RE: [Leica] "Oddmund Garvik, where are you?

["Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com>]

Yes,

Oddmund would put it much more eloquently... :)

Tim A

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Jim Brick
> Sent: May 3, 2000 7:21 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] "Oddmund Garvik, where are you?
>
>
> 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
> >
> >
> >
>
>