you just need to be the right side of human.

January 5th, 2009 | Tags: conflict, Gaza, Israel, Mohammed Salem, war | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Leave a comment

why on earth would you go and stick text all over them?

‘An audio slideshow of night and winter landscapes by contributing photographer Tony Prower, an Englishman who became interested in photography after moving to Iceland and seeing the Northern Lights for the first time. Photographing the elusive Aurora Borealis is challenging, but Prower refused to give up and finally managed to catch their magic on film.’

January 4th, 2009 | Tags: Iceland, Tony Prower | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Comments (2)

Pick of the pics 2008: 24 hours in pictures

January 4th, 2009 | Tags: Guardian, Lisa Foreman, photojournalism, Ranjit Dhaliwal | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Comments (1)

or just really creepy?

Maybe all the above but it certainly made duckrabbit think.

January 4th, 2009 | Tags: Benjamin Chesterton, Dai Sugano, India, Left Behind, Poverty, San Jose Mercury News | Category: Benjamin Chesterton, Production | Leave a comment

WHAT?

Maybe duckrabbit is tired and hungover from too much talking to too many people and wow visually this is a fantastic effort but I’m getting sinister vibes from this ’spot’ and I’m going to have to get it off my chest.

In recent years we’ve done a great job of bombing the Mary and Joseph out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I find something disturbing about using a warplane to try and send a message of peace to a people who cannot hear it. Think about it, you don’t give out Christmas presents wearing a Freddie Kruger outfit, do you … and yes I know that’s the point but is it one worth making? Actually this is an exercise in ‘give us your money’. Great here’s 2p but …

I was living in Ethiopia when the war on Somalia started, fueled by the American administration which has helped turn that god forsaken country into the worst humanitarian situation on the planet, worse than in Burma (though we’re not playing humanitarian top trumps here). For the most part the American Government used warplanes to bomb the fear into people and helped the Ethiopian army march right into Mogadishu committing rape and pillage as an understatement.

Today is the deadline for them to march out again.

Two years on, nothing but misery gained.

And some.

When they pull out .. what you going to do … bomb them with flowers (and suggest we pay for it)?

(please don’t mistake the American Government for American people, the recent elections shows the difference)

CRISIS IN BURMA from Scott Denton on Vimeo.

January 1st, 2009 | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Leave a comment

Send this to someone you love,

and hope that they forgive you.

Keeping the Circle

There is still time.
There are still forests of aspen and pine,
Mountain places where the trails peter out
And the winds begin,
Trackless tundra,
Dark-gliding swamps,
Grasslands that have never been mown.
And the earth has mysterious ways of reclaiming its own,
Sends violets to push a pavement apart
And a sliver of birdsong to pierce the heart.

Elise Maclay

January 1st, 2009 | Tags: Elise Maclay, Poem | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Leave a comment

I dunno about you but this is another one of those songs that has followed me like a friend through my adult life.  It’s hard to imagine how you could squeeze more compassion and hope into a song without it becoming over sentimental.

It’s never been bettered than when Bob Marley played it live.

Good friends we have, oh, good friends we have lost
Along the way, way
Say in this great future called life, you can’t forget your past;
So dry your tears, I say. Yeah!

Sad then to hear that the person who’s credited with writing this song, Vincent Ford, has just passed away.

Damn Vincent, that’s quite a legacy!

January 1st, 2009 | Tags: Bob Marley, Vincent Ford | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Leave a comment

and not a drop to drink.

That was the horror faced by the cursed inhabitants of Coleridge’s poem The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

Not a modern horror that keeps me awake at night but a terrible reality for over one billion people who don’t have access to fresh potable water.  Read that statistic again … it’s mindblowing. That’s the equivalent of 142 London’s in which no-one can easily access  fresh water.

This Christmas the Financial Times has been running a campaign to support the work of WaterAid, a charity that aims to bring universal access to fresh water.

As part of the FT campaign Barney Jopson has put together a persuasive audio slideshow on how WaterAid is bringing clean and legal water to the illegal slums of Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Unfortunately I can’t upload photos to the blog from where I am in France but you can view the audio slideshow here.

December 28th, 2008 | Category: David White | Leave a comment

windscreen flooded with a blackened French sky, one shooting star caught out of the corner of my eye, kids sleeping in the back, take a moment, make a wish, keep it secret.

Must be all that peace and love rolling round Christmas but wished that we could all have a little bit more happiness in our lives. Wished that those of us with more than material enough, would give a bit more back, and those with nothing wouldn’t have to be waiting on a Santa Claus that never comes just to go to sleep on a full stomach.

Then this morning I turned my computer on to read that

‘Israeli F-16 bombers have launched a series of air strikes against key targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 155 people.’

Bubble burst.

I don’t see good guys and bad guys. There’s plenty who can point them out. Just a mess  getting messier and no Mary Poppins in sight.

December 27th, 2008 | Category: Benjamin Chesterton | Leave a comment