06-26-2019, 09:50 PM
Steve G. wrote:
I think NPR has it correct
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/26/736177694...mmigration
The desperate and tragic plight of a father and daughter who drowned while trying to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. has become a new flashpoint in the border crisis, after a photographer captured a haunting image that shows the pair lying facedown, washed onto the banks of the Rio Grande.
Le Duc also photographed the bodies of Ramírez and his daughter, which were found after Ávalos alerted authorities in Mexico. Le Duc's images show the pair lying along the riverbank, with their feet in the water and their heads on the reeds of dry land. The toddler is tucked into her dad's T-shirt — an apparent attempt to keep her close as the current took them away. Her arm is flung around his neck.
The shocking and unsettling image has drawn comparisons to other powerful photos, of the death of Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in 2015 as his family tried to reach sanctuary in Greece, and of Omran Daqneesh, who was 5 when he was wounded in an airstrike in Aleppo.
In the same way those images focused the world's attention on the humanitarian crisis in Syria and Turkey, the intense image from the Rio Grande comes as a stark reminder of the human toll of the immigration crisis. As in those earlier cases, it also shows the devastating effect strife and desperation often inflict on children and families.
I'm disappointed that NPR published the photo, they will also get more revenue as a result. I'm sure they are going to get a lot of negative feedback.
As for the photo of the Syrian toddler, donations to nonprofits increased a hundred fold after the photo - life for refugees didn't get much better though. That's why we keep seeing these photos, they work for the powerful, don't they?