MY SARISARI STORE

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I want to thank everybody for his/her comment on yesterday’s post. I truly appreciate that you took the time to express your views about this issue. I am glad we kept it civilized. Those children deserve it.

I fully understand that journalists and photographers need to be careful and that they must attempt to give a balanced report of a situation. It is not an easy task, especially with complex issues like poverty and street kids.

Maybe, in our own little way, we can help some of those children in need. 

                   The (Lost) Children of Manila.

Inspired by Jeff Vergara's wonderful series "Children of Manila", I want to dedicate my series to Carlos Celdran, one of the best and most famous tour guides of Manila. I HIGHLY recommend to go to one of his tours if you have the chance to be in Manila. Carlos is not your usual tour guide. He is a born entertainer and you can look forward to have a lot of fun and learn unexpected facts about Manila. His theatrical walking tours have been featured in Time Magazine. Tour schedules can be found in his personal blog.

His response to a German photographer triggered this series about the “ The Lost Children of Manila”. You can read his whole blog entry here.

Thank you for emailing. P***! Yes, wonderful lady. Actually, it won't be too hard to find "bat people" in Manila. Just along Quirino Street in Malate near the highway or under the Jones bridge and Quezon bridges in downtown, you will find several. But please don't take it personally if I refuse to take you there. It's not that I have personal reservations about the safety of the area. It's just that for the past few years, it seems that every time I get a request from a western photojournalist to do a project on Manila, it's always about the slums and squatters and I am sick of it. It's as if the Philippines has nothing else to offer except poverty and social injustice and it's quite insulting to tell you the truth. For personal reasons, I do not wish to take part in another project that will only perpetuate the image of my country as "poor" and "pathetic". The picture of a child with flies in a Philippine slum is an old one and I yearn for the day when one thinks of the Philippines and that would NOT be the first image that would come to mind. For the past years, all the journalists who wished to show the "human" side of Manila and the heart wrenching poverty only succeeded in confirming our country as a "basket case" and a land of "horrors", leading to the loss of respect for our society (especially for those like me, who seek to improve it). I have always been so confused about why is it that the negative side of Manila is what a lot of photographers and journalists are interested in. My request to these people in the past to show a balanced picture of Manila (a good side, as well as a bad one), has always been met with confused stares. It's as if Philippine middle class values, arts, heritage, and beauty in the "normal" sense isn't beautiful to them or worse, it won't sell. To many, the Philippines has become the cliche/easy picking for the grotesque and I will not enjoin this cause. Once again, my apologies if I offended you or seem a little politicized or upset, but poverty and bat people is NOT ALL that we are about.
Carlos

It is a very interesting issue and I understand Carlos viewpoint but I disagree. Photographers are not (only) here to promote the Philippines. They also have a social responsibility.

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I understand that this photo makes everybody uncomfortable. It was taken in Quiapo near an underpass. This is a popular district where thousands of people walk by.

I am confronted with (extreme) poverty every day and as such I am surprised that some people are shocked that the “(foreign) media” take notice of the situation. We have a very dual society in the Philippines with dirt poor and super rich people. There is a growing middle class but it is still a minority.

House in Ayala Alabang Village (Click image to enlarge.)

"Houses" near Quiapo. (Click image to enlarge.)

House in Ayala Alabang Village. (Click image to enlarge.)

I realize that images of beggars and street children are something that Filipinos don’t like to show the world but then they should pressure their politicians to do something about this situation.

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Sure, I could show you some pictures of Bonifacio High Street in Taguig, dubbed the  Champs-Elysées of the Philippines where you can find exclusive restaurants, fashion stores and expensive coffee shops. Yes, I could show you the skyline of Makati with its modern glass and steel buildings where banks abound or some of the stunning mansions in the gated villages of Forbes Park and Ayala Alabang. We have a thriving music and art scene in Manila. Huge malls abound and there are fantastic restaurants. It would be wonderful if this was really a sign of an improving economy.

I have to confess that I was never impressed by glamor and glitter. The highest tower, the biggest mall and the largest YSL store leaves me cold. But in combination with “a small child with flies” that makes me sad. 

Anyway, I decided to publish my series about the “Lost Children of Manila” even if some people might question their relevance, their purpose and my motivation.  My pictures might be irrelevant and might be of no help to those children but I don’t see why I should hide them in my computer’s hard drive.

I love this country. I like its people who are hospitable, friendly and able to smile even in times of hardship. It is a great country with a lot of potential but I regret that Filipinos don’t get their act together when it comes to improve the quality of life of the majority of its inhabitants. This is not a problem limited to the Philippines alone as Joe Studwell points out in his article "Ties that bind" written in Newsweek.
Quote:
"For working- and middle-class Asians, the past 10 years are mainly defined by rising and palpable inequality. The two wealthy city-states, Hong Kong and Singapore, today boast inequality as measured by the international Gini benchmark that is on par with urban Argentina. Postcrisis, the proportion of people in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia living on less than the World Bank's $2-a-day measure of poverty and near poverty is greater than in Latin America. Today, it seems all too possible that the region's coddled political and economic elites will allow their states to slide into a Latin American morass, as they continue to live high on the hog while the dreams of ordinary people go down the tubes."

I try hard to stay out of politics and controversy in this site. It is just a simple photo blog and it has no other aims than showing images of topics that I am interested in.

I also want to acknowledge the organizations and the thousands of volunteers who are trying to ease the plight of the poor, the sick and the powerless.

I missed the "Rodeo Bikini Open" :-( but I was able to cover the 2007 Ms. Rodeo Quest :-)

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Bull riding...

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