Many of you would recognize this heart-wrenching photo taken during the Sudan famine in 1994. It won South African photojournalist Kelvin Carter the Pulitzer prize, a prestigious award in photography. Captured in the photo are a child crawling towards a UN food camp few kms away and a vulture waiting for the child to die, so that it can eat her. Whether the child survived is not known to anyone, including the photographer who fled the place the minute the picture was taken. It is learnt that he later revealed to friends that he wished he had saved the child. Even though these journalists were warned not to touch the famine victims for the fear of contracting diseases, Carter himself felt afterwards that he could and should have done something more humanitarian. Three months after winning the Pulitzer prize, he committed suicide out of depression.
The sole purpose behind commemorating this decade-old story is to get all of us – including myself – to ask ourselves the same old question one more time: Do we still want to be silent spectators? For those linked to India, it’s problems galore here with farmers committing suicide, prises rising to an all-time high [hitting the poor the hardest] and what not. All of this is on top of the global, burning problem of climate change. For how much longer, will we keep our ears closed to the voice of our conscience? The world is sick and it’s our job to heal it. For those tired of silently spectating, there are plenty of ways to participate in the process of change.
PS: Thanks to Seju for throwing up this photo and instigating this post [A replica also exists on her blog].
Filed under: General Musings | Tagged: a child and a vulture, depression, famine, heal the world, Kelvin Carter, Pulitzer prize, silent spectator, sudane, suicide, valture waiting for the child to die
Thats sad.. Didnt know about suicide thingy :|
Thats very depressing,
how regret and guilt can make one suicide, is just very sad.
Looking at the photograph I always wondered, why did someone not taking the photograph save the kid. But yups it is very sad.
Right now we are thinking of organizing a film festival on environment, we want to screen movies especially related to bottled water and other relevant things. It is still in early stages, but will keep you posted.
@Goli: Bottled water (Coke, etc.) – would be really useful to bring out its adverse effects (such as water contamination, alarmingly lowered ground water levels) to a vast audience. I look forward to it.