Photo Credit- Sebastião Salgado
"It is estimated that there is one land mine per inhabitant in Angola" (Salgado). That means that every human living in Angola has the possibility of one-day falling victim to a landmine. Throughout nearly four decades of war that Angola has endured, an estimated 10 to 12 million mines have been laid by both the Angola army and foreign armies (Salgado). The above picture, taken by Sebastião Salgado, depicts two landmine victims in Angola, Africa. While the situation of these two women is terrible, it unfortunately is not uncommon. Landmines have left 36 countries today suffering from casualties, handicaps, loss of livestock, and loss of land. The cost of laying a mine falls between 3 and 10 U.S dollars, but the cost of deactivating and removing a single land mine is between 300 and 1,000 U.S dollars. Most of the countries covered in landmines do not have the money needed to remove these mines, and so they continue to suffer in silence.
Photo Credit- Camree Johnson
In 1928 Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, started an influential communist party in Cambodia called the Khumer Rouge, and eventually took presidency in 1975 (Pol Pot). Pol Pot ruled Cambodia in terror until 1998 when he was allegedly poisoned, by his very own Khumer Rouge. During his rain, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and both Pol Pot and the Vietnamese army laid land mines all over Cambodia in counter attack of each other. Today Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined areas in the world, second to Angola; estimating ten million mines in a country of 11.5 million people (Landmines). The above picture depicts two landmine victims playing instruments on the streets, living off of the generosity of tourists because they are not able to work their land for income. Landmines are vast in Cambodia, and lay hidden in families’ yards, school yards, the jungle- everywhere there is land, there is likely to be mines. In talking with a family friend from Cambodia he explained; “Everyone in Cambodia has at least one relative who has been injured or killed by a landmine. I myself have several, but am lucky to have never stepped on one myself” (Vannak). Studies have revealed that traumatic suffering at an early age carries through to later life; education rates among child survivors of landmines are lower than average while school drop-outs are more frequent, diminishing employment prospects later on (Shah).
Works cited
Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity In Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. Print.
Vannak, Soriya. Personal INTERVIEW. 27 January 2010.
Shah, Anup. “Landmines.” Global Issues, Updated: 27 Nov. 2009. Accessed: 28 Jan. 2010. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/79/landmines>
"Tanzania." wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania
"Pol Pot." wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2010.
"Landmines in Cambodia." SEAsite - SE Asian Languages and Cultures. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .
Photo credit
Salgado, Sebastião. Rwandans Take Refuge In Tanzania. Migrations: Humanity In Transition. New York. Aperture. 2000.155.https://blackboard.byu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
This was an enlightening post. I never thought that so many land-mines could exist in an area. The sad part about all of this is that it is almost impossible to be able to remove the land-mines in a safe way. It seems that everyone will just have to continue to hope that it will not injure them as well. The photograph was neat. I am assuming you took it. The possibility to proceed with such a costly procedure would be impractical but the thought of sending medical attention to such countries does come to mind because that is something we can do. Like the ladies in the top photograph don't even have prosthetic legs. What a tragedy it is.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really good idea! There are only a few things that I can think of that we here in America could do to help. First is sending medical attention and prosthetic limbs, because land mines don’t only take legs, they take arms as well. The second would be to raise and send money for the deactivation and removal of land mines. There are already American soldiers and humanity groups working in Cambodia to remove the mines, especially around schools and orphanages, but they are low on money. I just cant imagine living in fear that every step I take, or every step my child takes could be a mine, its terrible that so many people live like this.
ReplyDeleteI like how you organized your photos to correlate with what you were talking about in the post. I found it interesting how many land mines there are in these countries and it is definitely something I would never have to really worry about. I would be completely shocked if a land mine went off on the way to school because things like that simply just don't happen here. It was great how you did research on the expenses of laying down landmines versus removing. It is so interesting to me to see how much easier it is to destroy lives and lay down these mines than it is to remove them! It would be so nice if our world didn't have to live with the trials of handicap caused my man made devices with intent to harm others.
ReplyDeleteGreat discussion here. Thank you for including your own photograph.
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