Accomplishments

So i got to volunteer at Catholic Community Services again and it was another awesome experience. The man that i worked with was very young. He was probably only eighteen or nineteen years old and is working hard to get his high school diploma here in Utah. For one of the activities the refugees were writing down some of the things that they had accomplished in their lives. This young man wrote down "I survived the civil war." I thought about that for a few minutes and I didn't say anything, but it had a huge impact on me. His brother who was also there said that all of the men in their family except for their father were killed in the civil war. I always thought that being an eagle scout was a good accomplishment, but after hearing their stories I realize that I have been through nothing in my life. Another man, this one from Africa, said that when he was a child his father was dragged outside and shot to death in front of the family. His mother then took all of her children and their grandmother on foot across the border so that they wouldn't also be shot. The courage that these people have is amazing. Being able to meet refugees and hear their stories has made this issue so much more personal and I am thankful for it.

You've Got Mail

Here Salgado has photographed the refugees from the Bihac pocket while they are waiting for mail. Once a week the Red Cross delivered mail to hundreds of people that were waiting to hear from relatives and friends. Through the barbed wire you can see their solemn faces. They have experienced pain and despair but they keep their optimism. They wait at the fence every week in hopes that someone they know is well and concerned for them. It is amazing how much a simple note can mean after so many traumas. We often take for granted the simple conveniences of e-mail and instant messaging. We can communicate with anyone in the world in a matter of seconds. We can even see pictures or watch video of each other. All the refugees want is to hear from those they love, but it is the one thing that many of them can’t have.

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Sebastiao Salgado. Photograph. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition [Children Today: Men and Women of the New Century]". Legends Online. PDN and Kodak Professional. Web. ND. 17 March 2010

Education Matters

This photo by Salgado depicts a young child sitting in the Natinga School camp in southern Sudan. Although the photograph is focused on the child we can make out the rough conditions that these students try to learn in. The bench is made of a few sticks slapped together. A lot of times these kids are the children of very educated people. I recently volunteered for Catholic Community Services to help refugees learn how to find work in the United States. I was amazed at the level of education some of these people have. The two people I worked with were incredibly intelligent. One has a master’s degree and is applying to get into a doctorate program here. The other held a managerial position for many years in Iraq. The process of finding a job here in the United States is so much different than where the refugees come from that even the most educated men and women have to learn how to go through the process of interviews and resume’s before they can put their talents to use.

Sebastiao Salgado. Photograph. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition [The Human Family Around the World]". Legends Online. PDN and Kodak Professional. Web. ND. 11 March 2010.

Afraid of Heights?

Here Salgado photographed a man clinging to the rebar infrastructure of a very tall building in Kuningan Jakarta in Indonesia. He is a refugee working in construction and it is most likely the only job he could get. Often in developing countries and cities the main focus in construction is speed with safety and quality being distant afterthoughts.

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In 2007 in Baku Azerbaijan there was a tragic collapse of a sixteen story block of flats. The collapse was determined to have been caused by poor foundations and shoddy workmanship. At the time, Valeh Askerov, a refugee was working on the eleventh story putting final touches on the finish work in the building (Guliev). Valeh originally got a degree from the Azerbaijan Oil Academy but was unable to find work in his profession (Guliev). He took the job at the flat one month prior to the collapse because he could not find other employment (Guliev). He was believed to have been killed in the collapse.

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Refugees are considered second class citizens throughout the world and unfortunately until governments are held accountable for regulating safety conditions refugees will remain simply the collateral damage of cheap contractors.

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Sebastiao Salgado. Photograph. "Migrations: Humanity in Transition [The Human Family Around the World]". Legends Online. PDN and Kodak Professional. Web. ND. 3 March 2010.

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Guliev, Emin. “Building Tragedy Reverberates Through Baku.” Institute for War & Peace Reporting. 6 September 2007. Web. 3 March 2010

A Distasteful End

Photograph by Salgado. Can you even imagine having to bury bodies with construction equipment? Here in Kibumba, Zaire after the devastation of the Rwandan Genocide, bodies are piled into mass graves. There were well over a thousand bodies here and with volcanic terrain digging graves was difficult. The French and Americans were some of the first to arrive with heavy machinery for excavating the land. Most of the bodies were moved by Rwandan Nationals hired by aid agencies. (Perlez) There was great personal risk in moving the dead because of the disease and illness in the bodies. In my life I have seen little death. Very few of my close relatives have passed on and death seems almost fictional to me. I cannot fathom having to bury people in such a distasteful way. I understand the inability to perform thousands of proper burials, but my heart shutters to think that so many left this world in such an appalling manner.

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Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. New York, 2000. 193

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Perlez, Jane. “At Disease-Ravaged Camps, a Battle to Bury the Dead.” New York Times. 1 August 1994. Web. 2 February 2010

Left to Tell Book Review

Immaculee Ilibagiza did a phenomenal job conveying the emotional distress she faced in hiding during the Rwandan Genocide. She somehow found the courage to harrow up the things that have haunted her for the past fifteen years. Immaculee used vivid imagery to get her point across but at the same time did not offend. I was most impressed with the bluntness she used in writing her account. At times I felt as though I were there in Rwanda with her. She spoke of horrible events not in a way that upsets but in a way that inspires. How she can face her past in such a frank way is beyond me. After reading this book I feel that my eyes have been opened to the reality of hate and the need for love. She referred back to her religious experiences often and explained how she used them to get through such terrible times. I thought that she did a very good job of including religious references without being offensive. This is an excellent book both in content and in writing. It is very easy to read and almost impossible to put down. I would recommend this book to everyone.

The Voice of a Warchild

Emmanuel Jal also known as the Warchild is a refugee from Sudan. He was born in a war torn Sudan where death and despair were everywhere. At the age of five he watched as his mother was beaten and his aunt was raped. He grew up with hate for Arabs and Muslims.

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Three years later he joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He spent the following three years fighting and watching his friends die around him. When Jal was eleven, his group of four hundred soldiers had diminished to just sixteen. With starvation facing the remaining sixteen some turned to cannibalism. Although tempted to eat his comrades in an attempt to survive he never brought himself to do it.

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At this time, the lowest point in his life, a British aid worker named Emma McCune came to his rescue. She brought Jal to Kenya where he received an education. He realized it wasn’t the Arabs or Muslims as a whole that killed his family, but a handful of corrupt and greedy individuals. With this realization he turned his pent up hate and vengeance into love.

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In 2005 Jal moved to the United Kingdom and began sharing his experiences through music and poetry. He uses rhetoric to build awareness for refugees much as I am trying to in this blog. Jal has committed to eating one meal a day until his aid fund has raised enough money to build a school in Sudan. Since hearing his story, Jal has become one of my personal heroes. I hope that he will move you in the way he has moved me.

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TEDtalksDirector. "Emmanuel Jal: The Music of a War Child." Youtube. Web. February 18 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_dHdNOgSA

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Ervine, Dean. "Emmanuel Jal: The War Child Fighting for a Better Future." CNN World. November 26 2009. Web. February 18 2010