God loves fags

For those of you who haven't seen this Louis Theroux doc, I highly recommend it. This is one of his best. It's about The Westboro Baptist Church - those responsible for the GOD HATES FAGS pickets in the U.S. I love the way even people who are obviously homophobic, saying 'I don't agree with the (gay) lifestyle' or give the picketers the finger as they drive by, are shocked and appauled by this church. This family has obviously taken their beliefs a bit far.



Here is a snippet from the documentary:

In the dumps

This is kind of a follow up on my 'FOOD FOR THOUGHT' blogpost, looking at people who go to extreme measures to find food. This is usually done under extreme circumstances and in dirty, swampy spaces. La Chureca is one of these battlegrounds. It is known as the largest garbage dump in Central America. It is situated on the banks of the capital of Nicaragua. 

This vast dumping ground, which spreads 70 acres, has been a space of accumulated garbage since 1975 and contains 5 million tons of waste. There is no recycling or seperation of garbage that takes place, everything is dumped together. That is inorganic waste, food, dead animals, cans, glass, metals, trash from demolitions, also infectious biowaste. La Chureca is the only wasteland in Central America that also contains solid waste. That is waste brought there from hospitals, such as dead bodies, limbs, remains from surgery, etc. 

Nicaragua is the poorest country of Central America. Hundreds of human waste recyclers search in tons of smouldering garbage mainly metals (copper, aluminium, bronze), others concentrate on glass which is cheap, but in bigger amount. To put this in perspective, selling 20-30kg of glass will buy you one meal on the streets of Nicaragua. Many children search here for food daily, in an effort to help provide for their families. This is their normal way of life. The children very often eat the food they find on the dump, none of them goes to school. Many of them sniff glue, the drug of the poorest.

40 per cent of these 'scavengers' have cutaneous (skin) diseases and more than a half of the children have parasites in their intestines.

Photos by Jon Sochor, Life of a Scavenger

Inside the dolls' house

 

This is a reportage piece I thought was really interesting. This is a photo essay of women who live in institutions in the Czech Republic. Most of the women are mentally disturbed. Many of the institutions use dolls as a means of social therapy.

Above: Dasa (aged 55) came to the institution two years ago. She has two dolls, which she received as Christmas presents. Sometimes she has a third doll: "I borrow this doll from Miluska. She lends her to me sometimes to make me happy."

Above: Fun and games: Eva (aged 63) has been in the home for eight years: "I sleep with my doll and I love her." Eva seems very happy and laughs a lot.

 

Above: Generous instincts: the women share their experiences with each other while looking after the dolls: "I'll give you a doll but only if you like children," one inmate told the photographer.

A face at the window: "What they dream about, we will never know." mused the photographer, Radim Beznoska

 

Surrogate families: the women treat the dolls as close friends who will never disappoint them. They boast about their well-dressed 'children' and chat with them throughout the day.

Courtesy of: http://www.reportage.org