April 10, 2011
Japan And Haiti: Picturing The Unimaginable
Photojournalists travel the world, using their cameras to tell stories about how we live and who we are. Their tales are often of war, famine or disease; sometimes, of triumph and joy. The disasters in Haiti one year ago and now in Japan challenge even the best photojournalists to compose a shot that helps us get a sense of the horrific scale of destruction that nature has visited upon both countries. NPR photographer David Gilkey takes us on a tour of these forbidden landscapes and the people who are left to inhabit them. Though their respective tragedies are half a world apart, the stories these pictures tell of destruction and loss are eerily similar.
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I recommend that you go visit this website www.NewMessage.org, and read some inspirational material I found there, as well as audio. I feel very sadden by all of this, and want to share with the people that are open enough to look for the bigger truth.
The horror between the two were not exactly the same .. Haiti’s quake was gory.. with hundreds of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands of others hurt .. and thousands with amputated limbs .. and a million homeless .. Japan’s quake and tsunami was devastating .. with thousands dead .. but we didn’t see the bloody scenes on T.V. of Japan as we did Haiti. What parallels are you trying to show in your photos? That mother nature doesn’t care about poor, rich, or ethnicity? Then point well taken. These were two incredible disasters, impacting two distinct cultures at opposite ends of the economic spectrum. Japan’s GDP per Capita is about $40,0000 .. Haiti is $650 per year .. Let’s not forget Katrina and what occurred here in our own backyard. Was the pain of the Americans we watched on t.v. during Katrina any different then that of the Haitian people?
Herby Lissade, P.E.
President
Haiti Engineering, inc.
www.HaitiEngineering.org
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To Orionjib and the (as of now) 7 people who agreed with him: I encourage you to remember these photos are one of millions of possible perspectives and images of these disasters. This pictorial is the product of deliberate choices about which pictures to exclude and exclude. I will not pretend to know why these particular images were juxtaposed to each other. I'll leave that to someone else. But, to say you realize you're making a "generalization" does not undo what you have done (as indicated by those who stand in agreement). Critical thinking is a far better tool for understanding the world than are generalizations.
Of course, you need a govt more that, which means that people would have to be willing to pay taxes for that. It means that they would have to be willing to pay people to take public jobs for this. Never mind. That'll never happen. Better just stick our heads back in the sand and say "It's unimaginable".
Thanks.
"It is difficult for me to wrap my head around the stark differences in the Japanese and Haitian culture."
Except that it isn't simply a matter of differences in culture, but also a matter of differences in history (e.g., the long history of enslavement in Haiti, which had aftereffects continuing long past the actual period of slavery; the long periods of rule by foreigners or by corrupt rulers such as "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier) and differences in economics (e.g., there's less likely to be looting when the population can trust that the needy will be cared for).
"I marvel at the diversity of human spirit."
I've travelled in a lot of (mostly poor) countries, and I don't actually have the sense that the human spirit differs so much across countries, though different cultures certainly have different histories, practices, etc.
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My heart goes out to the suffering people of all countries, whether the disasters they face are natural or man-made, and I thank the photojournalists who help to communicate their suffering to those of us far away.