HANDS: Only Kindness Matters

Hands ©2011 Istvan Kerekes

"Hands"
If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these
I won't be made useless
I won't be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear
My hands are small, I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
Poverty stole your golden shoes
It didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't ever after
We'll fight, not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
I am never broken
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
We are never broken
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
We are God's hands
We are God's hands

~Jewel

Jewel: Hands

FOOD CRISIS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA

Samaritan’s Purse is distributing tons of food staples to fight hunger in drought-stricken Kenya, near the Somali border
As famine spreads across the Horn of Africa, Samaritan's Purse is supplying food and other aid to thousands of hungry families and malnourished children.More than 12 million people are in urgent need of food, water, and medical care in drought-stricken Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Experts estimate that starvation and related diseases have already claimed the lives of over 29,000 children under age five. The United Nations is calling the crisis "the world's worst humanitarian disaster.”Samaritan’s Purse has a team based in Garissa, Kenya, along the Somalia border, where we are distributing tons of maize, beans, corn-soy blend, cooking oil, and other necessities.
Our team—which includes experts in nutrition, healthcare, water, and sanitation—is reporting that these are some of the harshest conditions they ever have encountered.
“We drove to a local cattle market, and dead animals could be seen all along the road,” a staff member said. “At the market we spoke with local residents who said this is the worst drought they have experienced in living memory. They made a point to mention that ‘even the older generation has never seen a drought this bad.’ Many of the rural residents are flocking to town because of a lack of water and their diminishing animals stocks. At the market, there were several animals writhing on the ground, left to die because they were so badly off.”
Our emergency response includes plans to implement therapeutic care and supplemental feeding programs for malnourished children. In coordination with our local partners, we have identified sites for food distributions and therapeutic nutritional interventions.
In addition, Samaritan's Purse has launched a cash-for-work program in several villages. We are paying people to build latrines, which will help with health and hygiene conditions while providing some income in these poverty-stricken communities.
"If they are in desperate need, they can use the cash for food, but they can also use it for healthcare or other necessities," said Ruco Van Der Merwe, team leader for the response.
Clean water is another dire need. In some areas, only 20 percent of the families have access to safe drinking water. Many people are now forced to walk miles to reach a water source. As populations are shifting toward areas with better access to water, community resources are being severely strained. Our team is using tanker trucks to haul water to vulnerable villages while we identify longer-term solutions such as drilling boreholes.
“Water is such an issue,” said Zeke Rhodes, program officer. “We see women in the middle of nowhere waving their jerry cans, asking for water. It’s not unusual for people to walk 10-15 miles for water.”
The crisis in the Horn of Africa was brought on by two years of drought that is the worst in 60 years. Massive crop failure and loss of livestock have led to extreme food shortages in a region straddling Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia—a region that has been labeled the “triangle of death.”
As a result, hundreds of thousands of people without food and water have fled to makeshift camps in eastern Kenya looking for emergency aid. Many of the displaced are refugees from neighboring Somalia, who left their war-torn country in hopes of finding help over the border. Much of Somalia is controlled by a militant group, affiliated with al Qaeda, that has denied that a food shortage exists and threatened to maintain their ban on food aid.
“We saw a family with a donkey cart. It was a father and mother, an infant, and two daughters,” Rhodes said. “The girls were in bad shape, emaciated, but still able to walk. It was kind of a glimpse at the journey they’ve taken over the last couple of months. They’ve come a long way, and they’re going to a camp of half-a-million people in some of the most harsh environments you could imagine. It was very sobering.”
The camps in Kenya are overcrowded, and resources are stretched beyond capacity. Conditions aren’t much better outside the camps. Samaritan’s Purse church partners are finding households facing dire shortages of food and water.
Some of the worst hit counties include Wajir and Garissa, areas considered the focal point of the Somalia refugee influx. In these areas, particularly where Samaritan’s Purse partners are involved, there is limited government assistance and little help from other agencies.
Please pray for the people impacted by malnutrition and starvation, for our staff and church partners as they respond in the Name of Christ, that the conditions that are causing this catastrophic food shortage will end, and for God's help in meeting the overwhelming needs of the region.
*(Message Above Taken Directly from The Samaritan’s Purse Website).
Please Take a moment to watch this amazing short film to see what Samaritan’s Purse is doing in Kenya right now!

Here is a link on the Samaritan’s Purse site to some quite amazing photographs of the area that will give you a much better sense of what is taking place there right now.

You may find the link to this charity’s Financial Report Here.
In addition, a link to start a sports event or any special event and create a team page on Samaritan’s Purse to raise money for the project of your choice is right Here.
Open Your Heart, Your Hands and Your Eyes to What is Going on in Our World. According to statistics on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, this morning, 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are suffering from famine, 3.2 million, Somalis. We Are Not Alone. Children are Hungry and 29,000 Children under the age of Five are no Longer Alive because they have been claimed by Lack of proper Nutrition and the absence of Clean Water.
Be Mindful and Compassionate toward those who are Suffering. Starvation is not something you can hear or see until it actually happens and it is often too late. It is a silent killer. Today on NPR, I heard that there was a measles outbreak in several of the camps because Al-Shabaab disallowed children from getting vaccines, believing it was a Western plot. Something as simple as a vaccine can save many lives. Samaritan’s Purse also offers a World Medical Mission for doctors to volunteer on short-term mission trips. You may read more about this wonderful program Here.
Thank you for coming here and taking the time to read and watch. May Your lives be surrounded by Kindness and Compassion Every day,
Noelle Renee
My Thanks to Istvan Kerekes for his amazing photograph. Istvan, you bless me with your images and I am so grateful for them. I am also grateful for Jewel’s beautiful song, “Hands”.

Postcards from Paradise: SMILE

Little Family © István Kerekes

Smile

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

~Nat King Cole

 

Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” with Michael Jackson’s “Smile” accompanying.

 

Story behind this photo from Istvan Kerekes:

The boy in the background is the one on my After Dinner ( featured in a previous post). The girl answering the door is his little sister. The room you can see on Little Family is their home, it is the one and only room in their hut. No running water, no electricity....The father is a shepherd (the mother left them) and he has to leave their children alone every day because of his job. So the two children spend their days together, alone on the edge of a forest with no neighbours. When I think about them my heart breaks because I also have two children and I can't image them living like that. :-(

 

 

 

 In his Own Words:

I have been a photographer since 2007. My favourite subject is The Man. I would like to show the souls behind the faces. Everyone has feelings, everybody loves and breathes. My subjects are usually ordinary people. My main aim is to show their personalities through my images. One of William Albert Allard’s thoughts on photos and photography is just like mine, I truly believe in it: “the good portrait is about the eye, the look, since the human soul is reflected in it the most purely.”When taking photos it is my heart that leads me. After I have tuned to the subject I act instinctively.

~Istvan Kerekes

*image posted with kind permission of Istvan Kerekes
Linked to Postcards from Paradise: Please visit Recuerda mi Corazon for more fascinating postcards and insights.

 

The Wearer of Shadows

ART-alom © Kerekes István

My shadow leaps on me
each time I sleep
to devour  me.
Yet still my mornings
find me whole
and at each waking
there my shadow hangs
like an empty pull-over
against my wall -
wholly at my disposal.
Rogan Wolf
April 1994

 

Dans l’ombre

Un film noir avec des ombres.
A film noir with shadows. (English subtitles).
Narrateur : Roger Candy.
Ecrit et réalisé par Fabrice Mathieu.

The Storyline:  A shadow is telling its life story with his "Wearer", a flesh and bone double, who one day it decides to get rid of...

 

About The Photographer:

Istvan Kerekes 

 In his Own Words:

I have been a photographer since 2007. My favourite subject is The Man. I would like to show the souls behind the faces. Everyone has feelings, everybody loves and breathes. My subjects are usually ordinary people. My main aim is to show their personalities through my images.One of William Albert Allard’s thoughts on photos and photography is just like mine, I truly believe in it: “the good portrait is about the eye, the look, since the human soul is reflected in it the most purely.”When taking photos it is my heart that leads me. After I have tuned to the subject I act instinctively.

~Istvan Kerekes

*image posted with kind permission of Istvan Kerekes

When Art Becomes Life

London Busker South Bank© 2011 Heather Buckley

 

Cloudy Bell Jar

by Delilah Miller

Someone remind me it's a beautiful life;
even if it's the ground keeping you the right way up.
Trip yourself, pat down yourself, unwind yourself and brush off yourself.
I do it all like I've done for everyone else.
The bubble of loneliness always seems ready to pop
while I try to give it a happier name,
As in art, light and movement persist to never stay the same,
Watching summer fade out of my skin
and my eyes and the air I breathe.
Still the ground's under me

and I'm under a huge cloudy bell jar.

England riots: Tariq Jahan, father of Haroon Jahan, one of the three people killed in Birmingham, speaks to the media. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP ~guardian.co.uk  8/2011. Link to story is Here

‘I don’t want you to fight.

I’m lost for words. Go home please,

go home.’

~Tariq Jahan , father of one of the murder victims, addresses the crowd desiring revenge for the deaths of the three in Birmingham.

‘It doesn’t matter what colour you are.

For anyone to lose a son is sad.

I’m just praying that nothing more happens tonight.’

~Carol White, 50, a black mother of four who has lived in Winson Green all her life.

More on this story Here

Although these are not quite haikus, I thought that the words of Haroon’s father and some observers of the scene were powerful enough to stand as such.

Linked to Haiku My Heart. For more Haikus Please visit Recuerda mi Corazon. Thank you.

 

About the Photographer:

Heather Buckley Photography

I simply love photography. Since I gave up commercial photography and just do it for the love of it, I probably do even more! I would take on a commission if it really excited me so do get in touch if you think it will – but right now I am really happy just taking images, experimenting with style and processing and having some fun.

I do sell my images of course and you are free to browse the gallery – images are available as prints, canvasses and downloads.

*Photo of London Busker South bank published with author permission.

Lost

After dinner © István Kerekes

The only chance this Romanian boy, living in extreme poverty has for dinner is a glass of milk taken from cows who return home in the evening having spent the day in the fields...This plastic cup is the only cup in the household... ~Istvan Kerekes

 

Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
~ David Wagoner ~

(Riverbed)

Path © 2011 Istvan Kerekes

To understand how to help change child poverty and hunger in Romania, please click on the link HERE.

Istvan Kerekes, In his Own Words:

I have been dealing with photography since 2007. My favourite subject is The Man. I would like to show the souls behind the faces. Everyone has feelings, everybody loves and breathes. My subjects are usually ordinary people. My main aim is to show their personalities through my images.One of William Albert Allard’s thoughts on photos and photography is just like mine, I truly believe in it: “the good portrait is about the eye, the look, since the human soul is reflected in it the most purely.”When taking photos it is my heart that leads me. After I have tuned to the subject I act instinctively.

~Istvan Kerekes

*image posted with kind permission of Istvan Kerekes
Linked to Postcards from Paradise: Please visit Recuerda mi Corazon for more fascinating postcards and insights.

Haiku My Heart: Mayda

“Mayda” © CARLOS DUARTE posted with kind permission

The Heart is not laid bare,

When Little is offered for

The Soul’s protection.

~Noelle Renee  8/4/11

 

The Iguana

---

by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
from Out of Africa

In the reserve I have sometimes come upon the iguanas, the big lizards, as they were sunning themselves upon a flat stone in a river-bed. They are not pretty in shape, but nothing can be imagined more beautiful than their colouring.

They shine like a heap of precious stones or like a pane cut out of an old church window. When, as you approach, they swish away, there is a flash of azure, green, and purple over the stones, the colour seems to be standing behind them in the air, like a comet's luminous tail.

Once I shot an iguana. I thought that I should be able to make some pretty things from his skin. A strange thing happened then, that I have never afterwards forgotten. As I went up to him, where he was lying dead upon his stone, and actually while I was walking the few steps, he faded and grew pale; all colour died out of him as in one long sigh, and by the time that I touched him he was grey and dull like a lump of concrete. It was the live impetuous blood pulsating within the animal which had radiated out all that glow and splendour. Now that the flame was put out, and the soul had flown, the iguana was as dead as a sandbag.

Often since I have, in some sort, shot an iguana, and I have remembered the one in the Reserve. Up at Meru I saw a young Native girl with a bracelet on, a leather strap two inches wide, and embroidered all over with very small turquoise-coloured beads which varied a little in colour and played in green, light blue, and ultramarine. It was an extraordinarily live thing; it seemed to draw breath on her arm, so that I wanted it for myself, and made Farah buy it from her. No sooner had it come upon my own arm than it gave up the ghost. It was nothing now, a small, cheap, purchased article of finery. It had been the play of colours, the duet between the turquoise and the 'nègre' -- that quick, sweet, brownish black, like peat and black pottery, of the Native's skin -- that had created the life of the bracelet. *

In the Zoological Museum of Pietermaritzburg, I have seen, in a stuffed deep-water fish in a showcase, the same combination of colouring, which there had survived death; it made me wonder what life can well be like, on the bottom of the sea, to send up something so live and airy. I stood in Meru and looked at my pale hand and at the dead bracelet. It was as if an injustice had been done to a noble thing, as if truth had been suppressed. So sad did it seem that I remembered the saying of the hero in a book that I had read as a child: "I have conquered them all, but I am standing among graves."

(Dinesen’s story is of course about Kenya)

 

 More information on the Colonization of West Africa  and its  long term consequences Here and the culture of Mali Here.

The Following video needs little introduction: K’Naan’s “Wavin Flag”. K’Naan hails from Somalia originally, a land that is currently seeing a world of struggle.

The Bozo People

The Bozo are a West African ethnic group located predominantly along the Niger River in Mali. The name Bozo is thought to derive from Bambara bo-so, 'Bamboo house'; the people accept it as referring to the whole of the ethnic group but use more specific clan names such as Sorogoye,Hain, and Tieye themselves. They are famous for their fishing and are Bozo languages).occasionally referred to as the "masters of the river." Their languages, belonging to the Soninke-Bozo subgroup of Northwestern Mande languages, have traditionally been considered dialects of one language, though in reality there are at least four distinct varieties (see Rock drawings linked to the Bozo area date back as far as 6,000 years, but many aspects of Bozo culture took shape under the 10th century Ghana Empire, when the Bozo took possession of the banks of the Niger. The Bozo were the founders of the Malian cities of Djenné and Mopti.

Though the Bozo are predominantly Muslim, they preserve a number of animist traditions as well. Their animal totem is the bull, whose body represents the Niger and whose horns represent the Bozo fishing pirogues.

Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire (from which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan (then known as the Sudanese Republic) joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a 1991 coup led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. About half the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.^[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo_people

_______________________________________________________________

About the Photographer:

Carlos Duarte hails from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. His favorite interests are, travel and, of course, photography  ~ mainly social, portrait and landscape photography, where he sees very clear connections. You may find his exquisite photos on 1x.com and also on his extraordinary blog. His travels led him to Africa, where he spent nine days in Mali and had the good fortune to photograph ‘Mayda’ which won a prestigious award from an international National Geographic contest. Africa “catches you,” he says on his blog. If you look at Carlos’s work you can see the beauty of his images and the love that went into creating them, even the ones that show struggle and pain.  We should all be grateful for such artists among us.

 

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Finally, for more Haiku My Heart, Please visit dear rebecca’s blog at recuerda mi corazon where you may find both compassion and a sense of true belonging wherever you are in your life journey.

Song of Tanzania

© 2011 nicolino sapio

How can I keep my soul in me, so that
it doesn't touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?

Eyes ©2011 nicolino sapio

I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn't resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin's bow,
which draws *one* voice out of two separate strings.

©2011 nicolino sapio

Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.

~ “Song” by Rilke ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One Photographer’s Journey

Nicolino Sapio and children of Arusha

The photos you see above were taken by Nicolino Sapio in Arusha, a city in Northern Tanzania as part of a project to raise funds for Compassion.com, a highly respected and well established charity organization that helps children in 26 countries, who are in great need. Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become happier, and more  fulfilled adults with a brighter future ahead of them.

One very satisfying way that you may connect with these children and donate to this worthy cause is to sponsor a child in need. Children in African countries, in particular, suffer the loss of parents to HIV/AIDS, and many children are left without food, medical help or care. By sponsoring a child, you can maintain a continued connection with that child and know his or her progress in the program and in his life in general. You may find information on how to become a sponsor Here.

Compassion.com also offers a program to Meet Critical Needs such as: health and medical, educational, and disaster relief and stability needs. A one-time or monthly donation can be made to this program to help many children. You may find out more about how to help Here.

If you make the compassionate and wise decision to donate or to sponsor a child, please add to Nicolino’s and my blessings by returning to this blog to tell us or emailing me personally. My email is listed on the blog. Thank you.

Peace and Light,

Noelle Renee

Linked to Postcards from Paradise. For More wonderful Postcards Please visit rebecca at Recuerda mi Corazon. Rebecca is one of the most compassionate people I know.

*All photographs are published here with permission of Nicolino Sapio.