I came across this picture after previously dismissing it. On a second look though I liked the colours and it has an intensity from somewhere. To break the mystery of it (?!), it's a shot I took at sunrise at the start of February from my bedroom window. My flash went off unintentionally which explains the glare at top right (and probably means it won't win too many competitions).It is the new harbour development, as shown from further away in the shots from previous post just above the helicopter.
On a totally different note, it was good to see the new Australian Prime Minister apologising to the 'lost generation' where aboriginal children (but of mixed race) were forcibly separated from their families and comunities since the very first days of the European occupation. Something similar happened in Canada too. It annoys me how self-righteous we are in the west when it comes to human rights, especially when it comes to countries that have oil wells in them. We should campaign vigourously for countries from China to Afghanastan and elsewhere to improve the rights of the indivudual but we need to have a more humble attitude too, and consider the gross abuses that continued to take place in our own countries. Its interesting that US has about 2000 people that will never be released from prison for crimes committed when they were under 18. Briatin has in total about 35 people in total who are in for their entire lives. Its only in the last decade that people with learning difficulties have been allowed to live in normal society in Scotland rather than being locked away out of sight.
1 comment:
I strongly agree with your comments about the west's general attitude to indigenous peoples...growing up in Canada I was aware of a strong negative stereotype perpetuated about the "indians" ...but in Uni it dawned on me that the cycle of abuse, poverty alcoholism etc. must be close to inescapable and how selfish for the white European descendants to just deny responsibility for our ancestors actions and say"that was then, and it wasn't us!"
It does seem Australia has been one of the worst offenders when you look at life expectancy of indigenous peoples for example... but how great the new government has taken that step....let's hope they follow up with some meaningful work towards giving indigenous peoples more of the advantages we enjoy already.
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