One
of the most impressive things about Sebastião Salgado is that his photography
doesn't just focus on one or two areas of the world. He's been to Africa, South
America, the Middle East, India, China, and so many other places. This
photograph is from Turkish Kurdistan, and for those of you who don't know where
that is, here's a map.
This
is near a village named Doganli, which is in the upper left of the green
portion of Turkey. From 1984 to 1999, conflict between the Turkish
government and the some of the Kurdish people who are rebels--the KPP, or the Kurdistan People's
Party--had put thousands of people in danger. The KPP is politically interested
in more representation for the Kurds that live in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, as
they have never quite assimilated ("Military"). In 1993, they sought
to create a new country for the Kurds in the Middle East. Their campaign turned
violent, attacking indiscriminately. The KPP does not represent the majority of
the Kurds, but like Americans blame all Islam for terrorism, so do the Turks
blame to Kurds for the KPP attacks. In order to stop the KPP, the Turkish
Military burned some 950 villages that could have been harboring the KPP, and
although this tactic was militarily effective, the cost was enormous for the
people who inhabited the villages ("Military"). This photograph
focuses on those people. Some consider this conflict a suppression of a minority group by a majority group, as between the Hutus and Tutsis or anti-semitism (Cornell).
When I go to hike in the snow, I
have snow pants, snowshoes, a jacket, a nice backpack, extra clothes in case I
get wet, and a bunch of snacks. I don’t have to go get wood for a fire so that I
can live and I don’t come home to a razed village. These women are some of the
few that stayed behind, but hundreds have left their homes for other places,
whether they go to Europe or stay in Turkey.
It takes a lot to make people leave their
homes. If they have any option at all, they would stay where their lives are,
where they earn their living. They have to be forced out, pushed out, with no choice
left. They can know that it might not be any better anywhere else, but they go
anyways. These women aren’t like the immigrants who go for something better,
because they don’t believe there is anything better anymore.
But
who is to say that they are right or wrong?
Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations. New York: Aperture. 106.
Print.
I love your use of contrast when you describe the things you take with you when you hike as opposed to the limited supplies these people had with them.
ReplyDeleteI always think it is so interesting to notice how much we SHOULD appreciate. We might be standing in the snow, in our snow jackets, pants, thermals, hats, boots, gloves, and, on top of that, with little bags that chemically react to heat up out hands and feet, and complaining about how cold we are. We need to remember, however, how much we are blessed with. We are not forced out of our homes, let alone forced out of our homes into the snow without all our gear. Your comments make me think of the quote, (I'm not sure who it is by, I've seen it on pinterest ;) ) "Someone else is happy with less than what you have." We need to feel for these people and help them in any way we can, especially since we truly don't know what they are going through.
ReplyDeleteThe woman's expression in this picture struck a chord in my soul when I first saw it. This winter has been a cold one, but, as you observed, we've had warm clothes to wear and heated buildings to go into. These Kurdish women were trying to gather enough wood to heat their razed homes and stay alive. The woman in the foreground has an almost pleading expression on her face with her hands outstretched, almost as if she is asking you to help her up off the ground and maybe even to help her up out of her situation. It is good to remember and appreciate how great our lives are. What would that woman have given to live in the circumstances we are blessed to live in?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how people survived in the snow without a coat. Seeing what those people have wore in the snow just makes me shiver. It is amazing to see the rigorous conditions our bodies can go through. It shocks me to think that a military is what caused so much destruction. You would think the government was meant to protect it's citizens, but it is different in other countries. Because of the fighting between two groups, the people in the photo above lost their home. The truth is they probably had nothing to do with any of the attacks between the two parties. I feel that it is human nature to just put together groups and have the same opinion in anyone in that group. It reminds me of high school. But unlike high school, there are mass killings over these differences. Hopefully we can try for the better and think twice before we are quick to judge someone.
ReplyDelete