Carlos, Mhondoro Village, Zimbabwe

Carlos, Mhondoro Village, Zimbabwe, originally uploaded by electricfrog.

This little boy, a magnficent drummer, had recently lost his father to AIDS. His mother was having a very hard time supporting his basic school tuition (less than a dollar a month).

Photo by Greg Searle, London - UK.

Kurd

kurd, originally uploaded by roadwarrior.

Somewhere in the Turkish Kurdistan mountains, near the border with Syria. Six o'clock children leave for school and this man offers a cup of tea. The Kurds are almost 25 million between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Taken in 2002

Photo byDavid Clifford, Lisbon - PORTUGAL.

Homeless Mike

Homeless Mike, originally uploaded by wd9hot.

Photo by Leroy Skalstad.

Waiting for that miracle...

Waiting for that miracle..., originally uploaded by carf.

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (1926 -), Vietnamese Buddhist monk.

On their TV screens last week, at home and abroad, millions of Brazilian eyes watched the work done by CARF to benefit hundreds of at-risk children in this country. But I wonder, did they manage to see through the splendour of that exuberant performance or were we simply just another TV show? Do they really recognize our painstaking efforts to bring stars into the eyes of such innocent children as little Jhony above?

I honestly hope so, because there are so many like him in this country still waiting for that miracle to happen.

Photo by Gregory J. Smith, São Paulo - BRASIL.

Eric, el niño de Rundu.

Eric, el niño de Rundu., originally uploaded by Morganilla.

Se llama Eric, y vive en Rundu, una de las pocas ciudades del Norte de Namibia. Recorre la ciudad (aunque para nosotros no es más que un pequeño pueblo) con una caja desgastada, llena de piedras y minerales. Los vende a los turistas y se saca unas monedas.
Rebusqué entre las piedras preciosas y compré unas bonitas amatistas, que guardo como un tesoro.
Guillermo le regaló su gorro y se puso loco de contento.

Photo by Claudia, near Barcelona - SPAIN.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, originally uploaded by brookenovak.

I'll let the image speak for itself . . .

Taken around lunch time on Thanksgiving Day while I was walking some old train tracks past Piedmont Park.

Photo by Brooke Novak, Atlantia, Georgia - USA.

Street children of Pharghang

street children of pharghang, originally uploaded by 3rdworld.

I took the photo in a suburb of new Delhi called Pharghang. These two girls survive by picking up trash and receiving donations from merchants and tourists. This working-class section of Delhi was recently bombed by terrorists and 30 people died.

Photo by Max Taves, Los Angeles - USA.

So many wishes.........only so many knots.

So many wishes.........only so many knots., originally uploaded by HORIZON.

GHADAMGAH is a village which is located on the way from Mashhad to N
Neyshabour. What makes this ancient and beautiful village important for
Siiat Muslims is that there are a pair of foot prints on a piece of stone, which they believe belong to Imam Reza (the eighth religious leader after
Mohammad the prophet).

I've uploaded some images from this village which mainly are added
to my Forgotten Land set.

Meanwhile I'm going to upload some shots of that part of the village
which attracts too many pilgrims and visitors, not only from other cities
of Iran but also pilgrims from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Arabian countries.

Photo by HOTIZON, Iran.

Early Morning Isarn

Early Morning Isarn, originally uploaded by Jan Dara.

Isarn - the driest, poorest area of Thailand. The two times I visited friends in Isarn I was shocked at the lack of food and amazed at the hospitality. Even though I always took food, I had to stop going just to make sure I wasn't a burden for my friend's family.

Photo by Jan Dara

Tuol Sleng - Prisoners, Cambodia

Tuol Sleng - Prisoners, Cambodia, originally uploaded by Timoluege.

This picture shows two prisoners of Tuol Sleng, sometimes called "S-21", one of the most gruesom prisons the Khmer Rouge operated during their reign in Cambodia (1975-1979).

Tuol Sleng used to be a highschool in a rather affluent suburb of Phnom Penh before the Khmer Rouge decided to turn it into a high security prison and extermination camp.

People were brought here to ascertain their guilt. Upon arrival all were photographed. Innocence was never an option since ideology dictated that "the party is always right". Unfortunately a lot of people didn't realize that and kept insisting that they were innocent until they finally broke under torture, admitted their "guilt" and named "conspirers" who were then torturend and killed as well.

After the interrogators got their "confessions" the prisoners were killed and burried on the so called killing fields "Cheung Ek". 17,000 people were killed this way. When the Vietnamese army arrived in Phom Penh in 1979, they only found seven survivors.

As the picture shows people of all ages were killed in Toul Sleng, even newborn babies whose mothers gave birth while in custody.

Most prisoners were not shot but clubbed to death with rifle-buts or killed with machetes since the Khmer Rouge were short on bullets. The regime never spoke of "killings", btw. Enemies were simply "destroyed", a wording that served to further dehumanize the victims.

More information about the Khmer Rouge Years is available from the Cambodian Genocide Project

Photo by Timo Luege, Munich - GERMANY.

A Life, Santiago, Chile, 2005

A Life, Santiago, Chile, 2005, originally uploaded by Marcelo Montecino.

Photo by Marcelo Montecino, Bethesda, MD - USA.

The cupboard is bare

the cupboard is bare, originally uploaded by lorrainemd.

A piece about my own struggle with poverty.

Model: me

Photo by Lorraine Daley, Philadelphia - USA.

Pulo Island

Pulo Island, originally uploaded by Kjell Håkon K. Larsen.

Photo by Kjell Håkon K.Larsen, Oslo - NORWAY.

Cova

cova02, originally uploaded by mikelegurra.

Cova da moura.

Photo by Maique Madeira, PORTUGAL.

A crack house and little girl

"A crack house and little girl"!, originally uploaded by Angie Geworsky & Richard Klassen.

This picture was taken across the street of one of my friends. This is a known drug house with many people living inside. All day long you see traffic coming and going, one can only imagine what it must be like being a child having to live in a situation like this.

In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan there is a move to try and help drug addictition, but it has become so powerfull that it will now be hard to control.

Methadone is not the answer, there must be hope for these people or they will continue to need the drugs to null the pain of reality.

As a person with a heart I can only say "that it is time" we all do something to help those addicted by giving them back (hope).

Photo by Angie Geworsky & Richard Klassen, Saskatoon, SK - CANADA.

Holy blessings

Holy blessings, originally uploaded by lapidim.

Haridwar - India

Photo by Mario Lapid, Madrid - SPAIN.

Shade

Shade, originally uploaded by More Altitude.

A young boy crouches in a patch of shade to escape the midday sun. Wourtchi, central Niger.

Photo by Powder Monkey, Melbourne - AUSTRALIA.

Caroreño

Caroreño, originally uploaded by Ram!.

Photo by Ram Martinez, Barquisimeto - VENEZUELA.

No Forró

No Forró, originally uploaded by Paula Marina.

Photo by Paula Marina Castro, BRASIL.

Laughing

Laughing, originally uploaded by Samantha Casolari.

For more than 17 years the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group trying to overthrow the Ugandan government, has been attacking the north of the country, where the Acholi people live.

More than a million are now displaced as a consequence of these bloody merciless attacks, this is more than 80% of the Acholi people. These forgotten lives live in conditions that to none of us could believe possible: overcrowded camps with little food, generally provided by the World Food Programs and NGOs, almost no sanitation and no other protection other than the one provided by the Ugandan Army, whose soldiers are certainly no better off and at times harass the displaced themselves.

The most affected by this largely unknown war are the children. Often without a family, they are constantly at risk of being kidnapped by the rebels, trained to kill and to loot and forced to use the same brutality of their kidnappers on their own families and friends.

These are two of the many children I met in the camps around Gulu, the main town in the North. The Acholi children are incredibly nice, curious and warm, despite the tragic nightmare they had to live every day. They want to grow up and become doctors to help their people, or teacher to give others kids that chance to learn they don' t have. They asked no food, no money, no help. They just asked me to go out there and tell their story, cause they are aware nobody knows out there. And there is no doubt only few people know about this endless tragedy, its forgotten faces and their little great wishes.

I hope this can be a good way to let you know about them.... and I hope you don't forget.

Photo by Samantha Casolari, Brooklyn, NY -USA.

Ahmed Al-Khatib

Ahmed Al-Khatib, originally uploaded by AnomalousNYC.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.

Four days ago, Ahmed, an 11 year old Palestinian refugee, was shot in the head by an Israeli Occupation Soldier in the Jenin refugee camp.

Yesterday, Nov. 8, Mohammad Hamdi Abu Salha, age 15, died after being shot in the head by an Israeli Occupation soldier in the Nablus refugee camp.

They are, respectively, the 56th and 57th Palestinian children to be killed in 2005, many of them by shots to the head. 23 children were killed in the month of January alone. Some were run over by Israeli military jeeps, some were blown up by missiles, some were killed by grenades, some were murdered while playing, some the victims of hit-&-runs by Israelis, some struck by Israeli gunfire in their own homes, others assassinated for peacefully protesting, others murdered for throwing stones; some were killed by settlers, some by undercover soldiers, some by Israeli "security guards", some snipers and others by regular soldiers.

11 of the Palestinians killed this year were under 12 years old. One was 3.

-------------------------------

Ahmed was eleven years when he was murdered this week, on the celebrations of the first day of the religious holiday Eid Al-Fitr, by an Israeli Occupation soldier who claimed he thought the child was holding a gun. Later, the Israeli Army circulated to the media photos of a toy gun that they claim was his, but his father says the story of the gun was fabricated - the children were playing with sticks.

The soldier, who was unseen and using a high-velocity sniper rifle from a purported distance of 130 yards, first "put down" the child by shooting him in the crotch/hip. Afterards, while he was on the ground, to "verify the shot", he was then shot in his head.

JULIANO MER-KHAMIS: "Way did you shoot at his head, when you already had put him down with your first shot?"
SOLDIER: "It's matter of procedure."
JULIANO: "But even if you mistook him for a sniper,
why kill him? He didn't shoot at you, even if he was holding a toy gun, as you claimed."
SOLDIER: "I told you, it's matter of procedure."

At the time of the same holiday last year, another Israeli soldier in another Palestinian refugee camp murdered a 13-year-old girl, Iman al-Hams. After announcing over his walkie-talkie that he had identified her as a child, he proceeded to shoot her in the crotch/hip, bringing her to the ground. According to eyewitness Chris MacGreal, Middle East chief reporter for the London Guardian, "four or five soldiers emerged from the army post and shot at her from a distance. Palestinian witnesses and some Israeli soldiers say that the platoon commander moved in closer to put two bullets in the child’s head. They say that he then walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body.
Said the doctor: “The [seventeen] bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face. Another bullet went from the neck to the face and damaged the area under the mouth.” Iman was already dead when some of bullets hit her."

Afterwards, the soldier who fired 17 bullets into a 13-year-old girls head at close range also explained that it was "a matter of procedure" to do so, explaining that she had walked too close to an area - a recently confiscated Palestinian olive orchard - that the Israelis had declared a "forbidden zone."

.................

Over the last 1,500 days, more than 700 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers. That's about 1 Palestinian child murdered every 48 hours. Many of them were infants and elementary schoolchildren and large numbers were killed inside their own homes and schools or while playing immediately outside their homes and schools.

In the same period, over 10,000 other Palestinian children have been shot - with inexplicably huge numbers of them shot in the head - and many hundreds left crippled and scarred for life.

"I hope we can live a peaceful life without the killing of children. My children and the Palestinian children in the camp are dreaming of a life in peace and freedom."
-- Ismail Khatib, Ahmed's father, upon donating his son's organs to save the lives of Jewish children.

"You don’t simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away. I prefer to advocate a more positive policy... to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave."
--Ariel Sharon, quoted in David Bernstein (reporting from Jerusalem), "Forcible removal of Arabs gaining support in Israel", The Times (London), August 24, 1988.

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." -- David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

"...ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas ... in order to accomplish the occupation of territory to the exclusion of the purged group." --UN Report on Crimes in Bosnia, 1992

"Ariel Sharon is a killer obsessed with his hatred of Palestinians." -- US Ambassador Philip Habib, Reagan's Middle East Envoy

"Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office. Sharon continues to organise terror. Today the Israeli government is helping to promote a wholly distorted picture of racism and religious discrimination in Europe, implying that the most serious upsurge of hatred and discrimination is against Jews. The same universal human values that recognise the Holocaust as the greatest racist crime of the 20th century require condemnation of the policies of successive Israeli governments - not on the absurd grounds that they are equivalent to the Holocaust, but because ethnic cleansing, discrimination and terror are immoral. They are also fuelling anger and violence across the world." --Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London

"How wrong does Israel have to be before you speak up?"
--Shulamit Aloni, former member of the Israeli Knesset

"The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established normally. Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children ... Palestinians are not struggling for a "state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa ..."
--Nelson Mandela, March 2001

"The Palestinians are animals. They are less than human. They are savage beasts. Israel is a land of love. People in Israel love one another. But the Palestinians do not love. They hate. They should be destroyed. We should put fire to them. We should take back Beit Jala, Bethlehem, take back all the land and get rid of them." --reporter for the Israeli Arabic Press service quoted in A GAZA DIARY, www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/011001_hedges.html

"[Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs." --Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the `Beasts,"` New Statesman, June 25, 1982.

We must get rid of Palestinians "the same way you get rid of lice." -- Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehevam Ze`evi concerning Arab labor inside Israel, July 2, 2001

"Zionism is a form of racism." --General Assembly of the United Nations

"It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct." --Mahatma Gandhi, 1939

"The notion of being "neutral" is soothing to most people because it is ostensibly fair, it is optimistic, it is positive, obviating the need for negativity and unpleasantness. But a balanced position in an unbalanced situation inevitably is a miscarriage of justice. Neutrality in Palestine-Israel is no different from refusing to take a stand between slaves and slave owners, or between children and abusive priests." --Kathleen Christison, former CIA agent

"I can`t stand to see the children get shot. I don`t care about the others. But when the children get shot I cry. I can`t take it. I feel like I am sixty." -- Mohammed Abu Rich

Photo by AnomalousNYC, Lower East Side - USA.

Boy - Dominican Republic

, originally uploaded by P!ndaro.

Photo by Roberto Muñoz, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Woman and Recovering Child

Woman and Recovering Child, originally uploaded by More Altitude.

A child recovers from malnutrition at an NGO-run feeding centre in southern Niger during the 2005 food emergency.

Photo by Powder Monkey, Melbourne - AUSTRALIA.

Tangier, Morocco

Tangier, Morocco, originally uploaded by shadowplay.

Photo by Hans Proppe, Agua Dulce, Ca. & Whidbey Island, Wa. - USA.

Bolivia - Anciana en su casa

Bolivia 2. Anciana en su casa., originally uploaded by dgr.

Apenas vi ancianos a las afueras de Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Los pocos que había eran invalidos sociales. Apenas podían sobrevivir por si mismos y, de esta forma, se les trataba como a los niños.

Photo by David G., Madrid - SPAIN.

The Witnesses

the witnesses, originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal.

Photo by Tatiana Cardeal, São Paulo – BRAZIL.

Taken during a cultural performance by children and young people of the Grupo Cultural Beija-Flor on Brazilian Children’s Day

Moderators comments:

I'm so moved by this image that I decided to release our in-house pre-recording of the song "Valor Negro", which belongs to the presentation you see in Tatiana's image above.

Look deeply into the large size of this image then close your eyes and listen.
The song, a historic reflection of the negro's plight for freedom and justice, was created and is performed by the kids in our programme and will be the basis of our Music Video Clip to be filmed next week.

Just click here and wait a few minutes for the song to download.
Then PLAY and ENJOY!

This fabulous image is of Poca (Jefferson), one of my “adopted” former street kids, who is the older brother of Eliana and Sandra, all three having spent a good deal of their childhood living on the streets. He is also the brother of my youngest Prince Charming, Vando.

This Capoeira Video Clip, made by youth from Gumbo TV – USA during their visit to the Hummingbird Project in São Paulo, includes interviews with Poca, now capoeira instructor at Hummingbird.

The African slaves who were hauled to Brazil hundreds of years ago, brought with them their culture and their traditions. They were robbed of their freedom but their wealthy culture and their strong spirit became very much a part of Brazilian culture and tradition. Their Afro-Brazilian descendents were responsible for developing the unique and sporting art of Capoeira, which has been our “flagship” programme at Hummingbird since 1993.
Implanted as part of our street kids recuperation programme, capoeira has been an important “tool” in rescuing the lives of many kids from the hardships of the streets, as it also was during the freedom fight of the slaves more than 120 years ago.

Youth mentor and capoeira instructor, Poca, knows only too well about the hardships of the streets, as he himself is one of those who have been recuperated with the help of Capoeira. His greatest desire whilst on the streets was to one day become a Capoeira Master. This special photo, dear Tatiana, represents not only the plight of all our African brothers and sisters but also Poca’s own plight for freedom from drugs and the streets. Today, one can reasonably say that he has realised his dream.

If you would like to know more about Poca's background, go visit our fabulous Capoeira Website, click on the links bar under "Academy", then "Instructors" and then scroll along to "Poca".
A wonderful story, which enforces even more this fabulous image!

Century of Humanity

Century of Humanity, originally uploaded by camera_rwanda.

"No matter how idealistic the aim sounds, this new century must become the Century of Humanity, when we as human beings rise above race, creed, colour, religion and national self-interest and put the good of humanity above the good of our own tribe. For the sake of the children and our future. Peux ce que veux. Allons-y."

Lt. General Roméo Dallaire, Force Commanding Officer of the UN Assistance Mission To Rwanda, 1993-1994.

From his conclusion to _Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.



Please read his book if you are interested in learning about Rwanda's history and about our own imperfect humanity.

Genocide Memorial.
Nyamata, Rwanda.
June, 2005.

Photo by Kresta King Cutcher, Tucson - USA.

We only come to sleep, only to dream...

We only come to sleep, only to dream..., originally uploaded by carf.

All Soul's Day - Los Dias de los Muertos - The Day of the Dead – Dia dos Finados

80 million candles will be lit in every cemetary throughout Brazil.

Today, the 2nd.November, nearly 40.000 deaths last year, due to the uncontrolled use of firearms in this country, will be remembered.
More than 325.000 this last decade!

Yet Brazilians still voted in favour of them!

We only come to sleep, only to dream.
It is not true,
it is not true that we come to live on this earth!
We become as spring weeds,
we grow green and open the petals of our hearts;
our body is a plant in flower,
it gives flowers and it dies away.
Oh, we will go...rejoice!
I, Netzahualcóyotl, say.
Does one really live with roots in this earth?
Not always on this earth,
only a little while here!
Even jade breaks;
just as gold breaks,
Even the quetzal plumes fall apart:
Not always on this earth,
only a little while here!

- Netzahualcóyotl
(poet and king of Tezcoco 1402-1472)

Photo by Gregory J. Smith - CARF, São Paulo - BRAZIL.

Guia

Guia, originally uploaded by Ram!.

Photo by Ram Martinez, Barquisimeto - VENEZUELA.

Tangier, Morocco

Tangier, Morocco, originally uploaded by shadowplay.

Photo by Hans Proppe, Agua Dulce, Ca. & Whidbey Island, Wa. - USA.