3 + 1

click image to enlarge

real life kicking in can mean: coordinate reprojection utility has to be done before yesterday, printint utility does not work, car has to go to the workshop, kid 1 has to rehearse violin, kid 2 harp, kid 3 is unhappy with the maths test, wife away for a parent-teacher conference, the most urgent letter has to be written today, and a good friend shows up in the evening...

this is when i love the trainspotting quote "choose life"

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

vicinity

click image to enlarge

what an amount of books sofobomo yielded this year! i did go through only a small part up to now and already found quite a number of really precious, extraordinary ones. so on top of the personal success of having really created my book, analyzed in part what it meant to me and what it taught me, there is so much food for reading, seeing, reflecting that i am truly overwhelmed. a lot of my free time the next days i will spend going through those books.

the image above, taken in the newly built house of a tsunami victim in batticaloa, left me somewhat speechless in its tight vicinity of the lord of mercy and a war instrument. strange, in many aspects.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

sofobomo: a victim of the selection process

click image to enlarge

nice synonym for the catch i sometimes find on my flash cards. but sometimes those emblematic empty bottles just hide their merits (or less sugarcoated: they have to wait for a more clear-sighted moment). carl weese hinted in a comment he made yesterday on the value of an archive and the necessity of a 2nd look, and of course he is right. especially the rejected images deserve this re-evaluation, and in this way i found my empty bottles.

postscriptum: i have uploaded the book to issuu, too, and am astonished how hassle-free this was. so if you want to see it more book-style in a nifty flash version, klick here: Batticaloa Fishermen on issuu.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

fully insured

click image to enlarge

to describe traffic in sri lanka along european criteria, there is just one word: insane. even for a seasoned driver, not shy of left-hand driving, it is so much better to have a careful sri lanka driver and a working seat belt.

and when you have the lorry so close in front of you, it is definitely a reassurance that it is "fully insured"

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

barrel door

click image to enlarge

a matching door for the fence blinds shown yesterday, this door is one of the rare cases where the recycling/upgrading path left the original structure well visible and self-contingent, not mixing in or adding other components.

the fence, too, is a case of recycling: the net was beyond repair and unsuitable to catch fishes any more. it still is, however, fit to keep the hen in the garden. together with the pine twigs and the cones optically it makes up for a fine structure.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

metal structures, batticaloa, sri lanka

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

in sri lanka, plots are usually at least fenced with barbed wire. only the wealthy ones can afford real walls, often topped with bottle bottom fragments. To protect the owners from the curious views of the bypassers, the street side of the fences is usually equipped with blinds.

traditionally they were made from palmyrah leaves, but these degenerate within some years, and now people use metal sheets, rarely new. even old oil barrels, cut and bent straight, are used for this purpose. these materials now offer a wide variety of textures and colors.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

sofobomo 09: batticaloa fishermen

click image to enlarge

finally my sofobomo 09 theme has found me: the fishermen of batticaloa. since 2005 i try to spend the early morning hours of my missions to batticaloa on the beach, and over the time i got more and more acquainted with them. since quite some time i planned either a small exhibition or a pod-book on this topic, so using it for sofobomo is just natural.

the next evenings i will spend with bibble5 - the preview 2.1a really rocks - and scribus. my laptop is not too well suited for heavy image editing, this is one more reason to use bibble instead of lightzone. to compile the book should be not too difficult, as the framework is ready: a blurb book is going to be the print target. now it's high time for doing the final selection.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

the grave of s. thinusika, 8 years

click image to enlarge

in his comment on a bitter victory, thomas stated that there is no justification for terrorist attacks like the ones the ltte comitted. of course he is correct, still my answer contained a big 'however'.

to understand why many of the tamils did not support the ltte any more due to their murderous acts even against their own people, but still mourn their demise as it seemed to be the only force able to face the government and it's allies, let me tell you the story of the murder of the 8 years old s. thinusika, already subject of my post out of my depth.

thinusika was the daughter of s. santhirarajah, who was abducted for ransom in a white van and probably killed 2 years ago. already at that time it was suspected that this crime was a joint venture of tamil and government (para)military forces. now his daughter was abducted for ransom and killed, her body was found 3 days later in an abandoned well. only days afterwards, her assumed kidnappers were found, bullet-riddled and with bound hands. so no trial, no testimonial, but probably some cover-up of unwanted evidence. lifes, especially tamil lifes don't count very much in sri lanka. and again this crime and the way it is treated nourishes assumptions that a paramilitary group is involved.

my discussions with many tamil friends circled again and again around the question of justice. before the war there was an average number of murders followed by trials and convictions. the war changed this completely: now there are killings on a weekly basis and no persecution, no trials. spies and denunciators rule, and army, police and paramilitary groups are accused of making people vanish at will, 'white vans' are now the current name for this threat. the tamil groups cooperating with their government still wear their arms and use them for their own profit by stealing, robbing, kidnapping. in obligatory briefings, united nations security names those gangs and their organized crimes as biggest threat for safety for locals and foreigners.

so there is no hope for the tamils: the ltte is dead and gone. army, paramilitary and other armed groups operate outside the law, and the government offers nothing but propaganda about patriot and non-patriot sri lankans.

so the grievances of thinusika's mother will replicate on and on.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

the president's funds

click image to enlarge

trincomalee internally displaced persons again, in front of their shed. one of the boys is sick, born with a hole in the cardiac septum.

basic healthcare in sri lanka is free, and in some aspects of really high quality and excellent quality/circumstances ratio. however an operation in this case has to be paid extra, and the 4000 us$ the family is not (and will not be in the near future) able to afford.

for cases like this there is the sri lanka president's fund. doesn't sound like a really democratic solution, more like a holdover from good old monarchy, where the sovereign distributes alms, eh? and, the family is not able to apply. they are not educated, they speak the wrong language, they don't know where to apply.

why they are smiling on this picture? they got a new toilet, and that is a big improvement.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

idp bathroom, batticaloa

click image to enlarge

some people are not born poor, but made poor. the idps that now live in navallady, batticaloa, in the former tsunami buffer zone (no permanent house should have been there, the former residents were all resettled) had their homes in the trincomalee district. the civil war came, they were driven out of their houses in the combat- or security zone and now live under most primitive conditions in sheds made of tarpaulins, corrugated tin sheets and leaves. you count the toothbrushes? 8 people live here, in a hut maybe 3,5x5 m2.

and i learned a lot about gender budgeting, too (it pays to travel with the boss, who is a psychiatrist by education): if there is a male head of family, there will be: a mobile phone, a tv set (to watch cricket), a small motobike...

but the number of male-headed families is small. the usual story reads more like "lost husband in the conflict, lost the son, fleeing, now living with the small kids here until knowbody knows when, little support, fear, discrimination (by army/police)". I spare you the details. It is simply incredible.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

to be poor

click image to enlarge

taking up the topic of my recent post "eyes", just a bullet list of what it means to be poor in batticaloa, sri lanka (but feel free to put in any other place):

• the husband (if present) works as a day labourer, earning barely enough to feed the family
• the kids leave school early to add to the family's income
• you live on your own plot, but twice a year it gets flooded and turns into a swamp. so the romance showing up in the lead shot is just a temporary one
• your daughter carries the daily laundry quite a distance. to wed her, you should save for a dowry, but don't know from where to take it
• your plot of maybe 100m² houses well and toilet pit, not a really healthy arrangement
• when you are not in a specially affected group like the tsunami victims, you probable are poor and stay poor

by careful usage of funds, our project could increase the number of donated toilets, and some families in puthur, batticaloa, now have decent hygienic facilities. to help them to help themselves, the beneficiaries were paid in installments and themselves contracted the work. this also created a good sense of ownership - and kept the costs really low. and the toilet now is the most solid structure on the plot, much better then the house...

fortunately enough, un-habitat's programme "cities without slums" will tackle this situation in order to achieve a structural improvement.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

tata and grapes

click image to enlarge

sometimes when the eyes open, gestalt reveals itself. though i am sweating for many of my pictures, on quite some occasions i just recognize, see. and sometimes, i also like the framing and don't feel the necessity to crop or modify otherwise. rare moments that i really cherish.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

beach abstract

click image to enlarge

at the moment i feel a bit like this pants on batticaloa beach: totally worn out after more than 30 hours work and traveling with only some naps. at least the official part of this mission was successful, so no reason to complain. photographically it still has to be evaluated. more after having slept, promised!

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

dancing feet

click image to enlarge

still under pressure, this time at the airport already, on the way home. today i got sad news again about the refugee situation in the north of sri lanka - ban ki moon seems to have categorized the situation 'apalling' regarding the government's treatment of the tamil civilians - and he seemingly has seen only the least awful part of it. will try to compile something more coherent about this tragedy. meanwhile i share with you this image from the beach.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

eyes

click image to enlarge

no words at the moment - time presses. i hope the picture speaks for itself

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

giving something back

click image to enlarge

photographing in exotic locations usually means meeting people only once in a lifetime. photographing the not-so-well-off means that you even can't just send a picture or two as email, and even when they write down their address - in the present case i couldn't read it as i don't know tamil.

but in this case i was happy: i had the opportunity to meet the fisherman of this post again and present them a print of the photo where he was posing 5 seconds for me.

it was a joy for him and for me. of course, some others now also want their portrait taken...

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

sad holiday for the tamils

click image to enlarge

dark clouds over the sea here in batticaloa, no sunrise - matching weather for a holiday that is a holy day only for the sinhalese.

from some tamil houses we heard funeral music. a sophisticated way to express their sadness that they seem to have lost their case.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

a bitter victory

click image to enlarge

here on the east coast of sri lanka, the only people celebrating a victory were soldiers and policemen, all of them members of the 80% sinhalese majority of sri lanka's population. the photo above was taken in dambulla. the tamils almost all were quiet, only the members of the ruling party tmvp showing open contentednes, and many others not daring to show their sadness about this defeat of the ltte (liberation tigers of tamil eelam).

whilst since quite some time large parts of the tamil population have turned away from the ltte because of their rigorous and cruel regime and assassinations, sharing the view of the world's majority that the tigers were terrorists, the ltte was also seen as the only power that would give the cause of the sinhalese-tamil ethnic conflict some attention in the world. now there is nobody influential anymore who can claim a true devolution, equal access to power and the realisation of full rights for the tamils.

now the ltte has lost the war and their leaders, the sri lanka government has won the last battle. to win the peace it needs actions that can be recognized by the tamils as the true and genuine will to make sri lanka a home for all citizens, regardless of ethnics or religion.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.