Drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau
I periodically read a website called Lens Culture and fantasize about going to dangerous and wild places to take pictures. It’s a web magazine that features contemporary international photography with a focus on culture and art. The shots they feature are top notch.
I visited it today and found this photo-essay that left me speechless. It’s by Marco Vernaschi, an Italian photojournalist based in Buenos Aires. On a grant from the Pulitzer Center, he traveled to a place called Guinea-Bissau located in West Africa in order to document the effect of drug trafficking on the region.
Seriously, this is not for the faint of heart. Why would anyone make up stories about hell when horrors like this happen right here on our own planet?
December 4th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Mel,
I can’t thank you enough for sharing this photo story! It’s brilliant, though hard to swallow.
Nov 25-Dec 10 is International 16 days against gender violence and we’ve been trying to do some work here for it like violence PSAs, workshops, Trafficking in Persons movies and presentations, HIV/AIDS presentations, etc. Though not similar situations with drugs, the gender relations, corruption, lack of chemical abuse services, and abuse situations are real issues in Mongolia.
I wanted to scream when I saw the prostitution picture with the comment about NGO, UN, and Embassy clients. Just today I was reading specific numbers about trafficking in persons and prostitution. It’s horrifying!
I’ll be sharing this story with people! Thanks!
December 4th, 2009 at 6:55 am
When I read that bit about the NGO and UN people, it stopped me in my tracks. I thought I’d read it incorrectly and had to go back and check it again. Unbelievable. I have been thinking about this place and these people ever since I found this essay and have just not been able to quite digest the information. WHen we were in Bangkok there were young women all over the place on the arms of old white guys. I found out later that most, if not all of them, were trafficked girls. That woke me up to trafficking and I’ve been reading about it ever since. I watched a program on TV the other night about trafficking in the US and a US government customs/immigration agent said that, without exception, every city in the United States has trafficked women and girls serving as prostitutes. She said there are millions of them here right under our noses.