Thought provoking Photographs of Child Labor in Bangladesh

[sub]

http://www.zoriah.net/blog/2009/04/guest-photographerphotojournalist-gmb-akash-child-labor.html

 

[SS4 Gogeta]

I have no words to describe how I feel about those pictures and descriptions of them, my heart just dropped.

Of Course I have seen similar pictures before on the net, magazines, tv etc. But I always try to aviod seeing them, not ignore them but beacuse I just can't take how they make me feel.....so sad. Especially for me, I am more empathic then most people, I believe, I don't show it but I sure do feel it.

And those people that support child labour, are just evil.

 

[sub]

Well, everyone of us supports this type of **** indirectly. Just by you existing and buying cheap goods, you indirectly support this.

 

[The Deco]

Hmm, maybe it is relative? I mean, maybe 3 USD in India can get you decently through the month.

It is like in Thailand - with not much of Israeli money you can live like a king there, while in Israel you will be the average working man.

Maybe 3 USD is decent workers money in India? I don't know, someone to enlighten me?

 

[Sicron]

3 USD gets you trough the month...yeah...barely, even in India. Still, decent pay or not, having young children carry a 1000 bricks a day is just...I have no words for it...

 

[Spunky]

Come on, you laughed your ass off at that one.

 

[Brosiris]

Come on, you laughed your ass off at that one.

Not really.

 

[Damaera]

Come on, you laughed your ass off at that one.

I didn't.

 

[Sicron]

Come on, you laughed your ass off at that one.

I fail to see the point in your incredible sense of humor on this one. Because it isn't funny.

 

[Ness]

Saying you care is one thing, acting on your words though, is another. All of you stop with your bull****, because right now you care, but you go back to your gluttonous ways the following day. Everyone is selfish, and looks out for themselves, it's just the way humans are. So please, just look at the pictures, and keep whatever words you conjure up, in your heads. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, or messing around. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrisy.

 

[Chakra-X]

Saying you care is one thing, acting on your words though, is another. All of you stop with your bull****, because right now you care, but you go back to your gluttonous ways the following day. Everyone is selfish, and looks out for themselves, it's just the way humans are. So please, just look at the pictures, and keep whatever words you conjure up, in your heads. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, or messing around. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrisy.

Isn't that a bit much? What is wrong with saying how we feel about things that go on in the world? If there's one thing I can't stand, it's cynicism. Of course we are not going to travel down to India to save the children. After I saw those pictures, I continued to play my PSP. Oh it would be fantastic if we sent our military resources Darfur, gave all of our food to the homeless, overthrew North Korea's brain washing government, put an end to all sweat shops, cured cancer, forced Afghanistan to honor women's rights, stop eating sugar, only read books; but the world does not that work that way.

You are right when people just really do not have the desire to go out and constantly help those in need. But you make it feel like we should be ashamed for relatively privileged lives. Yeah they make goods for the more fortunate, but I hope you do not expect us to form a massive revolt at every horror in the world to be considered "good people".

 

[Deman]

Saying you care is one thing, acting on your words though, is another. All of you stop with your bull****, because right now you care, but you go back to your gluttonous ways the following day. Everyone is selfish, and looks out for themselves, it's just the way humans are. So please, just look at the pictures, and keep whatever words you conjure up, in your heads. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, or messing around. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrisy.

I understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing if any of the members here have done something to help situations like this. Someone may have donated cash, others may have done volunteer work. And while no single person has the ability to make a difference in every working child's life, sometimes we can do enough to make a difference in one life. Sometimes combined efforts can make a difference in the lives of many.

I find discussion over topics like poverty in the world important. They can give you a sense of perspective and help you appreciate all that you have, even if Donal Trump has more. These types of discussions can also give people with a more "altruistic nature the push to do something instead of just ticktacking away at the keyboard while gorging himself on McDs.

As to the actual pictures:

These children experience a harsh reality that very few of us can truly relate to. I've been complaining about the damage my smoking has been doing to my hands. The skin on them is losing elasticity and the signs of aging are showing. That's why I found this picture particularly powerful:

The luxury I take in smoking is voluntary and costs me about 2.5$ a day to keep doing it. Yet this child's hands have aged much faster than mine, due to the labor he performs. Seeing images like this makes me realize that while I do have the right to complain about aspects of my life, there are tons of people out there who have it much harder.

 

[Chakra-X]

I understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing if any of the members here have done something to help situations like this. Someone may have donated cash, others may have done volunteer work. And while no single person has the ability to make a difference in every working child's life, sometimes we can do enough to make a difference in one life. Sometimes combined efforts can make a difference in the lives of many.

I find discussion over topics like poverty in the world important. They can give you a sense of perspective and help you appreciate all that you have, even if Donal Trump has more. These types of discussions can also give people with a more "altruistic nature the push to do something instead of just ticktacking away at the keyboard while gorging himself on McDs.

As to the actual pictures:

These children experience a harsh reality that very few of us can truly relate to. I've been complaining about the damage my smoking has been doing to my hands. The skin on them is losing elasticity and the signs of aging are showing. That's why I found this picture particularly powerful:

The luxury I take in smoking is voluntary and costs me about 2.5$ a day to keep doing it. Yet this child's hands have aged much faster than mine, due to the labor he performs. Seeing images like this makes me realize that while I do have the right to complain about aspects of my life, there are tons of people out there who have it much harder.

Seeing images like this makes me realize that while I do have the right to complain about aspects of my life, there are tons of people out there who have it much harder.

That's another thing that always rattled my brain. If I instantly switched bodies with one of those children, I would be like hell for me and heaven for them. When things get tough, I do think that "a lot of people have it worse".

But at the same time, I do not think that should completely belittle our problems. Parents going through divorce, loved one dying, hell even getting your laptop stolen are all things people can validly get upset about (to a VARYING degree. I would not dare equate a laptop loss to a loved one loss). We can't automatically be happy all the time just because our lives are a lot more privileged.

Also props to the photographer's talent. Very profound way of capturing the concept behind the pictures.

 

[Prozac]

the awesome thing about this are the pictures.
those pictures, the quality and setting are seriously good.

I'm nearly thinking it's all staged.

 

[Spunky]

I feel that getting sad over pictures that will never in any way affect your own life (nor will your sadness in any way affect the lives of the people in the pictures) is a waste of time. Don't take that the wrong way, I do think it's unfortunate that these kids have it so rough. But if it were me, I wouldn't want the whole world staring at me with tears in their eyes. I'd want them to laugh at the neatly stacked bricks on my head.

Or maybe I'm just a cold person. You decide.

 

[sub]

http://artsytime.com/life-in-slums-of-mumbai/

 

[Chakra-X]

Some of the comments on there are disturbingly ignorant.

It's frustrating sometimes seeing images like that. I don't think we are the superhero of the world and that India's government should get a hold on their problems. A lot of people think the richer countries are just excessive and selfish, but what do they think would happen if all the rich countries threw their money at all the poor countries in the world?

 

[Snowm@n]

Saying you care is one thing, acting on your words though, is another. All of you stop with your bull****, because right now you care, but you go back to your gluttonous ways the following day. Everyone is selfish, and looks out for themselves, it's just the way humans are. So please, just look at the pictures, and keep whatever words you conjure up, in your heads. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, or messing around. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrisy.

I totally agree with you, tomorow or the day after this thread is history, and the sweet pity comments wont change anything, wich is frustrating for the people who have thought about it over and over.

But I believe this (poorness, war, etc) will change when it becomes everyone's concern. When will that be? hummm maybe when India threats to shoot a nuclear missile to Europe idk, all I know is that the human beeing usually reacts when he feels pain, my self included, how am I suposed to think about the poor children when I have to study 75% of my 24 hours, my friends only talk about cars and girls and the bit of television I see is allways about stupid famous people...? Only when these kids lifes interfeer with my life, then all think of a way...For now, and for these reasons, I'm very happy to have what and who I have.

 

[Sicron]

So this thread will be history tomorrow? Well...in that case, it is a VERY good reason to laugh at these photo's. You guys are absolutely right, I have never seen something this funny in my life before!

Don't bull**** me. You don't have to pay money to show some compassion for what these people have to do. So far, money hasn't done that much in this world, other than ruining it. Yes there are exceptions, like the tsunami, but even then western countries were sort of 'racing' to see who could give the most money. Showing some compassion will get you a long way. But it is exactly this compassion that 90% of the world lacks by saying "Ah, we don't give any money anyway, so let's not care."

 

[Synth]

I agree that these photos have definately had the quality turned all the way up.

It still doesn't remove the fact that these children are likely being denied their education.