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Published: 2009-04-15 14:09:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 2562; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 129
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In Cuba, even in the towns and cities many houses are without running water. Two girls in the city of Matanzas collect water after school.Part of my "Many Faces Of Cuba" series: [link]
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Comments: 21
Lovely image! The sense of balance and dynamic tension between the two girls is great: really well captured. I find the cyclist in the background a slight distraction, but you have to capture what you can with these shots, and by the time he'd left the scene, the girls may have moved too much as well...
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It's actually a man in a wheel chair. If you find him distracting I may have picked the wrong shot, I thought it helped with the composition. I took a number of shots here, initially of the man going down the street in his wheel chair when the 2 girls appeared. My first shots of them were to have them out of focus off to the right in the foreground whilst I focused on the wheelchair. I then switched my attention to the 2 girls (who held hands like that all the way down the street). I have a much nicer one of the 2 of them where their arms are completely straight and there both leaning outwards in a way that if they let go they would both fall over but the girl on the left completely blocks out the man in the wheel chair so I didn't choose it. Maybe I have fallen victim again to not being able to remove myself from my memories of taking the pictures (in this case the narrative that was going on) and objectively look at the pictures on their own merits. I think I will process the other one of the girls at some point and post that one instead.
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Now that you've explained I entirely understand, but I'd certainly like to see the shot of just the two girls. I think one of the hardest things is deciding which shots are best. Very often the ones I like best are almost entirely overlooked by other people, whereas images I upload just to see what the reaction will be seem to be preferred!
I think in the end you just have to post what you like: trying to pre-judge the preferences of other people is bound to be self-defeating in the end: that way lies madness!
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In some ways yes, but people really are generally very happy.
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I appreciate the series on Cuba. Pity that the world govts haven't forced the US to agree to lift the sanctions and boycott from Cuba. Real pity ...
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Absolutely. The U.S., a country totally governed by big business and corporations will always do the utmost in it's power to ensure no form of socialist government can ever survive in this world. God forbid that any notions of fairness should ever be introduced into the world's economic systems. Cuba's political regime, like all others in this world is certainly not without its flaws. There were many people who are only too willing to tell me how much they want change and how much they have suffered after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of the support of a major Super Power that went with it, however Fidel has been in power for 50 years (although now passed to his brother) and I wonder how much people would be calling for change if George W. Bush happened to be president of the U.S. for fifty years; I dare say that would raise a few voices of dissent.
I was only there for 2 weeks and don't have to live day by day under a communist regime but some things I can say for sure. I have never been anywhere in the world where people have seemed happier and friendlier like you just wouldn't believe. Not once did I see people arguing, smacking children, fighting or even so much as raising their voice. Everybody talks to you and offers to share what they have without hesitation. I travelled around the Island and spent a week in Central Havana and nowhere have I felt safer.
Literacy rates and health are rated amongst the highest in South and Central America.
For those of you in the U.S. governments and corporations that are so desperate to squeeze the life out of this socialist regime and ensure it's people are subjected to as much hardship as possible...SHAME ON YOU!!!
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The paradox is that the US siege of Cuba may have contributed to the prevailing sense of solidarity and fraternity which you experienced. I've got a horrible feeling that easing US sanctions against Cuba might lead to the baby being thrown out with the bath water. Wouldn't it be sad to see Havana become like Miami?
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You're absolutely right and I very much fear for Cuba's future. On one small tip of Havanna there has begun a restoration project where the buildings have been rennovated and many of the ground floors have been turned over to tourist restaurants, souvenir and designer shops. The introduction of the dual currency by RaΓΊl (one for tourists and one for Cubans) is aiding in the development of a 2 class system, those with access to the tourist currency and those without although in fairness to RaΓΊl in may have been no different when the American dollar was legal tender. Havana is likely to become a pastiche of itself with 1950s cars being driven around the streets not out of necessity (how they keep those things on the road is truly a miracle!) but as novel transport for wealthy tourists and as more tourists bring in money and more goods are available in shops (completely unaccessible to the average Cuban) then there will be wealth mixed with abject poverty and is never a good recipe.
The Cuban situation is extremely complex and you're right that the embargo has probably over the years served to strengthen Castro's postion but I also think because of the longevity it has done Cuba immense damage from which it is unlikely to recover in it's present state. In many ways Cuba is stuck in a time warp with the cars being a good example. Apart from a few Eastern block Ladas, most of the other cars pre date the 1959 revolution. The world has moved on so much just from a technological point of view it's hard to see how Cuban's would cope with rapid modernization and some portions of society having access to western goods and others not.
I was only there for 2 weeks but experienced something incredibly beautiful. It's very hard to see how this little island of socialism can survive in in a hungry all devouring sea of capitalism. You are right to question the degree to which the embargo has played a part in Cuba's current economic situation but I wonder how things would be if all the energy that had been put into ensuring this socialist model has no future in the world had been used to help and nurture the country since the revolution. I suspect we might find people in Miami using small boats to risk their lives on the ocean currents and escape to Cuba
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I quite agree with all that you've said, but we are where we are, and it's very hard to see how Cuba can avoid ending up like Russia (but without the natural gas and oil). It seems that capitalism is inevitable in Cuba: the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. Goodness knows what will happen to their much-vaunted health and education programmes.
I watched a gardening programme a few months ago, where Monty Don visited Cuba, and it was like a low-carbon oasis. It seemed like the majority of the population grew their own vegetables, often in the most unexpected places, even in the larger towns and cities. It's things like that, and the spirit of self-reliance and make-do, born out of necessity because of the sanctions, that are most likely to be lost, it seems to me...
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It's true what adversity can sometimes do to enrich life. I'm not quite so sure about people in the towns and cities growing their own vegetables but certainly in any rural areas everyone does and also keeps a range of animals, especially chickens and pigs. With the fall of the Soviet Empire Cuba has lost its supply of agricultural chemicals and farming by necessity is now organic. I visited the ViΓ±ales Valley where the tobacco comes from where the only way in is by horseback or on foot. There is no motorized transport, not even tractors and everything is done with either horses or oxen but strangely I didn't feel like I was stepping back in time but into the future.
One of the great things about Cuba is the lack of traffic on the roads because barely anyone owns a car. For years I have believed that the car is our great nemesis and how much better our lives would be without them. Admittedly we'd have to modify our lifestyles but the price we pay is way too great and I'm not just talking about global warming. I live in a big city where the streets are owned by the cars. Add to that the noise and pollution and really these things make our quality of lives extremely poor. Cubans however live on their streets creating an incredible sense on community. When Havana's narrow streets become congested with motorized vehicles (as inevitably I fear they will) I think they will come to realize what they have lost.
Consumerism, the deity of the Western world, is not the path to Nirvana as certain governments and organizations would have us believe.
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Amen to that! I live in a small city and walk whenever I can, but my car is a necessity for me, nevertheless, especially for my work, which takes me all over the country. Rail travel in East Anglia is a joke: only London is really accessible by train, and even that takes 2 hours to Liverpool St. But the future has to be fewer, smaller cars running on something other than petroleum. In rural areas like Norfolk, life would be extremely hard for people without cars. But I'm sure massive adjustments will have to come, and they may be less far off than many imagine. The present recession may just be a precursor to what is to come. We may eventually look to the Cuban model as a pathway to survival.
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I know a little of this, and agree, the Cuban people's resilience, ingenuity and spiritual-inner-fortitude is a shining example to all of us in the modern-age ... their love for life, and music, and community amazes me... you have been fortunate to have spent time amongst such... I totally stand against the embargo that is held in place since most of my own life (years)... and if Obama is anything he pretends to be regarding tolerance of differences, I would like to think that he'll get around to lifting this US stupidity, and let Cuba get on with their path, whatever they choose...
You sound like a person of some similar feeling about some matters that I have interest in... cheers for now.
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