Thursday 7 July 2011

Ignorance is Bliss?

I was running out of TV series to watch so I watched the second best thing; documentaries. From A Lion Called Christian to Elsa: The Lioness that Changed the World, I was reminded by the kitten I named Elsa about 15 years ago. Even back then, I've always loved big cats. I remember now that I knew the name from the 1965 movie Born Free based on the true story of Elsa, a lion raised in captivity. Those are some of the beautiful love stories between men and animals.

Navigating through the maze of YouTube, I stumbled into a movie called The Bang Bang Club based on the amazing true story of four photographers capturing the final days of apartheid in South Africa. One of them took this heart-wrenching photo that won the Pulitzer for Featured Photography in 1994.


The starving toddler was crawling to a feeding centre with a vulture nearby as if it was waiting for her to collapse. Nobody knew if the poor girl managed to get help in time. The photographer became so depressed that he committed suicide three months after he won the award.

The other two friends didn't get a happy ending either. One was killed in crossfire and another lost both legs in an Afghan mine.

I don't know if I should stop reading news and watching this type of documentaries. I'll be a lot happier in my little safe bubble. They are inspiring in a way but very disturbing in many. Here I am comfortably writing from my lovely cottage when most people are struggling with life and death for a better future. I guess it's true what they say, what you don't know can't hurt you. But still, I'll take my chances for that little ray of hope. Hiding from the truth does not make it any less real.

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