7/24/12

Journalism and being the second vulture

This is Kevin Cater’s most disturbing and award winning photo, which should be named as the photo of the century. More than the photo itself, Carters life and death come to my mind time to time. It is the ultimate tragic story of mankind… his death is a monument to the tragedy of replacing the human means with materialized objectives.


As a photo journalist he managed to capture the baby and vulture correctly in his camera. He did it, because that was his assignment there. He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for his work. When thousands of people who were disturbed with the photo ask what happened to the child Carter didn’t have an answer. Then only it was realized that he just concentrated on taking the photo, but not helping the dying child. Also Carter had told his colleagues that he had been waiting to see if vulture would spread the wings; which would have given chance to a better photo! Later on Carter committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.


Carter’s story just highlights the tragic of forgetting the primary responsibilities of a man.  Before you become a photographer, before you become a journalist you are a man and that’s never changed. You are not paid for that… you are not honored for that, but that’s the responsibility carry on your shoulder when you are born.

One critique on Carters photo redefined photographer as the second vulture in the scene. It is not unfair at all. Vulture in the photo is an opportunistic bird, and so is the photographer in that occasion. What is the difference….?

In context of Sri Lanka, we see propagating a lot of web media that reports and analyze social issues to gossips. In spite of the debut of credibility of some such media, we also find it difficult to understand the vision behind some of the reporting. When we had the war, of course we had to hear the bitter news of human deaths in day to day basis. Now war is over and we don’t need to hear those, unless as a news. When it is a brutal killing or raping happen, some media seems to be doing a good job by giving them a massive publicity… In most cases, like Kevin Carter’s photo, there seems to have had two (probably more) vultures by the name of journalism.

How many lives we actually got?

When discussing above post with someone, it raised us to the discussion of role of a photo journalist.  Some conclusions, more or less, were as below.

“What else photo journalist could do than taking the photos. He is not there to do the job of a welfare worker”

Then my mind raised the question to me. Then why Kevin got depressed by the comments. Why people around world kept on asking whether he helped the poor girl. This is a serious question to me. This puzzle drags me to think deeper about definitions of each role we play in life.

Sometimes we are pleased to say that we had to do something according to my profession. As a journalist I had to report that. As a soldier I had to kill. As a politician I had to decide that way. As a scientist I had to create an effective bomb. If you believe in God, what is the life you carry in your shoulders when you meet him? Can you exclude your professional life? Can I justify a crime by explaining it in terms of my profession? Is there any limit of this?

After 9/11 CIA hired two psychologists (i.e. Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell) to train UA servicemen on effective torturing methods, known as SERE programme, which is even against the Geneva conventions. May be Bruce or James could think, professionally they had to do that. Most of all, society accepts them not like a killer works under labelled terrorist organization.

This is a big question in my mind. I think “professional” label is another myth implemented by post capitalist system to justify something unethical. I know a chemist who work for manufacturing company of Baby oils, but never use them for her babies since they are bad for health. She was kind enough to tell all the friends not to use those kinds of oils. Anyway, “Professionally” she is making them for thousands of other babies... All other professionals too are to do these kinds of justified jobs.

In today’s context we even say you should not mixed up professional life and day-to-day life. This sounds like, what we do as “professionals” will be not be tolerated by the values of a day-to-day life that believes in mankind and humanity. Is it?

From recent years I have been thinking of unified systems as an answer for these contradictions of life. Though, I am not a historian, I am pretty sure ancient civilizations didn’t work with categorised objectives as we do today. Each ones goal is to be inter-connected. In Sri Lankan context, I believe ancient farming or manufacturing didn’t raised problems of environment. Can we claim a massive structure like Sigiriya would have destroyed the adjoining surroundings or its lives? I guess this harmony should have been same for all other early civilizations.

Today, Banker is interested in cash circulation and farmer is interested in fertile lands. Power generating companies interested only in generating power, but not the environmental pollutions. Environmentalists too are programmed to go against each and every development plan without knowing how their houses are provided with power and how their vehicles are supplied with fuel.

This funny system recalls me of my wedding! Photographer just wanted to have most successful photo sessions. Dress maker wanted to make a success by producing best bride and that’s her aspect of wedding. She was not interested in anything else than that. DJ wanted to make it a big music extravaganza and decorators wanted to bring most beautiful flower arrangements under this sun and moon. Individual goals seemed to be over ruling the main objective sometimes. Ultimately, I and my wife were the only people who wanted a successful wedding.

Even under this situations, sometimes some people work according to the call of their hearts.  I can recall two simple experiences I came across. When we head to tsunami affected areas in 2004 in Sri Lanka to help people, my friend, obsessed photographer, Roshan came without a camera which surprised me. He simply said “we are going to help people aren’t we?” Second occasion was.. my cousin, Kasun gave up aeronautical engineering after spending successful years in university, when he learnt all the leading researches are focused on advancement of fighter jets but not passenger planes.  In both occasions, they could have done the opposite since they have been justified by the civilization. Anyway, their hearts might have given a different judgement.

If we turn back to Kevin’s story, he should have had a struggle on his stance.  If he was a super product of post capitalist monetary system he shouldn’t have suffered from depression. If he was a super product of humane purity, he shouldn’t have left the toddler along with the vulture. Kevin’s tragic story can be quote close to our story also. Have to be wise when working with so called “professionalism” comes bundled with requirements of monetary system, not the requirements of mankind.

For me I have only one question. There are no many lives called professional life, family life and etc... I got only one life. Question is whether I live it truthfully to my heart or not.

3/16/12

Colours of Great Barrier Reef

All in a sudden I decided to do it. Under any circumstance, there are things you should not delay. That’s what I thought when I decided to visit Great Barrier Reef. It’s a fantasy; it’s a dream.


Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the largest coral reef system on earth that consists of more than 2900 identified individual reefs. Obviously, it’s one of the ultimate wonders of nature. Northern Queensland of Australia is one of the best gateways to GBR.  Coral reefs are the richest ecosystems on earth. Richer than tropical rain forests.

You can select basically one from Cairns or Port Douglas to stay and get in to a diving boat. I selected Cairns due to the easy access to Cairns Airport and my wife can do some shopping while I am away.

If you are flying to North Queensland, February is not the best time, but it’s the best “wallet-friendly” time. “Very hot, Very humid and most of all Very nice people” That’s the first impression about Cairns. It’s not a big city... definitely not Sydney... because people of Cairns have time to smile with someone and willing to please someone.  It’s like somewhere in Sri Lanka. You can make new friends while waiting for a bus. Man made lagoon in the heart of the City is one of the remarkable icons for Cairns.

Onboard community

I travelled in a modern speed boat to the reef as I planned. It contains everything; diving gear, drinks, meals and very comfortable lounge type areas to rest. Most of all, boat was full of people from all around the world who had their own different reasons to do this expedition. It was a good experience to share our knowledge and inspirations. I met a nice guy from Michigan who was bit nervous, but he badly wanted to do this dive. Again I met a middle aged guy from Argentina who was travelling with his twin teenage daughters. I enjoyed his company and his humorous style of talking.

“Well, you are from Argentina... Are you a Football fan?”

“Yep, if you don’t like Football in Argentina, you will be taken to jail..., it’s illegal not to be a fan, so I am a fan!”

“I see... I am a cricket fan in Sri Lanka... the same way”

I was the only black (Asian) guy except for one Fijian diving instructor who was training snorkelling for amateurs. Next significant thing about me within that circle was I am the slimmest of all. When selecting diving gear one crew member was telling “Ladies and perhaps ..Sumedha can use these small size yellow fins...” Then he smiled at me and added... “take it as a compliment mate..” . “Ok, I will” I said to myself.




Diving

I teamed up with few others. It was guided by experienced dive master from Queensland called Rachel. Other team members were my buddy diver Sean and a young couple from UK. Sean was an experienced diver and he wanted to get good photos of the reef, which was my idea too. So it was a good match.


When I dived first... I felt like I am entering to a dream world because my mind was telling me... that I am really in it! I have been waiting for this moment. It was the marvellous warm waters welcome you. If I recall my memory of coral reefs of Hikkaduwa or Trincomalee, I saw more vibrant soft corals in GBR. It is also said that GBR is the healthiest coral reef on earth today. I usually don’t dive more than twice per day, but this time I was too greedy and made three consecutive dives in two different reefs, namely Hastings Reef and Jorgeys Patch. For the second dive, we got in to a small dinghy boat and left for bit far from the main boat.


Inspiration

What Great Barrier Reef means to me? Hm... it’s a long story. When I was very small, probably 7 or 8 old, my parents brought me and my brother to see a documentary film at New Olympia (Colombo) on Great Barrier Reef. I and my brother were amazed with the beauty and were watching the film with surprise. Probably, I would have asked thousands of questions from my father. This film still comes to my mind like a fantasy seen in a distance. That’s the first inspiration of my life to see the Great Barrier Reef... probably I wanted to see that beauty for real. I kept on telling that I am going to see it one day. My father hasn’t been into many tough outdoor activities, but he encouraged us to do all; Cycling, swimming and hiking. Even he let us try climbing a coconut tree, though it was criticized by some of his own relatives. They would have thought that I might select it for living.

As soon as I came to the hotel, I dropped two short e-mails to my Mum and brother telling “I did it!” Unfortunately, my father is not there to share my joyful e-mail. So it is an emotional achievement for me.

While we were sailing back to the land, the Guy from Argentina who became friends with me was having some hot coffee with me. Coffee is the best pal after diving. While having a leisure chat, he asked what make I come this far for this diving. I told him about the documentary film and its inspiration. “This is for my Father and Mother who didn’t forget to guide us to nature, while confronting with all the day-to-day challenges!” I added. He wanted me to tell this story to his daughters.

One day, I will tell this to my daughter too.