There are always a variety of photographs that highlight some of the events of the year for me. Some images are humorous, some completely superficial, whilst others are breathtaking, picturesque, serious, violent, and even terrifying.
Boobs and Guns
Let’s start with the humorous – the spoof picture of gun-toting beauty queen, Sarah Palin. The manipulated image, showing Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin posing for a photo sporting an American flag bikini and a rifle became an instant hit when forwarded by millions via email and suitably ridiculed her position within the US Elections.
Ice Cold Vodka
Picture: Platon for TIME
This picture that sends shivers down my spine. Even though it was published on the front cover of Times Magazine in December 2007, for some reason this portrait of Vladimir Putin has haunted me throughout 2008… » Continue Reading…
I compiled this slide show on the eve of the Xenophobic attacks reaching new levels of horrific violence. Ever since, these images have been etched into my memory, leaving me feeling deeply distressed.
I must say, the denialism and all-round quiet diplomacy we’ve witnessed from our South African leader, the president, Thabo Mbeki, is really paying off:
Zimbabwe is in ruins, and it falling further off the face of this earth. Excellent achievement, well done to the super-duo Thabo and Robert!
But more so, Zimbabweans and other foreign Africans are now being hunted down in our very own country, to the extent that today, a mob of looters:
Beat some foreigner to the ground
Laid a mattress over the kneeling man
Set the mattress alight
And let the man who is probably someone’s husband, father, brother, nephew, and friend, burn
Whilst laughing at him
The police tried to save him, by
Throwing the burning mattress off the victim
And extinguishing the human fire with a fire extinguisher
Leaving behind a kneeling statue of ash and burnt flesh
A living human with 100% burn wounds
A person who felt the process of being beaten and his own flesh sizzling
A man, with nothing left, no dignity, no life, no skin
A man who died a couple of hours later
I am ashamed to be associated with this image. I am ashamed that there are people out there with no sense of humanity. I am ashamed, I am angry; I am actually fucking pissed off! This image better be a wake-up call to the South African government, to our very own president, who has so far left his people in the lurch, and has left those fleeing from his quiet diplomacy to burn in hell, literally!
If you don’t understand where I’m coming from, please do yourself a favour and click here to watch “Flames of Hate”.
