
I don't know where the "turkey" quote I made in the thread came from, kind of seems out of place, but anyway... a thought struck me about the photo.
Supposedly the email says the photographer, Kevin Carter, left there and killed himself since.
I got a little mean when I "replied all" and said "Umm, stupid question, why didn't the guy just PICK UP THE BABY AND TAKE HIM TO GET FOOD? I'd kill myself if I were that stupid too."
The email claimed the baby was crawling toward a UN camp which was a kilometre away... so I figured the guy could try to pick up the baby and bring him there.
The mind boggles.
-------------------- Stand up, slip on the bathtub floor, fling a hand up to balance yourself, and happen to have your mouth open on the downswing. Voila, a new hole in your face.
-Tabby, on how she cut her lip while shaving her legs. Posts: 5097 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Well, not exactly an excuse, but the whole starvation thing is so overwhelming, picking up one child would then get you to thinking about the other million in the same boat. You only have so many hands...
-------------------- And now for something completely different... Posts: 4164 | From: Alabama | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
The Wikipedia article states that it was suicide. It also says that journalists and the like were warned against touching famine victims as disease prevention.
I would guess that this contributed to his suicide, but probably wasn't the only reason.
Regardless, that photo is absolutely heartbreaking.
That's why I'm going to Africa when I finish nursing school.
-------------------- "Are we talking misdemeanor trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?" Posts: 618 | From: Ann Arbor, Michigan | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Doug4.7: Well, not exactly an excuse, but the whole starvation thing is so overwhelming, picking up one child would then get you to thinking about the other million in the same boat. You only have so many hands...
This is a poem that could answer that...
Once Person Can Make a Difference
One morning just before dawn, a man woke early so he could watch the sunrise over the ocean. As he walked along the beach, he came across a young girl who seemed to be doing something peculiar. She was picking up starfish and throwing them into the sea-one after another. He asked her what she was doing.
"The tide washes up all these starfish and they can't get back by themselves," she said. "they will die in the sun if I don't throw them back in the water."
The man looked up and down the beach at the thousands of stranded starfish. He couldn't help telling her, "But there are too many starfish to save before sunrise. Why bother? You won't make much of a difference."
She paused for a moment, then picked up another starfish and threw it as far as her slender arm could manage. With a satisfied grin, she turned to the man and simply said, "I made a difference to that one."
The man stood in silence, considering the girl's youthful wisdom. Then with a smile of his own, he reached down for a starfish...and tossed it into the sea.
Posts: 332 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Brandi: Please do not let the glurge out of its containment unit.
That was brilliant.
Mind if I use that in my sig?
-------------------- 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. That is when the world will end. Posts: 7158 | From: D.C. | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Try reading this book: http://digitalfilmmaker.net/Bang/bangbangclub.html The Bang Bang Club, I read it a few years ago. It's the real stories about these photographers and journalists in South Africa who took pictures of violence and such. There are many more terrible yet powerful photographs in there and stories behind each one. If I recall, this picture was taken by Kevin on a sort of side-trip. to Sudan. After he took the photograph, he chased the vulture away, and then sat under a tree to cry. He was used to photgraphing violence, but not starvation and terrible living conditions. The child was only around 100 meters away from the feeding center, and more than likely, the child's mother had left her there while she went to go get food. Yes, he did commit suicide eventually. So many people constantly getting angry at him for not assisting the child was part of it, but the countless other horrifying things he saw and photgraphed every day kind of pushed him over the edge. Several other photographers like him either committed suicide, or were killed while taking pictures. Not a job I would want.
Posts: 51 | From: Kansas | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
In a very small way I'm grateful to see photos like these because they make me appreciate my baby a little more.
-------------------- "Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you." - C. G. Jung Posts: 243 | From: Marina del Rey, CA | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Don't know if this helps or not, but figured I'd just say something about this picture real quick:
My father had this photo in his cubicle for over 30 years. He said whenever he thought his life was tough, he looked at the child in the photo.
My father also told me the photographer waited hours for that photo hoping to see the vulture spread it's wings.
Posts: 7 | From: Richmond, VA | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:She paused for a moment, then picked up another starfish and threw it as far as her slender arm could manage. With a satisfied grin, she turned to the man and simply said, "I made a difference to that one."
Camera pans to the starfish out in the water, his buddy asks him "What are you doing back here"? He replies, "Three days I spent crawling to the beach to get some sun, then some NFBSK comes along and throws me back in the surf"!
[/HIJACK]
-------------------- Infinite goodness is creating a being you know, in advance, is going to complain. Captain Billy Cutshaw Posts: 582 | From: Germany | Registered: Oct 2002
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quote:She paused for a moment, then picked up another starfish and threw it as far as her slender arm could manage. With a satisfied grin, she turned to the man and simply said, "I made a difference to that one."
Camera pans to the starfish out in the water, his buddy asks him "What are you doing back here"? He replies, "Three days I spent crawling to the beach to get some sun, then some NFBSK comes along and throws me back in the surf"!
[/HIJACK]
Meanwhile, back on the beach, an albatross searched in vain for the food it normally scavenged off the beach to feed its brood, but there was none. Mournfully it flew back to its nest on the cliffs, where the two skinny chicks bleated woefully to their mother. They would both die in the night.
Posts: 305 | From: South Africa | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by JWess: Don't know if this helps or not, but figured I'd just say something about this picture real quick:
My father had this photo in his cubicle for over 30 years.
That's pretty impressive, considering the photo was taken in 1993.
-------------------- You fail to consider, for such is the tyranny of fashion, that the swan is not a slim animal... -Jincy Kornhauser, Melinda Falling Posts: 1762 | From: Charleston, West Virginia | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Whoops! Looks like I had my info wrong there. Guess that's how urban legends start, huh? Thanks for the correction! be well, JW
Posts: 7 | From: Richmond, VA | Registered: Nov 2005
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