Essays and Features - Asia Journalist

From one nightmare to another

Mai 17, 2015 von DirkClaus

„We are here in the hope our pictures can put a human face on this crisis,“ writes the AFP photographer Christophe Archambault, who travelled to the Andaman Sea to find a boat carrying hundreds of migrants from the persecuted Rohingya minority, adrift off the Thai coast. „My first reaction is shock. Their faces are completely emaciated. You can see their ribcages, their pointed shoulder bones. We are witnessing a situation of absolute horror.“

swim_m — AFP Photo / Christophe Archambault

We know it won’t be easy. There are hundreds of islands in the area, and scores of small boats. But it’s a one-off chance to document this dramatic story.

The Thai authorities are initially helpful, offering to take us out on patrol close to Malaysia’s territorial waters. So we fly to the southern town of Hat Yai, head on to Satun on the coast, and board a speedboat the following morning for the island of Koh Lipe where the patrol is due to leave.

Follow the blog of AFP-Correspondent Christophe Archambault:

http://blogs.afp.com/correspondent/?post/thailand-myanmar-malaysia-rohingya-migration-from-one-nightmare-to-another&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_source=twitterfeed#.VVj4pMb-DSg

Dying to Breathe—A Short Film Shows China’s True Cost of Gold

Mai 16, 2015 von DirkClaus

Each time I arrived in Hongjun village after a 12-hour journey by plane, bus, and motorbike, I took deep breaths of the crisp mountain air—as if that could clean out my Beijing-polluted lungs.

It did not take long for the irony to hit me. This alpine landscape in central China is home to hundreds—perhaps thousands—of men too sick to breathe normally.

Once farmers, these men left en masse in the late 1990s to work in gold mines—part of the army of migrant workers who powered China’s economic boom in recent decades. They dug deep into the mountains for treasures. Years later, they came back with the lung disease silicosis, and now wait in their homes for death.

Photographer Sim Chi Yin has made portraits of more than 30 former gold miners suffering from silicosis. Pictured holding their chest x-rays, clockwise from top left: Song Dengfa, died 2013; He Quangui, diagnosed with silicosis in 2004; Wang Yiyin, died 2011; She Faxue, died 2012.

How Myanmar and Its Neighbors Are Responding to the Rohingya Crisis

Mai 15, 2015 von DirkClaus

Since 2012, Myanmar has placed more than 100,000 members of the Rohingya minority in camps like this one in Rakhine State. Myanmar considers them illegal immigrants, though in many cases their families have lived in the country for generations.

Myanmar and its neighbors see the Rohingya group and the seaborne trafficking of migrants in the region very differently, complicating the refugees’ plight. Here is a rundown of their policy stances so far: (By Thomas Fuller and Patrick J. Lyons)

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/05/13/world/asia/15rohingya-explainer.html

In The Name Of Politics: victims of petrol bomb

Mai 12, 2015 von DirkClaus

It has become a culture and tradition of politics in Bangladesh. Continuous strike, blockade, extreme violence most importantly making the very general public the worst victims are the regular expressions of political protests. The „Golden Bangla“ has converted to „The Burning Bangladesh“. In the name of politics, playing with thousands of innocent lives has become the ultimate fate of the long cherished ‚Democracy‘.

At least 76 people have been killed and 225 people have been burnt in petrol bomb attacks across the country during political blockade started from January, 2015. Read more at:

http://jpgmag.com/stories/19937

Turjoy Chowdhury is a freelance documentary photographer and photojournalist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Find more of his work at: http://turjoychowdhury.wordpress.com