Stop Exploiting Us!

Papua New Guinea is endowed with vast natural resources, but its inhabitants have not enjoyed sustained increases in their incomes. Industries that dominate the formal economic sector are the capital-intensive mining and oil industries that employ large numbers of foreign nationals and relatively few locals. They tend to be controlled by overseas interests and thus considerable portions of the profits are taken offshore. While many multinational corporations are enjoying huge profits, Papuans lives are signalled by widespread poverty — an estimated 40% of people live on under US$1 per day.

Thank you!

Your intention to send a message with this image is done,way you worked it with dark upper part creates the mood that this composition need,unfortunately today difference in the world are huge.My compliments to you for this photo,have a nice day.

Excellent work! 6

Excellent....

Really beautiful work, Anabela!

 

It strong reminder that it was and it is... it hard to tell if it will be...

Thank you all for expressing your appreciation. I truly valued and appreciated it!

Thank you very much indeed.

It would seem history is about to repeat itself yet again. The exploitation of native lands and the greed of mankind are our shameful legacy, yet it still continues. What is heart warming is that amongst the children there is a few smiling faces, and perhaps a sign of hope for the future.

Compliments !

 

Alf

Your edditting placing the emphasis on the group works well . It's a pity the figure in red was at the end of the line . Still you can't have every thing ! A great image and story line . Bill

A document for National geography or a world magazine. Suffering people have an strong message for us all!!! Warm regards my friend.

This picture is low grade garbage. It does not deserve the bandwidth to display it.

 

What I see is a group of people probably from PNG, but only because you say so. Some are waving, some smiling, one picking his nose. They are highlighted against a background of a tropical forest and large, old corrugated iron buildings.

 

That is what I see. Then there is your title and political statement supporting the image.

 

The two do not connect either from a photographic point of view or a political point of view.

 

You make dramatic statements about exploitation. They may be true, but they are not supported by the image. In fact one could make the opposite argument. Your other work in the PNG folio regards the “Mud Men”, and it would be easy for me to say that mining development has brought such social advances as the move from Mud Men to these “happy smiling villagers”.

 

In another life, I have been involved in mining development in remote parts of the World. Yes, they use many foreign nationals in their mining operations – that is because the local “Mud Men” have very limited skills in handling heavy machinery. Yes, they sometimes  make large profits, and all of those are contracted with the local governments before beginning operations, so appropriate royalties are paid to the local Government. What they do with the money is up to the local Government, not the mining company, and not to a photographer with a social axe to grind.

 

This whole process can be handled well, and an example of that is a Canadian company called Cominco that managed mining operations in the Arctic. It was later taken over by Teck and they continued with their plan to develop a zinc deposit in Alaska. The local people were involved at all stages and the Eskimo elders were in full support of the project. It has been a great success.

 

One of the major mining projects in PNG is Ok Tedi. It nearly bankrupted the company developing this gold/copper deposit. Yes it is capital intensive (and the Mud Men did not put any money into the project because they had none). It is now owned entirely by the Government of PNG and accounts for 32% of all the export revenues of the country.

 

So what is the problem here?? It is a photographer who deliberately misstates the facts and does not support her statements with visual evidence. I suggest that the Moderators of this forum remove this image.

 

Having said that, some of her other images in the galleries are very good.