Poverty Is Not an Accident

Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela

Saturday, March 12, 2011

help the Japanese

"God" won't hear your pleas. So, get up off your knees, rolling up your sleeves and HELP THE JAPANESE! ~Rogi Riverstone 03/11/2011
nonbelievers giving aid to Japan: http://givingaid.richarddawkins.net/

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 Comment to a fellow non-believer:
James, I got "blocked" yesterday by Facebook from posting in public pages/groups, as I'd posted so many links to aid and relief organizations all over the 'net. Their software assumed I was generating spam, not trying to help people save their own lives. Same happened during Egyptian demonstrations, too.

Anyway, I cannot find the source of this photo, and I really looked. I traced it back to a facebook site, and there are 2 copies of it in blogs (one is mine). I tried all sorts of search categories, including different combination of words like Korean, Film, Dead Child, Flood, Chinese, Japanese, Tsunami, etc. I cannot find it. Wish I could. Like you, I want my facts verified, and it is very seldom that I use photos or data I can't verify.

I chose to use the photo, anyway, because of its allegorical, metaphorical, symbolic message and because it is so powerful. I don't know what race or nationality the subjects might be, who took the photo nor for what purpose. Under the extreme circumstances of the situation in Japan, and because I KNEW rednecks would, somehow, blame the Japanese for this tragedy, I felt it vital to convey as compassionate, empathetic and gripping an image as I could find. I also chose an image that is intimate and close up. I felt a photo of the vast devastation is too difficult for a human to conceptualize in terms of personal suffering.

To me, this photo, in this context, IS Japan, holding her child, grieving. We do not know who she is nor whether this child is alive or dead. I feel this photo is a meditation on the horror of tragedy: something to which we have become desensitized in over-stimulating media these days.

I wanted people to hurt when they saw this. And I wanted them to know it is our collective responsibility to WORK to help one another, immediately and hard, to alleviate such massive suffering.

My source:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27426&id=136051966462989
You like these better?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/03/11/2011-03-11_millions_of_japanese_stranded_in_tokyo_in_aftermath_of_earthquake_tsunami_as_tra.html
http://www.hindustantimes.com/photos-news/Photos-World/tearsandfears/Article4-672241.aspx

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