[Leica] "Oddmund Garvik, where are you?

[Jim Brick <jimbrick@photoaccess.com>]

Good grief... I never thought I would say this, but "Oddmund Garvik, where
are you?"

Help.

Jim

PS... But since Brian Reid "is" here...


>
> But I must add, IMHO,
>> that the real
>> cause of world poverty etc. has nothing to do with birth control
>> or anything
>> else besides bad government. Most of these countries have
>> incredibly corrupt
>> elites that steel every last cent they can. Look at Russia. At least $150
>> billion in foreign aid, loans, grants and  foreign exchange payments have
>> left the country in recent years, to enter the foreign bank
>> accounts of the
>> elite.
>
>
>Silly me,  and here I had though all these years that (in this instance)
>much of the cause was first world countries draining the natural resources
>dry in such places (got to love those Canadian Gold Mines in Nicaragua -
>guess who gets rich from those?), an insatiable N. American hunger for
>hamburger -  though generally further south - (and, of course cocaine),
>timber, cotton, coffee (was your morning latte made from beans produced by a
>Guatemalan or Nicaraguan farmer who was ripped off and paid a pittance for
>his crop by one of our multinationals? I bet you don't even know). cheap
>labour to provide all those designer clothes we like, bananas (of course),
>the running of much of central america as client states by more powerful
>nations and on and on...
>
>Of course, such things as effective birth control, democracy and the rule of
>law help (though encouraging democracy doesn't seem to have been a big part
>of US Central American policy over the last century, until the last 4 or 5
>years, more like support for military dictatorships, virtual genocide in
>Honduras via a US equipped military) - and unrestrained corruption, while
>not the cause, just makes it worse and harder to make a dent in, but in the
>end it is basically first world greed that fuels it all. And don't get me
>wrong, I'm not especially US bashing - if we were talking about Africa, I'd
>be referring to my own colonial and post-colonial countrymen.
>
>And what has this got to do with photography - well, on a broad canvas, much
>of the classic Leica photography we get excited about often shows us the
>effects of all this. It's up to us to be diligent in examining how and why
>it happens.
>
>Secondly, projects like the photography on the dump and numerous other small
>scale projects I have encountered in Central America, Belfast, inner-city
>wastelands and native reservation can often make a real difference. In
>Nicaragua last year, I came across six young men and women who had once been
>part of the countries poorest. 2 rural, the rest from the city - street kids
>there. One was training as a journalist, one was a nurse, 2 were rural
>education workers, the others were now actually going to school and passing
>grades. One thing that made a big difference for them all, were these small
>scale projects.
>
>In the end I am left with only one thing to say, shame on those who find it
>gratifying or amusing to belittle such work - ever hear of the mote and the
>beam?
>
>Tim A
>
>
>