Hands Up Who Wants To Die

Had Enough - Mark McGowan

2011-11-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

The Hooded Photographer

2011-11-26T15:00:00.001-08:00

All photos by Hans Scott

interview with Hans Scott

Where did you take these pictures?
In Santiago, Chile

What else can you tell me?
Well that, recently from what I see, we've lost the fear of rebellion. We fight with both heart and stone

Things are still pretty spicey then?
Recently the guys have lost the fear of the government's reprisals which have been placed on to those that strike against police officers. Things are still pretty heated even though many students have gone back to class

How many have been jailed?
9895 people have been detained between March 1st and 30th August

That's a hell of a load - How many have been released?
Look, most are released on the same day but that's after many hours of being abused and humiliated

So they beat them up?
Well one time they smothered, felt and abused some girls

Do you consider yourself a Die Hard? As in one that doesn't give in and throws stones?
What as in a hoodie, well in a certain way I am allied to them. Im not a hoodie but a photographer, though I am on their side. I side with their fight and with their objectives, and that's what I try to reflect in my pictures

What are the objectives of the Hoodies?
The same ones most people want

That being free good schooling for everyone?
Yeah, the thing is that the hoodies fight in way that is politically incorrect. Many in society say it is also incorrect. I don't know if I should be speaking of anarchy, but it's certainly a radicalization

Do you think it's incorrect?
Not at all. I think the government satanises the hoodies and society unconsciously falls in their little game, of satanising the one that fights throwing stones. But what they don't realise is that the police also hits, shoots and kills. That's what you see on the street. And that's what the government wants to hide

Do you think there are parallels to the repression during the time of Pinochet?
Look I was born when Pinocchio fell, but seeing documentaries, photos and speaking to the people that lived through it, I feel we are going through something similar. We are still in a type of masked dictatorship. A legalised dictatorship under the false name of democracy

Well I am not sure I can differentiate that with any other country..but what does Chile have that Peru and Argentina don't?
I'm not sure but they should, it would be great if all countries joined in the search of social justice

It would be great but I'm afraid apathy rules
What I am saying is that the government fills its mouth with talk that we are a democracy, that it supposedly does what the people ask. Piñera goes abroad saying that we are an advanced country and that the student voice is being heard. But his change is only comes in favour of the multinationals and big business

Well at least you guys are united, your organizations are incomparable to the ones of neighbouring countries or even to those in Europe
Yes at least we have a structure. We have university and secondary school leaders and teachers also. They are the ones that take the demands onto the politicians. Although there are those that aren't in favour of with the leaders because they side with opposition parties. The root to the problem is the whole political class

In that they are elitist?
Totally!

Including the left-leaning Bachelets?
Of course, during their governance for example they started the 'transantiago'; a 'new' transport service, that today is a complete shamble. Broken down buses and trains. Rising ticket prices. Not to mention that they also profited from the education system

What I find odd is that that battle is the same in most countries, yet in Chile you somehow got it together
Disparities are everywhere and often the same. And most countries are still gripped by capitalism where governments side with commercial monopolies before siding with the people

Yes but what is worse is that most people are turned off
The worst form of violence is shutting up and staying quiet. And of not saying anything while they shit in front of your noses

all photo rights to Hans Scott

The War Game - Peter Watkins (1965)

2011-11-25T18:34:00.001-08:00

Underworld U.S.A. (1961)

2011-11-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

F For Fake - entire film

2011-11-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

F for Fake is the last major film completed by Orson Welles, who directed, co-wrote, and starred in the film. Initially released in 1974, it focuses on Elmyr de Hory's recounting of his career as a professional art forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a fast-paced, meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art. Loosely a documentary, the film operates in several different genres and has been described as a kind of film essay.

Far from serving as a traditional documentary on Elmyr de Hory, the film also incorporates Welles's companion Oja Kodar, notorious "hoax-biographer" Clifford Irving, and Orson Welles himself, in an autobiographical role.

C HOP ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?

2011-11-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

In Oct 2008 I started researching a drug called Nembutal, otherwise known as the Peaceful Pill. This Drug was apparently easy to purchase in Tijuana, Mexico at certain veterinarians and would cause an instant painless death. I noticed it was something mentioned at suicide forums, and began discussing it with those who wanted to get their hands on it.

A certain C Hop was the keenest of all. It was he who wrote back. It is only now, three years later, that I have decided to publish.

Dear Mr Hop,

I read something you wrote on a website and was intrigued with your story as to why you want to take Nembutal and end your life. Are you in pain? How certain are you that you want to follow this through? Did anyone reply with the exact location as where to buy the product?

from another dimension,

Lali Cienfuegos

Dear Lali,

Before I tell you more - please explain to me who you are? thankyou

C Hop

I live in Lima, Peru and am half English. My father died a few years ago of cancer; had I known of the drug then, I may have taken a trip to Mexico. Recently an uncle of mine committed suicide - the circumstances as to why he took that decision were very clinical. I am intrigued, not in a sadist way, but in that moment that separates life and death, and leads someone to make such a decision. Ever since I read Camus - The Myth of Sisyphus - I have been tickled by this existentialist conundrum.

Would you go to Mexico to fulfill this?

L.C.

---

Dear Lali, I will definitely write you to tell you the whole story. Can you answer this though? Whats it like in Mexico for accessing Nembutal, or other prescription drugs like lorazepam, valium etc?

Cheers C. Hop

---

Lali,

I said I would write to you and tell you my story, and hopefully give you a better understanding of what causes someone to choose death over life. I am sorry to hear about the deaths in your family, my father committed suicide when I was 15yrs old - they didnt find his body for another 3 yrs, which was found at one of my favourite beaches. It was tough to deal with a suicide of someone close, however dealing with that suicde was nothing compared to dealing with depression to this level. Thats not to say that dealing with death is easy. From memory he died of an overdose of serapax - oxazapam i think. which is the way I was originally going to do it and by the looks of it will, as it seems impossible to access Nembutal. I only heard of Nembutal over the internet as a potent drug that kills instantly.

I developed depression at 24, and at the time it wasn't too bad - I could still work and enjoy life to a certain degree. It wasn't bought on by any life event, it just crept up on me - so I gather that I was lucky enough to inherit it from dad.By the age of 27, things were getting worse and I went on anti-depressants and started councilling etc. I left my job and stayed at home and took on renovating as an interest. I thought the anti depressants were working around the age of 28, so I decided to move to the other side of Australia and start a fishing charter. It did ok, however the depression was still there the whole time, i just wasnt aware of it. It got me in the end - 2 yrs and I sold the charter and returned home for help. I am 32 now, and have been chasing help intensively now for 4 long yrs. I have tried all antidepressants, physcology, been hospitalised 2 times, had ECT - shock therapy ( 1 mnth ago ) 23 times which is alot compared to the average person - this did not work and has made me lose most of my memory( short and long term ) and has given me seizures, which has made me lose my drivers licence.

So as you can see I have fought very, very hard at this illness for a long time, and now I am at a stage where I can not fight any more.

What makes you choose between life and death? Well, in my case, it is the constant pain both physically and mentally related to the depression. But also seeing your closest loved ones who you care about so much, and used to have fun and enjoy doing things with - in pain. Especially my wife of 14 yrs - who is the most caring and bubbly person in the world. She has been dragged through hell with me for so long and has supported me emotionally and financially. We still love each other to the point where it hurts. To love someone so much and not be able to enjoy life in the basic ways - hugging, a kiss, a smile, a walk on the beach etc is a terrible thing. And now it has got to a point where I can see her mood and personality starting to slide down hill. it has got to a point where we love each other but are so close to splitting up for her health. It's a crushing feeling and just adds to the pain of the depression. So to answer your question - I have told you most of my story in brief, so as to hope that you may be able to feel my feelings to a degree and then see that all the good things in life don't exist, and therefore dont count - the pain is the only thing I wake up to and spend all day feeling. Therefore I choose death - I see it as an end to all this suffering. I appologise if this offends, but i don't believe there is a god or there is life after death. I believe and seek comfort in the fact that death is death. Once you die everything stops - feelings, memories, pain - everything. So why wouldn't I choose this option?? No I don't want to hang around anymore and wait for a cure or a drug - as I have been told this for many years. No I don't want to hang around so that I can talk and help others with depression - I would love to if my depression eased a bit, but thats not reality.

I hope I havent bored you, but I do hope that I have helped in answering your question about what motivates a person to choose between life and death.

And I will ask again as I am finding it very hard to access any drugs on the net, and it is hard to get to doctors over here when you live in the country and have no vehicle or licence to drive. I would have to go to at least 5 doctors to get the tablets I need. Can you get any drugs such as Serapax, Oxazapam, Valium, Diazapam, or especially lorazepam - I think also known as Activan (not sure). I will pay you for your efforts and the drugs, and pay you first of course so you can trust me! I need 100 of either of those drugs. You would help me out greatly. You don't have to give any names to me or on the medications - just have to post/send them anonymously. Or do you know someone that could get them for me. There are alot of internet pharmacies but I don't trust them, but if you can't help I will have no choice but to send them money in the hope they will send me something. I really don't want to end my life by cutting myself or hanging my self - I want to die in peace- I think I deserve that at least.

Once again thankyou very much for listening and hopefully helping,

C. Hop

---

Dear C. Hop,

I have read your letter various times, and not been able to reply. I am, as you may imagine, somewhat lost for words. I cannot picture the things you have been through. Thank you more than anything for opening out like you did. I will say, straight off, that I am afraid I will not help you obtain those drugs you ask for - moral dilemma. From the abstraction of geography and the internet I wont fully be able to give you any sound advice I'm sure. But please hear me out. I hope you do give life another chance. Perhaps leave to another country. Living in a third world country, life and death take on new parallels. Seek simplicity. Is it possible to be the master of the beast that haunts you?

(I could carry on pasting what I put but I won't, C Hop never replied, I hope you are there somewhere C Hop in peace)

The Money Exchanger

2011-11-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

In a city of 9 million people, one of the oddest jobs on the streets of Lima is that of the 'money-changer'. These men stand outside supermarkets and cash machines, like portable banks, and often offer a better rate. They normally work in herds so as to not to get robbed, however, one of them, Lucho (pictured above) opts to always work one block from the rest.

interview by Céline Wald

What is your name and where are you from?
My name is Luis Hernan Cornejo Salinas and I’m from Lima.

And what do people call you?
Lucho

How long have you worked here?
More or less 10 years.

Describe a normal day
I wake up at 8:30, I shower and I leave to go to work at nine. I eat breakfast in the street. I eat out mostly, I only eat dinner at home. I go to the local bakery and there I’ll have a sandwich, a juice for breakfast, things like that. From there, I come here to work until 6:00 at night. I eat lunch here in this chifa or a restaurant around here.

Do you have any preferences, are you a regular at any places around here.
No no, I eat wherever.

Why do you think you have more clients than the other money-changers? Why do you think most people in this neighbourhood come to you?
Well…because of the way I treat them. I always treat people like friends instead of customers. It’s the way you treat people.

Why do you think people give you this confidence?
I think it’s just the way I treat them you know? It’s all about the way you treat people.

Why do you work here on this corner alone rather than working alongside the other money-changers on that corner?
Because I like solitude. I like being alone, I’ve always been doing things alone. For my entire life.

And why do you think the other money-changers don’t come into your corner?
Well, it could be because I’ve never tried to have hold a friendship with them. You know, they’re collegues, nothing more…nothing more.

And do you have any ‘friends’ around here?
Look, I don’t think that friends exist. The only friends I have are my father and my mother. Apart from that…friends just don’t exist. Only acquaintances exist, nothing more, I don’t know, It’s something particular that I believe you know?

Do you consider your children as your friends? Your cousins? Uncles?
Of course, they’re my friends. My family consists of my son and my wife.

Do you know the tamal seller, who has her stall across from you?
Yes, I’ve known her for years…I’ve known her for more than 10 years. Even before I started working here.

Do you ever buy her tamales?
Yes, I always buy her tamales

Do you know her name?
No, no no no, like I said, I don’t really like to go “in depth” with people.
.....

When is your day-off?
I don’t have a day off you know

When you’re not working, what do you like to do?
I cook

Are you a good cook?
Yes, I cook and I watch some television…or read a book no.

What’s your favorite dish?
Ceviche

And can you cook ceviche?
Yes, everything, I can cook anything.

Is it common in Peru for men to cook at home?
I think it is. There are a lot of people, men who cook. I’ve cooked since I was a youth, since I was a youth.

Out of pleasure or necessity?
No, because I’ve always liked to cook. I’ve always liked to cook.

What do you like most about your job?
What do I like most about my job?...Well, earning money (laughs)...yeah earning money

And what do you like least about your job?
Well, it’s a risky job as well no? It’s a very risky job. Because of this job, I have a grand-daughter who got shot and she’s recuperating right now, thanks to god. This is what I don’t like about my job, the risk, it’s very risky.

What happened and when?
About a year and a half ago, I went to go pick up my cash load for the day unaware that I was being watched. I was in my car with my wife and my grand-daughter. A car stopped in front of us and several men approached us with guns demanding my wad of cash. I resisted and then, out of nowhere, one of them shot my 3 yr old granddaughter in the neck. She survived but became tetraplegic. It’s the worst thing that has ever happened in my entire life.

And how are you holding up today?
Well, I’m seeing that my grand-daughter is recuperating little by little no. But this…psychologically, I always/still have my depression you know. Moments in which I feel bad you know, you know, I don’t have happiness.

But you still continue working as a money-changer here?
I have to work. It’s something that you just can’t avoid. You just can’t avoid it. Life goes on so they say no? I mean, I have to work even more for her so that she can recuperate faster and go forward with life faster.

And do you have any plans for the future?
Plans? I don’t think one can make plans. You can’t plan and forsee things. I live the daily life. Of course I have prospects you know, plans you know. But like I said, in reality, you live today’s day, not tomorrows.

What is something that people should know about Lima?
Well, it’s a very attractive country. It’s a country that has good people, well as well as bad people, like in any place you know. But it’s a country with lot’s of good people, lot’s of collaborators.

What do you like most about Lima?
What do I like most about Lima? Well, I like a lot of places you know. Like the Parque de la Leyendas (the local zoo), where I used to always go with my niece, with Romina, I used to go to the parque de las leyendas, you know, I always used to go with her. She’s the only person who has always accompanied me my entire life. She’s the best thing that god has given me and I hope that she gets well soon. But that is what I like most, the parque de las leyendas where I always used to go with her.

CRACK KIDS BRAZIL

2011-11-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

A group of journalists are taken on a tour to Rio's infamous 'Cracolandia'. The report focuses on Rio's new contentious strategy to intern children addicted to crack.

EDL - CUNTS

2011-10-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

AND HERE IS BRITAIN'S NEWEST ORGANISED RACIST FACTION.

TOKEN ASIAN GUY

2011-08-24T06:15:00.000-07:00

2011-08-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

"I here cry that the guilty should be punished and if that is truly how you feel, then let them be. Let the real culprits be brought before the public and shown for who they really are. Yes, who were involved should know that this will not be tolerated, but if this is the case, then those responsible for the social degradation in the first place, should face the music as well. Let us not forget that social divides are also not acceptable now and nor are the institutions who promote this. Let it be heard loud and clear that the people require change, let it be known that we realise that religion and politics created this mess that all of humanity finds itself in. Why would our children possibly want to live under this decadent, corrupt and deceitful shadow as we have..."

images by Gabriel Thorp

Its good to talk

2011-08-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

London
the youth smash and grab the things society tells them they should have
stymied by the lack of opportunities
send them to the third world so that they see what's real

that'll show'em

show'em not to rebel

Underclass Racaille!!!! Reckless stupid chavs and blacks
unable even to articulate their discontent while we keep'em on loans, in schools and houses...right?

HOW HACKNEY KICKED OFF

2011-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

HACKNEY RIOTS< LONDON

2011-08-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

all rights of pictures to Lali Cienfuegos

THE SHADOW DID US BAD

2010-09-10T20:21:00.000-07:00

THE SHADOW DID US BAD

-A love story from a far flung desert media hole-

I was another of the one thousand cameramen consuming the same daily updates in Camp Hope being fed breakfast, lunch and dinner by the government.

The truth was that most of the time at Camp Esperanza, nothing much happened other than lunchtime and Roly the clown doing his rounds at the family tents in his sinuous way of getting his world renowned picture taken. And click click they did, at anything really, to the effect that the Chilean government learnt how to play up their own orchestration of events, creating a kind of window, if but a caricature, to how it wanted the country to be portrayed to the World. What was always certain was that the real story was 700 metres below the ground - the stories which are beginning to unfold as the 33 miners erode their vow of silence and speak of their experiences, and in particular of the first 17 days before they were found alive.

For quite some time the daily activities from below were closely monitored. Psychologists and medics detained letters, any news and objects they deemed unhealthy for the miners were withdrawn as was any information coming from below speaking of the harshness of those first lost subterranean days. Families were prohibited from sending anything that may affect the miners psyche, chocolates, ipods and smokes included. Big brother knew what was best.

In the midst of this I kept a close vigil on Edison Peña, a miner who appeared to be the first to describe in his letters the real conditions of inside the mine and whose fears were that the mountain could swallow them before they could be rescued.

Here wrote in hyphens:

- We are the ones below the earth.

- If we run out of air, imagine.

- If it all collapses, imagine.

- If someone gets seriously injured, imagine what we would do with that person inside.

- Let’s not separate ourselves from the real sense or how grave it could become inside.

- It is us here in the darkness.

- We can die at any moment by a collapse.

Angelica, Edison’s partner, treasured these letters as though her lover’s words were bestowed with the voice of reason beyond the far-too-often farcical angle represented by the government. Her own quest went towards hunting down the truth, watch-dogging the very movements the authorities on top were celebrating. The day the ‘Phoenix’ rescue capsule was launched seemed to epitomise this; painted in the colours of the Chilean flag but appearing more like Captain America, with the torch-carrying mining minister himself Lawrance Golborne paraded as a saviour. Any one who spoke against the epic rescue preparations was deemed a haggard cynic.

The truth was that the Chilean government had it all to play for. Had a triumphant rescue attempt not been fulfilled, there would have been many more severed heads other than the scapegoated San Jose mine owners. Prior to the collapse, much of the conditions within the mine where lackadaisical, responding to weak government inspections and a general culture of negligence that carries throughout Chile’s mining industry. The incredible engineering feat that has now remapped this slither of a country has completely overshadowed the State’s blame in the events before the collapse.

Soon enough porn was sent down. Love letters also took on new eloquent forms. The borehole connecting the lower world with the loved ones on top became the emotional umbilical cord maintaining the miners’ sanity. Finally in the first established video conference call, Angelica would get to see her cherished Edison. She took with her, her 3 year-old daughter Nakita from a previous relation and Edison’s brother Rafael. Taken by the moment, Edison went into an acapella frenzy of Elvis songs - drowning the cries of “Daddy!” shouted by Nakita. His eyes appearing silvery, possessed even. He spoke of his new running routine, displaying his calves and chopped off boots personalised for better runability.

“He was always an extrovert. Perhaps he hides in his different personas to make us feel he is doing ok. But it’s difficult because when we go to him and want to talk to him about serious things, we can’t because he becomes Elvis.” - Angelica

The turtle race continued as the three different rescue plans were underway. Plan A, B and C. Plan D involving dynamite was quickly discarded as a kamikaze bypass, belittling the very wild cat miners that had conceived it. Each drill had its own set backs, stoppages and reignitions. Plan C labeled the Eiffel Tower of the desert was deemed the favourite owing to its sheer monstrosity. But as soon as Plan C began to have repeated hiccoughs the families and miners become increasingly uneasy. Edison was becoming less fluent in his letters and increasingly angry, and not only with the situation but with Angelica.

It was then that Angelica began to question her whole reasoning behind her search for truth, for the very pillar that maintained her at the mine and the centre of her sorrow now began to reprimand her. She chose at this time not to speak to me, shutting herself in her room till Edison would ask for forgiveness. When that chance finally came via a telephone call Edison hung up before she could even get a word in. Angelica was distraught.

Their own story as to how they met is central to understanding why. Three years before Edison had arrived up North in search of prosperity from the capital Santiago on a short-term contract as an electrician. He stayed at a local bed & breakfast in Copiapó the proprietor of which was Angelica, a woman ten years his senior, also dealt with life’s losses, from her previous husband dying at 33 from a heart attack, and losing both her parents before she reached her twenties. Angelica paid no attention to Edison’s overtures. His tenacity eventually got the better of her, lured as she was by his spontaneous romantic gestures. Edison returned to Santiago now decidedly in love and began to visit her on weekends - a 20 hour bus journey both ways. Finally the chance for them to be together came when Angelica got Edison a job at the San Jose mine, unbeknown to her a notoriously unsafe mine that paid well and wasn’t stringent on employee qualifications. He had only served four months before the collapse had happened. Was he blaming her?

“I could easily forget everything and erase it all from scratch. If I am no longer going to be with him, it’s better to forget everything. It is too much pain as it is for him to play mind games with me.” - Angelica

Edison in the meantime ran, like he never had done before. Inside the darkness with a torch, on his helmet, sometimes holding one in his hand. He notched 8k a day. His message to the people on top was clear - “People should be thankful of the bodies they have.” Next to his bed lay a toy sun.

The good news that Plan B had finally made it to the miners and that little was left before they would be pulleyed-out changed the atmosphere below within seconds. Camp Esperanza looked like a global village with the miners' families gathered around and flocks of curious reporters queueing up to talk to them. Cameras would get in between the cracks to film the precious expressions of bottled anxiety. Not even journalists that kept close contact with the families in the weeks before the mayhem could expect any loyalty. Angelica stood around nervously, looking freshly groomed from her visit to the hairdresser's and beautician from the day before. Although she was afraid that something could go wrong with the rescue plan, she was even more anxious of the person that would emerge.

The final hours were something like the birth of a stranger with feelings of discomposed excitement. It was past midnight. All the journalists were glued to the same screens the whole world seemed to be watching. The tension and hunter survival aversion towards getting the best close-up reaction shots of the families of the miners brought down tents and chaos. And then he was out; Florencio Avalos, and at steady intervals the mountain coughed out the 32 miners remaining.

The television machine unhinged itself. New stars were in the making.

Wading past the Chilean national channels flapping chequebooks and tripods, I finally got to Angelica’s front door where I was told to wait. Edison was being interviewed. Money had been paid. To my favour the weeks of friendship with Angelica gave us the right opening; Edison was grateful for our support.

Edison looked withdrawn, shifty even, avoiding initial eye contact. But when asked of how he was, he had no apprehensions.

Why did you run so much Edison?

Why did I run? I ran because of the fury in my chest. I ran with a torch in otherwise complete darkness. When the rocks in the tunnel ceiling were wet they would leak and the mountain would creek. In that moment any large rock falling could have proved fatal. But I didn’t care I still ran. And I’d wear my headphones with my mp3 on, so I couldn’t hear the mountain. My trainers would get all muddy.

Did the mountain ever defeat you?

Almost. Do you know what it is like to cry of hunger? Does anyone know what it is like to cry of hunger? You couldn’t compare it to Africa. Because down there are no roots. There was nothing you could do. It was as though the mountain was telling you – with a glaring neon sign – that you will die, and die slowly, and there is nothing you can do about it.

What did you make of the probes when they shot past trying to locate you, what were you thinking?

We heard the sondas. But we also knew that for them to find us it was a little like that game…buckaroo. We knew there was a strong possibility they would never hit the targets. At one point we gathered all the explosives we had and thought that by creating a massive explosion it would alert the people on top. Turns out they never heard it. I seriously believe God came for us at the very last minute.

Edison opens another beer; it’s a celebratory moment. It’s his fifth in the night. As the night progresses he becomes more volatile, breaking into song, expectedly Elvis. Apart from the slurred American twang he carries it off well. Soon enough he also begins Popeye, Rocky and Tom Jones impressions. It is difficult to get a word in.

The following day we meet with the whole family for a day out at the beach. In an off moment Angelica provides me with insight into his mental condition. He is out control. Histrionic. Yet she is looking out for him. Sticking by her man.

Some of his childhood friends have arrived. His cell phone doesn’t stop ringing, as he garbles the same unintelligible mantra – ‘I want to spread the honey so that everyone can touch it, because everyone deserves to be happy.’ But his persona seems offish with an air of strange pride reeling off the salutes from randoms on the street. It’s difficult to break the ice. More and more drinks are opened.

The cabins at the beach had now been identified by several media outlets as a retreating point for at least three miners. Massive telephoto lenses arrive, cars and jotting journals. At one point it almost feels like a zombie film where every other human is not another tourist but a journalist trying to eat the same story. Impaired by the overt attention Edison lashes out at a colleague of mine, striking him almost.

Some space was needed for separation.

The following day Edison, nursing a hangover, appeared a shadow of the extrovert from the day before. Angelica told me he had ran to the shore at 3am going on his knees asking God for an explanation. This time speaking from well inside his shell I finally understood the meaning about the message he was trying to express.

"My message is that man can do it - even in the most adversible conditions - man can do it.

People outside still don't understand. They see the images but they are ignorant of how it really was. This isn't my understanding. Every day I wanted to get out, every day, every day. Somehow at one point I got used to it. I could live down there and get by. With no light. With nothing. I thought I was never coming out.

There are things I will never be able to tell. The devil was there with me sometimes. I heard sounds and voices. He was on my back. And you know what I did? You know what I did? I put my headphones on and kept running. So whilst the others huddled together near the light, I went into the darkness."

Days following, speaking to Angelica, she spoke how Edison had had an alcohol induced coma. Incredibly three days later, against the orders of the doctors, Edison came second in a triathlon race. Edison was back in shape. From around the world sport companies began mulling over the commercialibilty of the running man of the tunnels - many foreign invites promise a new stage beyond anyone’s belief. Next to him Angelica’s fears materialise.

“I am afraid because of Edison’s personality. Knowing how he is. I think the exit has worked against him. All the TV stations want him to appear, they are going distort his situation. And yet maybe he wants to experience all of that. From my part…I love him very much, I try to advise him not to expose himself in that way, and that we should try and lead a normal life. But I fear in a short time he may fall again – and it will be ugly.”

BUBONIC PLAGUE

2010-08-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

On the hunt, in the outskirts of the Northern of Trujillo, Peru's third largest city. So far there have been 28 cases, 3 confirmed dead. Bubonic plague.

Fears that the disease could reach Trujillo have been allayed as authorities believe the outbreak has been maintained. Two weeks have gone past since the last reported infection. While two medics remain in hospital after negligently catching the plague. All three deaths, a child of 4, a boy of 14 and a woman 29 lived next to wheat or sugar cane crops - perfect burrows for field rats.

The bacteria 'yersinia pestis' begins in the rata negra, as the field rat is known in Peru. The disease is transmitted by fleas. Every ten or fifteen years outbreaks as such are reported in the Northern region, a place ideal for field rats, for its dryness and high stalk agriculture. Interestingly urban rats do not develop the bacteria though they also can be receptors of the disease as can be other animals and humans. Attention has been brought onto the outskirts and markets city of Trujillo rife with rats living off unattended rubbish dumps.

Bubonic plague arrived in Peru, it is said, on a Chinese ship in 1903.

PAUCARTAMBO: Initiation at the cemetery

2010-07-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

At the cemetery of their forefathers their initiation begins; young men present their valour so that they may belong to one of many the groups of "Qollas" or "Antis". That day I got whipped...

An Andean Labyrinth

2010-07-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

What if anything be the call for our yearnings that we stay stymied with the day and day. In the heart of the Andes, from where the Incas came, a subworld of creatures still reign. Like a labyrinth of hierarchies they play out the past and dance, as La Virgen del Carmen is brought out of the church and onto the street.

Ashuco en el refugio - Peruvian artist's painting in Iquitos in a pseudo-brothel Video Pub

2010-02-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

photo by Marco Sueño

salem

2010-02-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

HOW TO SAVE 230,000 SOULS

2010-02-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

When it happened our eyes went goopy. Poor Haiti -a land beshitted by nature and political incompetence- finally at its knees with its capital crushed by a 7.0 earthquake. They came like crusaders fighting over what was left of the airfield tarmac, whilst the Americans soon enough took over the control tower. 27 days later a man was found under the rubble of a flea market surviving on little more than water and possibly fruit. The world’s press continues to fight it out to paint the most discerning picture: The naked man walking through the shattered streets of Port-au-Prince, the little boy people stop by to listen to, singing his heart out using a 7up plastic bottle as a guitar, or the Haitian sisters snow-ball fighting in their new home in the outskirts of Syracuse.

Surprisingly the little understood faith of Voodoo, and subsequently its relationship to death hasn't been mentioned. This seems odd as Voodoo would usually be the first thing you associate with Haiti. Funeral rites are among the most sacred of all ceremonies to Haitians, who have been known to spend more money on their burial crypts than on their own homes. Death is an important factor in understanding ones lineage and future. During times of slavery, despite the tendency of the slave owners to give their dead slaves only the most perfunctory of funerary rites, slaves managed to succeed in taking over the Catholic rituals. The mass of the dead became the only means of asserting and recovering their lost human dignity. By respecting their dead, their connection to their spiritual home is not lost. Families forever stay connected to their ancestors.

Now the problem emerges, as the images soon followed the mass burials with hundreds of unidentified contorted bodies lumped together. Relatives began fast-tracking ceremonies and cracking open old tombs in the famous Port-au- Prince cemetery in order to create space. According to Voodoo credence, not being able to give an honest burial, especially following such sudden deaths, can only lead the soul to stay trapped between this world and the invisible one – as such damming future generations.

What then for the over 230,000 souls lost in-between? To best explain this quandary we got in contact with Max Beauvoir, the supreme master of Voodoo himself. An eloquent man, Max Beauvoir studied chemistry in New York and then biochemistry at the Sorbonne. His grandfather chose him, upon on his deathbed, to succeed as a grand Houngan. Not free from controversy Beauvoir is said to have profited from Western exoticism-seeking alternative tourism and is also said to be linked with François Duvalier, or Baby Doc, the dictator who fled the country in 1986 after a popular uprising against him.

LC: How do you hope to bring peace to most of those over 200,000 souls that haven’t been given a traditional burial?
MAX DE BEAUVOIR: We are in the process of doing this. And it is set for the 12 February. All religions will come together in a communal way to bring the final rest to the lost souls, so that we may send them below water to be cleansed. So that they can come back in next life refreshed. It will be a long ritual of one year and one day. Because the soul cannot die: it is always alive even if the body is crushed.

LC: How will this extraordinary event take place? Will there be sacrifices?
BEAUVOIR: There will be no sacrifices. Just water to purify and guide the souls on their way. We hope to do it in front of the demolished presidential palace. All religions will be invited; Protestants..Catholics.. The president will be there too.

LC: But you speak of water, will that mean water will be central to the ceremony?
BEAUVOIR: You and I will not go in any water. The spirits will. The souls are everywhere, and we must guide them. You see we are connected by spirits not by people. But you know this is too difficult to explain via the phone.

LC: How can voodoo still expect to be a sort of social glue in the face of such a disaster?
BEAUVOIR: Voodoo people made what this country is. The glue is already there. The glue is our identity, we cannot question it.

LC: However many people oppose voodoo, do you think some will see this as a point to review Haitian culture?
BEAUVOIR: Many people oppose Voodoo. But nobody can alter it because it is a part of us, without it our identity would be lost. I think our identity will have to be more solid. We must look to fortify our society because it is broken.

LC: What do people need at the moment? How can they be empowered?
BEAUVOIR: Through integrity. By joining the body and soul you work to get strength. But without integrity there is no strength.

LC: What do people fear now? I have read that many fear the ‘loup-garou’ a werewolf that eats children, and that lots of murderers and other hardened criminals have escaped from prison...
BEAUVOIR: No!...Never... There have never been wolves. These are the bad things that Christians create to prevent cohesion between the Haitian people. The only thing people are scared about, and haunts them still, is another earthquake.

LC: Is there a fight for power?
BEAUVOIR: No fight. I fear people who cross the river do not change horses while in the middle of the stream. We have to support our government. We have to support the bastions of our society, because our reality cannot change.

So there you have it the archetypal purifier: water. The souls are meant to return to water so that they may return refreshed. I kept close tabs for the 12th, a month after the earthquake. The mass prayers of Evangelists overshadowed any voodoo practice. I was told voodoo believers were gathering around ponds, in processions with Simbi the spirit of rain. Now the dark nights are overfilled with the fears of unleashed daemons. Women in the makeshift camps said to keep machetes under their beds in fear of sexual predators. The random wafts of the faceless victims still under the rubble a reminder of death’s hand and the spirits consumed still in the disaster. Fear now enters at a far deeper psychological level as believers feel the lost spirits may persecute on retribution of their past, wherefrom demons take over bodies rendering them powerless. Cases are alert for paranoid schizophrenia.

appeasing the spirits - voodoo

a christian burial

2010-02-01T10:17:00.000-08:00

Glitches. So tired are the structures, technology itself rebels and offers guidance.
Here to alterior dimensia. Here to strokes of accidents. Meaning is nothing, we supply that later.
Random is the passage to escapedom. With slash imagery feeding from one channel to the next.
Images of monotony. Images of poverty; of so called truth layered with grotesque parallels of nothingness.
Youtube fed us to the dogs. Television programs lost in self-doubt. What now is the inner we?
Slash imagery, keys to clues to happy cinders. Digi-data, where colours are altered, surmised and doctored by chance.
Where machinery warp from idle men to cutlery switching to the taliban to klein blue to cartoon teradactyls of death.

2010-01-25T13:36:00.000-08:00

2010-01-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

The Voodoo Warp Hole

2010-01-20T18:34:00.001-08:00

Lights camera action!
If ever there was a case to make the final porn of misery, it is now. The vultures are flying up above, contorted corpses sent like foot-and-mouth cattle into giant mud pits. Exclusive footage of the orphan holding onto his short life between the cracks of two giant granite walls, he’s gonna make it! Amazing he actually had food down there.

The NGO’s and nations from up above compete for airspace; while the Americans add they aren’t controlling anything they are just the guiding force. The world’s eyes finally glance towards the direction of abject poverty that it usually cares to turn a blind eye to. Besides they’re already changing the channel.

But what for Haiti, a place hidden in the imagination. That forever pariah state living endlessly with its past, for which the quake has now also shattered.

Half the country believes in voodoo and the other half say they don’t but they do. Death becomes an important factor in understanding ones lineage and future.

As slaves, despite the tendency of the slave owners to give their dead slaves only the most perfunctory of funerary rites, slaves managed to succeed in taking over the catholic rituals. The mass of the dead became the only means of asserting and recovering their lost human dignity. By respecting their dead, their connection to their spiritual home was not lost. Families must forever stay connected to their ancestors.

What of the souls of the 100,000 or 200,000 dead? What of the souls of those that were killed and then laid on the road side as though they were earthquake victims?

How does voodoo present itself now where people begin to think in the wake of zombies, where bodies are reverted into their former slave condition, rid of the freedom a proper burial?

2009-11-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

IT'S COMING PEOPLE......

2009-07-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

Kamikaze stills

2009-06-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

televised obama

2009-03-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

"democracy is compatible with islam"
all eyes on the geithner plan, or if the government will be the master of its own downfall.
supply and demand sunshine, supply and demand. While they hope $1 trillion dollars will create confidence and reduce unemployment. The gambles of gamble with political capital.
trash for trash

SKYLON

2009-03-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

the fastest bestest, spaceship across earthship, black across holes while white along stars, from australia to the moon in 10 seconds flat, no windows on board, just black, black, cos skylon is above and beyond, $kylon cruises, skylon is agamendon with an ultrasonic-gravity-interfering-jet-propelled-wingship-spanning clouds on static mossfloat......

2009-03-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

The face of evil stupidity - to its side the cameroonian prime minister and his DIVA post-destiny's-child-every-woman wife

Omar al-Bashir

2009-03-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

"Holy fighters are ready to fight
No ICC or Security Council or any other party will change our path or touch an eyelash in our eye
The president of Sudan is not elected by Britain or America. Sudan is an independent country.
The West seeks to create chaos in Sudan similar to Iraq, where the U.S. forces kill women and children, and loot the country planting sedition" ---- Al-Bashir

JUNGLE URBAN: PSICOTROPIC ART FROM THE JUNGLES OF PERU

2009-03-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

- Bendayan

Not to be confused with the urban jungle - this neon aesthetic movement has flourished from the cities in the jungles of Peru. Celebrating tropicalism and chaos, contemporary artists have begun to elaborate on an already rich popular aesthetic.

Within the images you are thrown into a world of luxurious fruits, of opulent naked women, of myths and legends, where wild animals appear to feast on the riches of the jungle. Some of the artists say they use Ayahuasca –a Hallucinogenic vine– to provide them with galactic visions.

Painters such as José Asunción Araújo and Christian Bendayan, prior to becoming established artists both decorated discothèques and brothels in the Jungle capital of Iquitos. Initially frowned upon as vulgar the established galleries of Lima and abroad are beginning to take notice.

Currently at the Spanish Cultural Centre in Lima.

- Bendayan

2009-03-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCING.... J.A.C

2009-02-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Top 5 things The U.K Mass Media are loving this week:

1. Jade Goody excited but not excited to be slowly dying
2. Credit Crunch Breakfast Cereal
3. Pubescent horny 13 year old Baby Makers
4. Brit Fix Music Awards
5. Recession Confession Indigestion Depression

Josephine Chime

2009-02-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

London based upspirits illustrationist Josephine Chime

view more @ www.adachinonye.com

KAbooooM

2009-02-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

Synthos - How it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the bloody massive Atlantic??

Placenta - Because they were both using anti-sonar devices neither could see the other......hence symmetrical warfare could result in stalemate.

Synthos - Aha! But a fitting absurdist end to the earth, dont you think, had it kaboomed, even more fitting that they were the two ailing decrepid once-were-empire states, france and britain

2009-01-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

2009-01-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

2009-01-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

2009-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

2009-01-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

first day at office
care of the classic steve bell

2009-01-22T07:10:00.001-08:00

2009-01-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

beauty in dystopia

2009-01-22T07:04:00.001-08:00

the new frontier

2009-01-21T17:18:00.000-08:00

2009-01-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

2009-01-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

THE COST OF A TRANS-OCEANIC HIGHWAY

2008-11-16T01:21:00.000-08:00

With market security directed towards the Asian economy Latin American countries have embarked on a series of megaprojects in order to reach raw materials to the Pacific. One of these is the Trans-Oceanic Highway in Southern Peru, connecting Brazil –China’s main soya exporter– to the Pacific. The highway however presents a double-edged sword exposing areas of the Amazon previously closed to large-scale agriculture and corporate energy interests.

Worse still the highway is likely to aggravate the problems caused by informal gold mining and illegal logging. This in the region of Madre de Dios containing 17% of the World’s plant species, also home to some of the World's last remaining indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.

Construction is well under way, with only the last remaining engineering feat, the Billinghurst Bridge, delaying its near completion. The highway will link to an already existing asphalted Brazilian network reaching the Atlantic. So far, the general public and national opinion is in favour of the construction and road improvement who, influenced by the government’s propaganda, consider that the highway will bring huge economical benefits. However similar experiences in Brazil of asphalted roads cutting through the Amazon show that neighbouring protected areas have been violently degraded as an affect. Other than tourism –generally run by foreigners¬– no programs have been made to create about an alternative commerce for the region. In the absence of public mechanisms to mitigate the socio-environmental impacts indigenous peoples of the area have become the sole watchmen of the protective norms supposedly established by the state.

The reality is of course much starker.
Since the Peruvian Government’s announcement in 2003 that it would convert a connection of dirt roads into a modern highway, a new wave of immigrants from various impoverished Andean regions in Southern Peru have arrived enchanted by gold and other potentially lucrative findings. Over 200 people are said to migrate per day to the regional capital called Puerto Maldonado. Already an unbridled anarchic rush is taking place. Studies suggest that the exploitations will be further facilitated by the road improvements, incrementing contamination, the most serious of which being mercury poisoning through river afluents. Gold exploitation, as it stands, already amounts to 50% of the gross regional product.

Similarly the hugely sought after mahogany and rare timber market will aided by the highway, further allowing illegal loggers to enter the lands of voluntarily isolated Indians. Following his trumpeted free trade agreements Peruvian President Alan Garcia recently proposed to open up the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park of Madre de Dios, located near the Brazilian border to gas exploitation. The government has given a green light to foreign investment in the region.

Owing to its historical isolation Madre de Dios has been exposed to modernity’s whims, where by, by not being able to offer anything sustainable to the regional or international markets informality, illegality and subsequently wide deforestation will reign supreme. The Peruvian government out of inaction and supposed ‘development’ has created an unfettered playground for oil, gas, mining and logging interests.

Araseire family, who live next to the highway. Purely for the photo they dressed in their 'traditional' attire. This is no longer what they usually wear, as modernity and generally their new and more numerous Andean neighbours mock their traditions.

Hands Up Who Wants To Cry

2008-10-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

SAN MARCOS UNIVERSITY - SENDERO GRAFFITI

2008-10-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures taken in the 80s by Walter Chiara and Jaime Rázuri.

It is said that in the Univeristy of San Marcos there is still a mural that was left untouched, showing 'Gonzalo' in all his grandeur. Who you calling a pedagogue?

Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover (Remastered Edit

2008-10-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

nice falsetto and garms sir. proper pals.

Poli IV

2008-10-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Made by Yoshua Okon. Paying Mexican cops to act out for the camera. This guy here is all up for playing out his badman fantasy, holding his balls, waving his batton. Well spent $20.

Apoohcalypse Now

2008-10-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Made by Mexican artist Artemio, currently doing a residency here in Lima. In most of his work he appropriates from hollywood movies flipsiding the context. In this one here you have Marlon Brando's famous discourse from the end of Apocalypse Now eirily played out by Winnie the Pooh. This edit is not the cleanest he now shows on gallery circuits and sadly doesn't give it justice.

Artemio has 53 souls. He almost got mine. Some he has bought for vodkas, on others he's folked out $100. Once he got a call from a mother demanding his son's soul back. He said "ok, but you'll have to deal yours to get it back." She lost. He says the more souls you have the more you win.

Passive Domination - China in Latin America

2008-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

--THE CHINKS ARE COMING--

Washington does not see Chinese economic penetration of Latin America as inherently antithetical to American interests, though there is now genuine concern over how the accelerating interactions might lead to military or strategic cooperation at a later stage.

The deployment of Chinese peacekeepers in Haiti—the first in the Western Hemisphere—has particularly inflamed these anxieties. Beijing has already attempted to sell arms to Venezuela. The Chinese government also reportedly conducts intelligence activities in Latin America through visitors, students, and front companies, and there are concerns about the PRC using Cuba as a listening post to monitor developments in the United States.

Given the rapid expansion of trade, commercial, and investment ties between the countries of the region and China, it is important to understand Beijing’s motivations. The Chinese regime is engaged in a prolonged commitment to Latin America. The principal and overriding goal is access to the rich reserves of foodstuffs, minerals, and energy resources. Differing to how the Europeans once traded, limiting commerce with other nations during the 18th and 19th century, the US General predicate of free-trade-open-to-all could now come to haunt them as the Chinese begin to beat them in their own game of import and export.

Latin America is clearly at a rush to build infrastructure to suit not only China but the whole of Asia – for the past ten years Asia’s growth has been growing at a steady 10% compared to Europe’s 3%. Similarly Latin Americans are told persuasively that Red China and other success stories such as Vietnam are the land of the triumphant peasant revolution.

Rivalry with Taiwan plays into China’s courting of Latin American countries, with its continuing political objective is to isolate the island. China actively will court those 12 countries in this Hemisphere that recognize Taiwan diplomatically. Against this backdrop, conservative voices in Washington argue that the United States has a vital interest in aiding Taiwan in maintaining its alliances in Central America and the Caribbean, if only to check the expansion of Beijing’s geopolitical reach.

Funny and interesting cases of China courting Latin American countries -

GRENADA - And though in 2003 Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchell said that maintaining ties with Taiwan is “practical,” by 2005 he had changed his tune, signing a joint communiqué declaring support for the “One China” policy. In exchange for ending this 15-year relationship with Taiwan, Grenada received support from China for rebuilding and expanding its national stadium for the 2007 Cricket World Cup; the construction of 2,000 housing units; new hospital facilities; agricultural support; a $6 million grant to complete projects previously financed by Taiwan; and an additional $1 million scholarship fund. In February 2007, Grenada committed one of its most grievous errors in recent memory when officials accidentally played the Taiwanese national anthem at the inauguration of a new national stadium built by China at a cost of $40 million. Prime Minister Keith Mitchell watched in horror as the planned moment of triumph descended into an unmitigated diplomatic fiasco, and he quickly ordered an investigation into the matter, saying that “it has saddened and ached my heart.” Other Caribbean countries were both amused and troubled by the incident, which they viewed as a cautionary tale that reflected the region’s delicate balancing act.

HAITI - The PRC contributed 125 riot police to MINUSTAH, the Brazilian-led UN stabilization the fletcher forum of world affairs force deployed in Haiti, and then subsequently leveraged its permanent member status on the Security Council to prevent Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang from attending the inauguration of Rene Préval in May 2006. Since MINUSTAH is currently the principal force preventing a complete disintegration of the security situation in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian government had no choice but to bend to Beijing’s will. Haiti, the poorest and most vulnerable nation in the Western Hemisphere, is thus caught in a war of attrition between China and Taiwan that threatens to undermine international efforts to bring the country back from the brink of state failure.

PARAGUAY - As the sole Taiwanese ally in South America, Paraguay is another possible candidate for withdrawal of support. Paraguay’s membership in Mercosur prevents it from signing a free-trade agreement with Taiwan without approval from all other Mercosur members, which presents a serious obstacle to the deepening of bilateral trade. Even without formal diplomatic ties, China already buys a good proportion of Paraguay’s soy crop while supplying about one-fourth of its imports, so normalized relations would undoubtedly bring significant trade benefits. Paraguayan recognition of Taiwan is in many respects a “holdover from the rabidly anti-communist Stroessner regime.” Given that Stroessner’s dictatorship has been out of office since 1989, officials in Asunción may just decide at some point that the time has come to eliminate this relic of a policy.

PANAMA - Speculation surrounding potential “swing states” also tends to center on Panama, one of the most strategically significant countries in Central America, where President Martín Torrijos invited Beijing to aid in the expansion of the Panama Canal. Panama’s voters approved a referendum on this massive infrastructure project last October, which will surely create new economic openings for Chinese construction companies. Relations between Taipei and Panama had cooled visibly when Torrijos assumed office; Torrijos turned down Chen’s request to visit Panama during a trip to Latin America in 2005. Much has also been made of the fact that Hutchinson-Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based Chinese shipping company with historically close affiliations with the China’s People’s Liberation Army, already holds a 50-year lease on management of key port facilities at both ends of the canal. Panama is a significant leader in the region, so if the Torrijos government arrives at the conclusion that the benefits of a relationship with Beijing are just too overwhelming to ignore, the rest of the isthmus may well follow suit.

The links suggesting Hutchinson-Whampoa as a front company for Red China in Latin America are tenuous. The company deals in import and exports for many countries the world over. In response to fears the company replied, "We have no pilots. We have no tugs. We have no boats. We have no ships. We have no containers. All we have is cranes." Following Hutchinson’s Bahamas port takeover – it was noted that Hutchison employs about 500 Bahamians. Only five managers are not Bahamians, mostly British nationals. None are Chinese.

Billy Ocean - Loverboy

2008-10-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

Embedded with Narcos

2008-10-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Living in city of Culiacán is a dangerous past time; almost everybody is under the shadow of the Narco. A city of over half-million, most of its people are indirectly involved with the business the drug-money brings. Behind what appear to be flourishing high streets with expensive cars is a city at war with almost a hundred murders a month.

Impotent in the face of brutal violence, the government has made few if any advances. Mexico now surpasses Colombia in its levels of drug violence, and has overtaken Iraq in its number of kidnappings. This year alone 3,000 people have been killed.

Culiacán is home to the blood-thirsty Sinaloa cartel, whose ambitions and tenticles lie far beyond the country’s borders. Historically, Sinaloa began as the area where opium poppies were grown used for morphine for the American soldiers in the 2nd World War. This was then substituted for the American underground market, from where the cartels grew out of the impunity the state gave them.

Javier Valdez, 41, works for the weekly local newspaper called Rio Doce. Founded by himself and three other journalists the newspaper almost exclusively covers the trafficking phenomenon. Mexico is considered to be the most dangerous Latin American country in which to be a journalist; 30 reporters have died or disappeared in Mexico since 2000. Though as yet no worker at Rio Doce has died few people knock on the door looking for work. Similarly no company is willing to sponsor them for fear of reprisals.

Based in Culiacán’s city centre, Valdez witnesses and covers the violence on a daily basis. “You no longer need to be a Narco for it to effect you. The Narco is part of our daily lives. The people themselves have abandoned the street. From the bench of your house, to the your neighbour’s porch, there is now a vacuum. Here the risk is staying alive, not of being a Narco or a gunman.”

Javier says he even has friends that are Narcos. Once seen as Robin Hood figures the Narcos that once constructed schools and gave medicines to the poor, now look for survival within a highly lucrative, competitive and violent market. Yet as long as Javier does not cross certain codes he will continue to write his columns. Through them he attempts to cover the twisted universe created by Mexican gangland culture, contrasting it with everyday life and the government’s corruption and ill equipped way of managing the escalating violence. His real tale is one of constant treading on thin ice, creatively telling stories, omitting the names and facts that could prejudice his life or that of others.

Married with two children aged 14 and 10, his wife often pleas for them to move abroad. Violence is now so well spread around the country, he says, there wouldn’t be anywhere that would be safe. Still, until the newspaper does finally fall, Javier will keep on writing.

Extract from article - CARROS LUJOSOS

Sabía que lo iban a matar: la balanza se movía para un lado, el contrario, y a los que tanto había golpeado les tocaba responder, y a él perder.

Veinte años en la Policía. Ahora de comandante. Casi en su totalidad al servicio del director y éste a las órdenes del “jefe”, “el patrón”, el de los maletines de billetes y de los negocios.

Luchas intestinas le quitaron terreno y convirtieron las calles en una guerra en la que primero caen los pistoleros.

Y él era pistolero. Decían que lo usaban para resolver problemas. Más bien los alimentaba y multiplicaba: los muertos siempre traen muertos, pero no se sabe cuándo ni cuántos.

Duro, cabrón. Lo mandaban a comunidades pequeñas, aparentemente insignificantes, pero de importancia para el movimiento y el teje y maneje.

Díganle que vaya, que lo arregle. Era la orden. Y él llegaba y pum, limpiaba.

for more
http://www.riodoce.com.mx/content/blogcategory/124/34/

IVAN CRUZ - Me dices que te vas

2008-10-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

Pastor Troy - Tool Muziq

2008-09-25T21:39:00.001-07:00

2008-09-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Los Punkitos - Caca culo pedo pis

2008-09-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Adventists, Rivers and Tribe Separations

2008-09-18T09:58:00.001-07:00

photo by Natalia Ipince

Along the basin of the river Negauche, that later joins with the Nazarategui to form the river Pichis, live an Anshaninka community called the New Nevati. Not many schools exist in the area - particularly secondary schools - so the children have to walk and sometimes paddle for up five hours per day. When the summer months come, the dry season commences and rivers retreat and dry up. Beaches appear with pristine sands much closer to the schools. Half of the community migrates to the beaches whilst the rest –mostly men- stay with their farms.

The first colonists to arrive in the area were Adventists, who founded the school. Adventists preaching the end of the world. Most Nevati stayed with them, abiding by their strict customs, forcing them to cover themselves up, prohibiting them from playing drums, or eating animals dictated outside of the Bible Leviticus 11, or of drinking Masato, a fermented drink made of saliva that remains to this day a hugely important social tradition to all Ashaninka. Some Nevati fled, now New Nevati, though after a couple of years reluctantly decided they would still send their children to the school in order to educate them. In 1978 an earthquake further enhanced the fear of impending Armageddon from where more and more Nevati were converted. Years went past and nothing happened. They were waiting for Christ but he never arrived. The Nevati started questioning themselves. They also started questioning the Adventists. Finally the Adventists left.

To this day apart from the school the Nevati stay divided. Thanks be to God.

The Trials and Tribulations of Tiny Yet Immensely Rich African Country

2008-09-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Before 1996, Equatorial Guinea, a tiny ex-Spanish colony of just over one million people, wedged between Gabon and Cameroon, was in complete and utter shambles. Until that was, oil was found. It has since quietly become sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil exporter, after Nigeria and Angola.

BP reported in 2007 that Equatorial Guinea's output was estimated at 363,000 barrels a day - five times more than a decade ago. The BP report also states that Equatorial Guinea's proven oil reserves amount to just 0.1 percent of the global total only due to the lack of geological studies, because if such studies were to confirm what is suspected, the country's reserves could represent 10 percent of the total, due to the vast off-shore reserves in the Gulf of Guinea. Already there are comparisons with Kuwait.

As such oil companies the world over are at a scramble for a share of the dense gloopy pie. The United States is the biggest foreign investor in Equatorial Guinea's oil industry, having invested seven billion dollars this year alone.

But while the economy is enjoying fast economic growth driven by oil and gas sales, which represent 90 percent of the country's exports, the country is the victim of immense corruption, with President Obiang Nguema's family as the chief culprit - with alleged involvement of foreign companies and banks - All whilst the overwhelming majority of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly 30 years. Amnesty International and other human rights groups, including the UN, cite brutal human rights violations, torture of political prisoners, unfair trials as well as deplorable prison conditions. His opposition also maintains that the series of failed coup d'états have been staged in order to empower the President to engage in campaigns of retribution. His control over the media is said to be absolute.
Rotting away in the ubiquitous Black Beach Prison sits ex-Eton boy Simon Mann, imprisoned until pardoned, after his failed coup in 2004. He claims there were many interested forces behind the failed coup.

In July 2003 the state radio station announced that Obiang was "the God of Equatorial Guinea" and that he now enjoyed the right to "decide to kill without having to give anyone an account and without going to hell". Despite his reputation as a brutal leader that rules with an iron hand, he is very soft-spoken and not prone to public displays of anger; he is extremely in control of his person and patient. His mode of dress is typical very businesslike and professional for official matter, and in public rallies he is relaxed and comfortable, wearing party colours and baseball caps. He does not really seem to be concerned about his image outside the country.

"Night of the Living Homeless"

2008-09-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hands Up Who Wants To Tie-Dye

2008-09-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

SPECULATION, SPECULATION, AND THE SHIT IN BETWEEN

2008-09-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

photos by lali cienfuegos

GUANO - LA ISLA DE GUAÑAPE NORTE

Surging world prices for synthetic fertilizers and organic foods are shifting attention to guano, an organic fertilizer once found in abundance on these islands off the coast of Peru. Once the cause of pacific wars, its rising demand is causing a dilemma for the government – on whether what is left should be sold abroad or kept in the country.

Two hours by boat, across from the port of Trujillo, in Northern Peru, men on the island of Guañape Norte begin their day raking and collect bird dung. They live secluded from the rest of the world, on different islands at time, under working conditions that have changed little from a hundred years ago. No women or alcohol are allowed on the island. They often they stay for four months at a time, returning home for a few days. For most of the year however they are here on the islands.

An exceptionally dry climate preserves the droppings built over years of up to one metre. Over the past decades industrialized fishing of anchovy as well as the effects of ‘El Niño’ have considerably lowered bird levels and hence the amount of collectable bird turd. While the bird population has climbed to 4 million from 3.2 million in the past two years, that figure still pales in comparison with the 60 million birds at the height of the first guano rush in the mid 19th Century.

Spirit of Truth

2008-09-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

"Am on air doin Gad's will, whatta fack are you doin?"
this guy is like some burnt out genius

From LA - early 90's public access tv

RZA - domestic violence

2008-08-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

straight down the line

Apocalypse

2008-08-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

My man Leo Todd's "end o the earth" pictures. Its kinda like he stabbed some fag ends up some beautiful pics, murdering them to distort their original sublime value all towards nihilism and smoke and drugs. I blame the alcohol. No I blame the earth and then his fags. The last picture is the bomb.

2008-08-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

------ 10:58 AM
my daughter from the future came and visited my house yesterday. But I wasn’t in. She came three times wanting to leave her number. The first time she came she found Julia aka ghost girl and asked her about me. Julia rightfully gave her pointless information. The second time she tried to leave her number but left a blank postcard. Apparently she is beautiful, tall with long black hair. Third and with the final intention to leave her number - Julia even made her go to the shop to get a pen - with a glum face she then returned dejected and said, "no, lali only deals with idiots, better not.”

2008-08-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

ZOMBIE POVERTY - CUT&UP V

2008-08-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

The idea being that as the poor are rejected and vilified they may as well be seen as the walking dead. This for our final image to be placed as a mosaic on the streets of central Lima.

words from kapuscinski -

i wrote in part for ethical reasons: above all because the poor tend to be silent. Poverty does not cry. Poverty has no voice. Poverty suffers, but suffers in silence. Poverty does not rebel. It rebels - the poor rebel only when they can hold on to some hope. Thus they rebel in the hope of something better. In most cases, they get mistaken: though the component of hope is fundamental for the reaction.

Edir Macedo - The Bishop

2008-08-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Aside from Opus Dei sex scandals, the dodgiest Christians today tend to be the Evangelists. Most notably in Brazil - the largest Catholic country in the world - where one million Catholics switch every year to Evangelical Protestant Churches, often considered fundamentalist sects. Fervent and hugely politicized, many of the 40 evangelist Pastors and Bishops in the Brazilian Parliament are often the ones most often cited in corruption scandals, further powered by the churches where followers are obliged to pay a tenth of their wages.

Edir Macedo is the name of “the bishop”. Seen as a dark figure in Rio, he has created an empire in telecommunications through his Church (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus) seen almost all over Brazil as well as Africa, Asia, USA and Europe. He even has a Church in Brixton. In 1992 Macedo was imprisoned for accusations of charlatanism, and spent some days in prison. Today Edir Macedo is the owner of TV Record, one of Globo’s main rivals.

CUT&PASTE POVERTY 4 - PORNOMISERIA

2008-08-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

This image is from a documentary. The Bullshit that sells. The Bullshit Vice rates. Or as they put it - This is the story of Hakani – whose name means "smile" – one of hundreds of children who are targeted for death each year amongst Brazil's 200 plus indigenous tribes. Physical or mental handicaps, being born a twin or triplet or being born out of wedlock – all are considered valid reasons for taking a child's life.
What is validity of anyone seeing this other than a sick anthropological fantasy for the wicked, savage and destitute?

CAPOEIRA

2008-08-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Ive taken up capoeira like this guy here. All part of my 'earthy' new ways. Yes. Done four classes so far. Its like Im Screetch from Saved By The Bell. But its all good. My earthy way is coming along. Discipline innit.
And yes, its a dance not a fight.

ZOMBIE POVERTY - CUT&UP 3

2008-08-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Im hoping this will be the final image we put to the streets. Im not sure of its original point, we were always trying to be less blatant, less direct. So as not to think poverty means begging. Im hoping this beggar might be seen as a zombie. Not a nut. And perhaps interpret it as ridiculing poverty. Or beautifying it. Or being pointless. This man was actually a beggar who confronted my friend Alan when he snapped. ACTUALLY WE SHOULD TURN HIM INTO A ZOMBIE WITH HIS EYES WHITE.
Its difficult to insinuate some sort of other reality, the 'others' reality, without you yourself realizing you have been conditioned into thinking what will make and impression or not. I mean to separate from your viewer. Yes I should have lived in the barriada and seen it for myself. Yes I still want to give cameras to little kids and see what they will come up with. Still, on a billboard until the spaces are truly liberated and burnt, these pieces have to compete against the language of commerce, using perhaps the same tools they use. SENSATIONALISM. For the moment I am looking at what will work and will not. Composition is everything. Later we can become more abstract. The colours you see are more to do with the palette of the 'foodstuff' which is ready all chopped up.

CHACALON ES DIOS

2008-08-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

Chacalon es la espumita que sale cuando orinas
Chacalon es tu vieja
Chacalon es la rima sin sonoridad
Chacalon es una mierda
Chacalon es la chica que te hace silbar
Chacalon es la flaca que te choteo ayer
Chacalon is a mutherfucker
Chacalon es un borracho sentado en una esquina
Chacalon es cristal
Chacalon son las luces de neon
Chacalon es un huevon
Chacalon es tu mano con la mia
Chacalon Escorpion
Chacalon es el falso arrugado, pero sigue ahi
Chacalon hace taxi
Chacalon es un pendejo
Chacalon es una pechuguita light
Chacalon es amor
Chacalon es la miel y las avejas
Chacalon habla frances
Chacalon Chacalon, is like chocolate rain but better
Chacalon es chileno
Chacalon es fiel
Chacalon es el condon que se rompio
Chacalon no existe
Chacalon sigue preso debajo del pentagonito
A Chacalon le dieron el papel de Guason, pero no hablaba ingles
Chacalon corre tempranito
Chacalon brilla
Chacalon es actor
Chacalon es un momento de flacidez
Chacalon es Cesar Gutierrez y Micaela Galvez
Chacalon is a Somali pirate
Chacalon is looking baffled
Chacalon, y tu como te llamas?

PISCO ONE YEAR FROM THE EARTHQUAKE

2008-08-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

(click on the picture to see the head)

these pictures I took in the cemetry of Pisco. I had read that the bones were popping out from the graves. these kids showed me where they were.
that town was still in rubble a year from the 8 richter scale earthquake. Still Pisco was in bits. 80% of the buildings were destroyed. Chavez gave to one hundred lucky bingo winners lovely 1950s houses. While the rest thanks to the ever so generous punk-ass Garcia gave them tents, and pithy hand outs. Still as the mayor says you cant build a 300 year old city in the space of a year.

Pornomiseria 2

2008-08-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

you have to see this. its brilliant, especially the end. a spoof on how journalists and documentary makers suck on the poverty issue and misery though as people barely responding to them. being as effective as the rest. Insuring the status quo. Looking for a way to win awards. Bloodsucking anthropological journalists. I love my job.

Filming Poverty - "pornomiseria"

2008-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

"el oportunismo de los documentalistas deshonestos que hacen 'documentales socio-políticos' en el Tercer Mundo con el objeto de venderlos en Europa y ganar premios."

DIRECCION: Carlos Mayolo, Luis Ospina

Barrington Levy and Smiley Culture

2008-08-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

2008-08-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

César Nakasaki, Alberto Fujimori's lawyer

where's wally?

1990 - Shabba Ranks vs Ninja Man

2008-08-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Amazon Tribes in Extinction

2008-08-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

When Europeans arrived five centuries ago there were once seven million people living from the Jungles of the Amazon - accounting for two thousand indigenous tribes – of which today there are less than 400 tribes with two million individuals, about 5,000 of which still resist contact with ‘civilization’.

Extinction can be seen in several ways – real extinction (genocide) and the other, comes in the form of a generalised, but emphatic, cultural change. Soon enough the country’s main language is learnt and old values are swapped for t-shirts, baseball caps and coca cola.

In Peru, for example, there are differentiations in describing tribes particularly when noting those that live in voluntary isolation – which can be defined in two groups, those that have never been contacted and those that after initial contact then decided to hide in the jungle and lose contact from the rest of the world. The paradox goes that by investigating more about them we often place them in more danger. There have been accounts of missionaries, that having gone in good faith, to advise tribes about petroleum explorations have either got blow piped and killed or set off the flu that brought about the end of them.

The UN accounts there being a ‘cultural genocide’ made on the – Korubo from Brazil, the Tagaeri from Ecuador, the Ayoreo from Paraguay and the Ashaninkas, Mashco-Piros and Yaminahuas from Peru.

The case is often the same - Besieged by oil explorations, logging and tourism, the Tagaeri peoples from Ecuador voluntarily hide away from the rest of the world. They have made their presence felt with various deaths in their territory in the Yasuní National Park opposing any foreign filtration. Similarly the Mashco-Piro peoples from Peru – of 1100 – are affronted by a diverse amount of threats, created mainly by oil and gas drilling and exploration. The Ashaninkas, a fighting people, have gone up in arms to reclaim land that was lost and contaminated.

And so it continues – A hunter-gatherer tribe the Ayoreo were chased and exhibited as prized animals during the 1950’s, from where they hid further into the jungle. Near the end of the 90’s they attacked with bow and arrows workers trying to build routes through the jungle of Chaco. Situated near the Bolivian border their land has become even more limited by cattle farming and agriculture.

All Paraguayan natives, as like in most Amazonian countries, face the hounding from American-funded Evangelical missions. The missions are often charged with shaming and vilifying ancient practices, bringing an end to age-old values and dress codes. In the case of the Ayoreo they bitterly opposed conversion during the 80’s leading to violent confrontations....

Household Slavery in Haiti

2008-08-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

Wherever poverty, greed, corruption and government inaction coincide, people are traded as commodities - none more so than in Haiti where slavery takes on a quotidian form. Sometimes even modest aspirations -- to provide one's children with an education, for example -- can perpetuate slaving practices. In rural Haitian villages families are known to hand over one or more children to a ''courtier,'' or middleman. Although fear, shame, and regret pours out of the parents, the system in which unpaid child laborers are sent to middle-class homes as ''restaveks'' (Creole for ''rester avec,'' or stay with) is deeply entrenched in Haiti. Many of the children are physically and sexually abused. But with no jobs and no schools in the parents' calculus a question comes into focus: Maybe the middleman's promises of sending their children to school will prove true?

The custom reaches even further. Recently in Miami an ex-teacher was sentenced to 10-years in prison for the force labour of a Haitian minor. A Haitian herself, the case of Maude Paulin, has exposed a hitherto unseen network in human trafficking new to the United States.

PHOTOGRAPHER GIHAN TUBBEH - POVERTY IN PERU

2008-08-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

the amazing depictions of poverty in its nooks and crannies, where smiles too exist and people subsist on the bare minimum.

The Ant Plague from Haiti

2008-08-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

Dominican authorities are adopting all means to put a halt to a plague of devouring carnivorous ants at the doors of its border with Haiti. A spokesman said “all” instructions would be adopted, including revisions in food commerce.

The ants, whose scientific name is paratrechina longicornis Latreille have invaded 60.000 hectares in three departments of Haiti. The species is known to be ravenous and attacks cattle, game, chickens and any other thing unable to run.

Listin Diario - Santo Domingo:

Ha surgido un proyecto peligroso para los dominicanos, proveniente de la Organización de Estados Americanos que involucra a nuestra Cancillería y a la Junta Central Electoral, con la finalidad de auxiliar a Haití en la cedulación de los haitianos diseminados por todo el país. La vicecanciller Rosario Graciano dio declaraciones al LISTÍN aparecidas el 31 de julio. La noticia de esta cedulación ha tenido mala acogida entre los dominicanos. Una cosa es que por humanidad cedulen a familias enteras que durante años residan aquí, sentimentalmente ligadas a los dominicanos; otra cosa es que cedulen a los haitianos que al violar la frontera deambulan por el país. Entonces tendrían que cedular a millón y medio de ellos que están por todas partes. Este proyecto de la OEA, en caso de que así sea, sería sencillamente inaceptable, auxiliarían a Haití hundiendo a nuestro país. Estamos concientes de que en Haití se está pasando hambre, esto es tristemente trágico; lo que habría que hacer es tratar bajo todos los medios de lograr que la OEA se decidiera a ayudar a Haití en su tierra.

CUT&PASTE POVERTY II

2008-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

here again the image becomes a little diluted like a detail from an impressionist painting

CUT&PASTE POVERTY

2008-08-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

the first trial out. Cut & Paste from various food-amassed images. A small vignette of life in poverty. The image is a bit washed with barely much detail. Which now means a small reviewing, in tones and image res.

jamaican video dating

2008-08-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Attempting to depict POVERTY

2008-08-03T08:19:00.001-07:00

in the attempt of choosing the right image that 'objectively' depicts poverty, we fall for the same traps as usual. In the end we reflect, perhaps, more on ourselves than the subject.

is what the kids listen to innit

2008-07-21T22:41:00.001-07:00

2008-07-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

when I met Coke

2008-06-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

He must have been about eleven years old,
playing with his friend in the front of his house, digging up the ground.
When he was even younger he would eat the earth,
Dig up ant hills -
And place brown ants versus black ones, with the soldiers snipping away, stealing the bodies to feed the queen.
Now he was older he still played with toys.
Snake Eyes his favourite from his GI-Joe set.
Him and Giancarlos against each other, building up the jungle war to end all wars
Space ships, transformers, star wars and dinosaurs ..
Both of their bases were pretty much done
all that was left was for the first one to shoot off the gun
--- when --- some men came RUNNING down the street, quick feet successions - convulsed faces with sweat glistening off their cheeks
chased by some others with real shiny guns - shining in the distance
the ones with real guns chased them but were far off
the scared ones, at a step, cut in towards an alley, tossing, at the turn, a plastic brick into the bushes
the boys frozen by the moment had by now given up on the figurines
their hands were covered in muck
the larger men with the guns by now on the verge of arriving, asking the boys where they went, down the alley they said
and then the moment was gone
the boys went straight for the brick
the brick
something white covered in layers of plastic
and into the house to unwrap it Giancarlos says
Giancarlos got a knife from the kitchen and broke through
white dust, white plumes
smelt of something you might use in the garden
"Fertilizer"
"Why the guns? But why were they running away?"
They left on the table, time played on their minds, while their hands nibbled at computer games
"Maybe its worth some money?"
"Maybe its jinxed. We have to get rid of it"
"Why?"
"Why would men be running so scared"
Mother calls
"Quick hide the stuff!"
Mother calls again
the coke they never cleared up
and somehow mother is at the door
"What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"
"Where?!"
"Wha?!"
the questions rolled out with demons and volume
"DRRRRRRUGSSSSS!!!!"
apparently the evil word that killed the uncle
"DRRRUGS!"
made him jump from the top of the building
killed him and made the evil of all human nations
the reason why this country is rotting from its innards and stunted
all these reasons and more
she made them flush it down the toilet

The White Lobster

2008-06-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

On a beach in Nicaragua, far away from the capital Managua, Eugenio sits content; he lives the Caribbean dream in a nice white Mansion. Barely literate, he used to be a fisherman. Life has been made easy.

Almost every day sacks of floating cocaine, 35 kilos each, drift in from the sea. Cocaine, tossed onto the open ocean by the smugglers, who fleeing from American helicopters try to eliminate the evidence on board their speedboats. Those bales of cocaine float, and the currents bring them 200 miles west right into the chain of islands, beaches and cays which make up the huge lagoons that surround Bluefields on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast. Bluefields is the midway point on the route taken by drug traffickers to reach to Acapulco in Mexico from Colombia.

The Nicaraguan government calls Bluefields an “autonomous area” as it is completely disconnected from the rest of the country. Unemployment is high at 85%, there is no police and the government never shows up, surprisingly violence is rare. Cocaine has created a paradise, where even the schools and churches are built from the money that comes from the fishermen and their finds.

Shining Again

2008-06-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

While Peru is opening up its mass graves as it tries to set aside its past, the Shining path, the sanguinary terrorist group that haunted the country for 20 years, is back again. Meanwhile the president of the time Alberto Fujimori looks probable to rot for 30 years on an island prison that he himself built during his reign of mafia tentacles.

Putis, Ayacucho, South East Peru, forensics are digging up the remains from a clandestine burial ground. They expect to find 120 bodies. On the side are the families of the relatives held missing for 20 years, they hope this time they will find them. On the edge of the excavation the army stands guard holding AK-47s. Yet they are not here to inspect. They are here to protect. This is one of Peru’s prime cocaine routes. But aside from armed drug mules there is a much more sinister prospect lurking in the rainforest.

Maoist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, The Shining Path has followed in the lines of the Colombian Farc and made a deadly alliance with the Narco-traffickers of the area in order to fund their revival. In the shadows of the rainforest cocaine production is booming. Sendero is quietly reconstituting itself, creating its headquarters here in the country’s main centre for cocaine production, the Apurimac valley. They are ramping up cocaine production and distribution in order to set the stage for a renewed conflict against the Peruvian government. Already in the past six months skirmishes have been reported.

.........

2008-06-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

Boris Johnson: Toffs and wombats

2008-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Lali: hello Chip......
yesterday i was arguing with an old Brit as to why i hate boris johnson but i didnt have much on him
can u give me 5 reasons other than him being a toff

(TOFF n. Chiefly British Slang - A member of the upper classes, especially one who is elegantly dressed: “champagne, once a raffish drink suitable for toffs and weddings” - synonym NOB)

Chip: hello there
Lali: hello
Chip: erm he's made some pretty rascist comments in the past
Lali: so hes a bigot! I knew it

new mayor of London

Lali: Is it jonston or johnson like you
Chip: i'm afraid it's johnson
same as me
Lali: oh oh
oh oh oh
5 reasons why i hate boris
1.hes family
Chip: and he's made some homophobic comments, like comparing gay marriage to bestiality
Lali: rah.... thats kind of funny but wrong
Chip: he was once a bullingdon boy - in his youth
Lali: means
Chip: hang on i'll try find a pic

Lali: what did he say specifically racist

Chip: they used to get pissed and smash up pubs and say daddy will pay
hang on ont phone

Chip: hey
yeah, he's said some pretty ignorant things throwaway type comments like 'oh i love black people and their watermelon
smiles..'
a bit gollywogish comments, but alot harsher things i think
but should really check out exactly cos i can't remember before we go misquoting

Lali: watermelon smiles! thats actually quite funny! erm perhaps thats wrong
Chip: he's just so removed from life
especially london life
he doesn't really have a clue
i dunno - i think he has to watch it now and can't fuckup because there's been so much shit on him
it was west london that voted for him
south east and east voted for ken
all the rich areas voted for boris

Lali: of course
but i do believe red ken was currupt also, he isnt all blue ray and sunshine, he's a load of claptrap too
i need to find more quotes to bring down this guy in case this ex-pat comes along again
can u believe he then, as a comeback said to me, well you and i will be seen as toffs by most brits - he got me!
speechless i was aswell
i said na mate - im a chamelion! from Landan
don't know abat your bruf
Chip: oh dear
Chip: well lal you did go to private school
di'nt ya
Lali: yes yes
good schooling sir
But if anything youre just as toff as i am Chip
Chip: who's this guy anyway?
Lali: what is this toffness abat?
its like some sort of internal inward racism
Chip: er some people may say i'm posh because of the way i talk, but a toff to me a tory
someone completely out of touch with normal life
Lali: quite right, down with toff tories

Dickhead Toff Numero Uno

Chip: we are not toffs
Lali: Here Here!
we're middle class

dickhead

Chip: :D

2008-06-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

The guy with big tits. Blue balloons infact. He walks around calling guys, 'Uy Corazoncito..Papasito...mi lobito del mar' and shakes his ass, where he has hidden two more balloons. For some reason there is this culture of beggars dressing up as Divas. I'll have to do more research as to how that came about. He lives to it to the point he lives by his female persona every day. I gave him 2 soles for the pictures. A moment where he was acting just anybody else, doing crosswords.

PALM OIL FUELLING FEAR

2008-06-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

can you guess who it ees yet?