Thursday, April 23, 2009

On the other side of the globe







There's this amazing photographic presetation at the Aliance Française of Buenos Aires going on these days, organised to celebrate Médecins du Monde's 10 years in Argentina with photos by some really good photographers depicting life in some of the harshest places in our planet.

And the serie that caught my eye is "Crisis in Congo" by Andrew McConnell. The photos are unbelievable, the kind that just take your breath away as they open a huge question mark or unleash a turmoil of thoughts in your head. The first thing I thought when I saw the first picture was: "Gosh, there's someone sleeping in those huts tonight". I know it's silly, but it's not a thought that occurs to you when you go about doing your regular stuff. It caught me by surprise as I was going to my French classes. And it made me think of the times when I wanted to work with refugees and the UN in my teen years...

There's a whole world out there, and sometimes I feel like we're completely disconnected from it, from them. And I know there's a lot of people in need right here too, but when you read about the millions of people that are being pushed out of their land into refugee camps due to the political interests of a few... it just makes you think, and not be comfortably seated in a cubicle any more.



To see more mindblowing photos by Andrew McConnell click here.

1 comment:

Cristina said...

I had quite the same thought after watching "Slumdog..." or reading day to day about Darfur (a pity so many people don't have a clue about this) or so many situations similar to those. I think it's wonderful to learn this actually is happening RIGHT NOW, while we're planning our weekends, future trips, posting on Facebook, or dying for a pair of shoes or boots we can hardly afford!
But it's not enough to JUST sit uncomfortable in our cubicles: we should transform that into a positive attitude: it should at the very least move us to be thankful for how blessed we actually are and, as a consequence, make a good and responsible use day to day of everything we have at our reach...
Of course, if you have a blog or access to media or decision makers, there's a lot of work to start doing too ;)
Hope you agree... LOVE your blog!