Anguish and Poverty

Posted on 07. Dec, 2004 by Brandon in Indonesia

I’ve decided to post this image in color. At first I thought it would be more powerful in black and white, but the truth is I lost the meaning once the colors were taken away. I initially saw this young girl sitting alone in front of her mother’s store. As I looked more closely, I saw that she was surrounded by the masks and artifacts that I typically find beautiful. For a few moments they lost their beauty entirely.

Something about the scene altered after I removed what I know of the masks and sculptures. They took on an almost wicked appearance and sinister grins. It’s difficult to see the detail at this resolution, but the masks in the upper right and left corners were almost ghostly. The masks above her head appear to be overlooking her anguish with satisfaction.

I know I’m reading into this, but for a few minutes I thought of my own childhood – how fortunate I was growing up in a wonderful home, never worrying about where my next meal would come from, always ensconced by the warmth of prosperity and able to enjoy my youth, by simply being a child. Perhaps my lens caught her at a particularly bad time, and hopefully she lives carefree despite the environment around her. I titled the other photo as “heartbreaking” because that’s exactly how this affected me.

There’s no point in me talking about it any further, as I sit in front of my shiny laptop on wireless internet, listening to music on my mp3 player, while discussing a photo I took with a $1500 camera. I’ll never know what it’s like. I’ll never understand how she must feel, and no matter how hard I try, I’ll never have the answers of how to help correct the unbalance that is so pervasive throughout every nation in this world.

View Comments

salas

07. Dec, 2004

I’m sure you cried some when you were a child, too – most children do. Maybe she’s crying not because she hasn’t eaten but because she hasn’t gotten the new toy she wanted. Then again, maybe it’s because her mother died. Or maybe it’s a ‘he’. It’s tough to tell from the picture but maybe you know more about the backstory since you were there.

irene

08. Dec, 2004

I really liked the last paragraph you wrote. It sounds somewhat like one of thesis statements I wrote for today’s exam.

Perhaps I’ve been writing too many essays for today *sigh*

Have a good week, brondong.

claire-obscure

10. Dec, 2004

I really enjoyed reading your commentary along with the picture (although perhaps “enjoy” isn’t the right word, because this entry made me sad). The picture is a great editorial image, and I liked the fact that you shared with us the meaning you saw when you took it.

sabrina

12. Dec, 2004

i hated those masks when i was little. they’re scary.

Stephanie

16. Dec, 2004

don’t know what to do to help the poor people of the world? Sure you do!!
Donate some money! There you go..

ephi

17. Dec, 2004

Those kind of masks scared me alot as a child and an adult

Don’t you know that Indonesian people are well-known for their ability to bounce back no matter how hard the situation is?

I wish they can acquire better education (and have better access to education as well) and the motivation to improve their life.

I was once a feel-free to ask for anything child, but eventually I grow up since April this year.

Straynjer

20. Dec, 2004

Now you’ve gone and made me cry.

Sure we could, as Stephanie suggested, donate some money; many of us do. But I’m afraid the great dyke of life has far too many poverty leaks for our few fingers to plug. I donate probably about 5% of my potential income these days, mostly through volunteer work. If every person donated 2% of their annual income to those poorer than themselves it would go a long way – so long as the bulk of it was kept out of the hands of some of the greedy, so called ‘charitable’ organisations.

But more importantly, we need a shift in attitude from the governments of wealthy countries; a shift in the basic belief that “the economy” is the all -important beast that must be served. Profit is the true motivator of western man, and it is a motivator that requires poverty to balance affluence. Profit is a machine that will destroy every last Indonesian forest, and every last orphaned orang-utang and every last crying girl waiting, interminably, outside her over-stressed mother’s shop.