Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

An article when inspiration knocks (29^th January 2008, 13:10)

This famous photo is titled “menacing eye” (Direct translation from Chinese title. Commonly known as: Stricken child crawling towards a food camp).

The photo depicts an African child stricken with illness and famine crawling towards a United Nations food camp, her frail body unable to support her larger head. There is a vulture on the side, eyeing the stricken child menacingly, and waiting patiently for the child to die. Because once the child’s life ends, the corpse will be the vulture’s feast.

This photo was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the most coveted prize for photography, and has since sparked a world-wide attention on the issue of starving people in Africa. But the photographer/journalist, Kevin Carter, was criticized by the public, asking “why didn’t he put aside his camera and offer some food and water to the child?” or “why didn’t he save the child from the clutches of the execrable vulture?”

Is a child’s life not as valuable as a news photo or an award? The photographer explained that famine in Africa was epidemic at that time, death was everywhere, outsiders’ help was of limited use, and there was nothing anyone can do to stop the deaths of those suffering. He left the affected area with a heavy heart; when he was about to board the mission plane back, he saw this very heartbreaking scene and went back to capture it. He then went to the back of a distant tree and cried, he had no choice but to leave as he couldn’t stand watching such a harrowing sight. But public opinions didn’t stop flowing in even after his explanation; the photographer finally used his life as an answer: he committed suicide.

To say the truth, I personally take a distance from journalists (of course, I’m not saying that all journalists are bad), maybe because I can’t constantly look at things optimistically, but there was this news report that left a deep impression on me. The report states that a certain television broadcasting station’s journalist/reporter was sent to stand at the side of an expressway to nab pedestrians who cross the expressway and warn them that it is a dangerous thing to do. (This news at the start was of good intentions and had a positive outlook) However, some shocking footage was captured on camera: A pedestrian who was crossing the expressway was run over and flung into the air by a speeding car, and then fell heavily back onto the ground. When I was watching the footage, I felt agitated; while that body was still spinning in the air, I already knew that life has left it. But what was most appalling is not this news, but when reporters from other television stations interviewed the journalist who caught the tragedy on camera, that very journalist had a very ebullient and excited look on her face. What she portrayed was that she is glad she actually managed to get hold of such explosive news, how the ratings for that television station will rise, how her career will be taken to the top, etc…but never did she realize that one precious life was lost just right in front of her eyes. From then on, I took a repugnance to the journalists/reporters’ careers. Of course I know that there aren’t many such journalists/reporters around, but I still can’t be assured.

I wrote such a blog entry because of one news article I read just now, and again, caused me to be filled with rage: A team of reporters who went to Tibet to shoot a documentary on Tibetan antelopes, drove away the goats there so that they can film those antelopes frolicking on the greens, thereby causing many of the pregnant female goats to suffer a miscarriage. I have watched Lu Chuan’s movie <Kekexilli>, which is a heart-wrenching story about protecting the Tibetan antelopes. Such acts provoke me to despise those reporters who possess no proper ethics more. In today’s society, paparazzi who invades others privacy can be seen anywhere. If it is to fulfill the public’s curiosity, I have nothing to say, but if it they do such horrible acts to the environment and those helpless animals, I think this kind of people has already lost the basic principles a man should have, so I only have contempt for them.

I can’t believe that I started rambling away just after reading one article. Then again, those with patience, read. For those without patience, just look on. At least I did update, right? J Going off for an afternoon nap…

Chen Yu’s blog:
http://chenyu1980.blog.sohu.com/

Translated by Pearlyn KWANG,
Blogs Translator, Badzine Correspondent (SIN).