The man is a genius.
No one can handle this much raw sexuality at once.
Eeevry time we tooouch, the honesty’s too muuuuch 🎶 #vattica #thunderwood #runbaby #9electric
![thepoliticalfreakshow:
A Final Embrace: The Most Haunting Photograph From The Bangladesh Garment Factory Collapse [TW: Graphic Violence, Death, Violent Imagery]
Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image.
Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making it personal, it refuses to let go. This is a photograph that will torment us in our dreams. Quietly it tells us. Never again.”
Akhter writes for LightBox about the photograph, which appears in this week’s TIME International alongside an essay by David Von Drehle.
I have been asked many questions about the photograph of the couple embracing in the aftermath of the collapse. I have tried desperately, but have yet to find any clues about them. I don’t know who they are or what their relationship is with each other.
I spent the entire day the building collapsed on the scene, watching as injured garment workers were being rescued from the rubble. I remember the frightened eyes of relatives — I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Around 2 a.m., I found a couple embracing each other in the rubble. The lower parts of their bodies were buried under the concrete. The blood from the eyes of the man ran like a tear. When I saw the couple, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I knew them — they felt very close to me. I looked at who they were in their last moments as they stood together and tried to save each other — to save their beloved lives.
Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.
They are witnesses in this cruel history of workers being killed. The death toll is now more than 750. What a harsh situation we are in, where human beings are treated only as numbers.
This photo is haunting me all the time. If the people responsible don’t receive the highest level of punishment, we will see this type of tragedy again. There will be no relief from these horrific feelings. I’ve felt a tremendous pressure and pain over the past two weeks surrounded by dead bodies. As a witness to this cruelty, I feel the urge to share this pain with everyone. That’s why I want this photo to be seen.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/dd9824cfa8083fc5d4104f4c8da1a1d3/tumblr_mmgxqhxUnf1qjo9duo1_1280.jpg)
A Final Embrace: The Most Haunting Photograph From The Bangladesh Garment Factory Collapse [TW: Graphic Violence, Death, Violent Imagery]
Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image.
Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making it personal, it refuses to let go. This is a photograph that will torment us in our dreams. Quietly it tells us. Never again.”
Akhter writes for LightBox about the photograph, which appears in this week’s TIME International alongside an essay by David Von Drehle.
I have been asked many questions about the photograph of the couple embracing in the aftermath of the collapse. I have tried desperately, but have yet to find any clues about them. I don’t know who they are or what their relationship is with each other.
I spent the entire day the building collapsed on the scene, watching as injured garment workers were being rescued from the rubble. I remember the frightened eyes of relatives — I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Around 2 a.m., I found a couple embracing each other in the rubble. The lower parts of their bodies were buried under the concrete. The blood from the eyes of the man ran like a tear. When I saw the couple, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I knew them — they felt very close to me. I looked at who they were in their last moments as they stood together and tried to save each other — to save their beloved lives.
Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.
They are witnesses in this cruel history of workers being killed. The death toll is now more than 750. What a harsh situation we are in, where human beings are treated only as numbers.
This photo is haunting me all the time. If the people responsible don’t receive the highest level of punishment, we will see this type of tragedy again. There will be no relief from these horrific feelings. I’ve felt a tremendous pressure and pain over the past two weeks surrounded by dead bodies. As a witness to this cruelty, I feel the urge to share this pain with everyone. That’s why I want this photo to be seen.
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My band’s new song is available today! Go buy it!
“I know Republicans are still sorting out what happened in 2012, but one thing they all agree on is they need to do a better job reaching out to minorities.” - President Obama, 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Dead.
LIKE A BOSS
So today was the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, and it kind of got me nostalgic for the days back when we had a president who thought Rwanda was J.J.’s sister on “Good Times.” Presidents Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama all praised the presidency of George W. Bush. So for once they were all bigger liars than he was.
Laura Bush, of course, spoke movingly of how kind her husband is to all the veterans who [were] wounded in Iraq, because of her husband. I love Laura Bush, by the way — only in America would a librarian marry an illiterate.
But the thing here to remember is George W. Bush kept us safe — from Bill Clinton’s surplus.
By now our conservative friends watching this are upset, saying, “Yeah, there you go, still blaming Bush.” And you know what, yeah, I still blame Bush for stuff Bush did. I still blame George Lucas for Jar Jar Binks, too.
And for the record, nobody’s actually blaming Bush. They’re blaming Bush policies. “Blaming Bush” implies he was actually in charge.
But in fairness, a lot of the financial troubles can be blamed on the Clinton years and the repeal of Glass–Steagall and NAFTA — I can finally criticize NAFTA around here.
So tonight I want to mention some of the positive things George W. Bush did. Because when you put aside having two wars off the books while cutting taxes for rich people, then leaving a mess behind in the world’s greatest financial dine-n-dash; ignoring warnings on bin Laden; reading “My Pet Goat” while his country was under attack because Cheney had things under control; never once balancing a budget…
When you can look beyond the little things, like opposing stem cell research; pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol; authorizing torture; calling torture “enhanced interrogation;” having the fewest press conferences of any president in history, but the most vacation (over three years of his eight-year term, on vacation)…
When you get over your petty liberal grievances about withdrawing America from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; cocking up the Katrina disaster; “Heckuva job, Brownie;” cutting veterans’ health care by billions; cutting Pell Grant loans for students; shock and awe; making polluting corporations in charge of their own cleanup with no penalties if they didn’t; “free speech zones;” opposing expanded health care for National Guard families; wearing the flight suit…
If you can rise above your childish hang-ups over the Pat Tillman death cover-up; troops sent into battle with inadequate body armor; letting Baghdad be looted but having U.S. troops protect the oil ministry; warrantless wiretaps; only testifying before the 9/11 Commission if he could do it with Cheney sitting beside him and still refusing to testify under oath; trading Sammy Sosa; Cheney; Rove; Rummy; Wolfowitz; Yoo; billions dollars to Halliburton through no-bid crony contracts — that ain’t capitalism— not allowing fallen soldiers’ coffins to be photographed because it was bad PR…
Never attending a fallen soldier’s funeral; believing Iran and Iraq were part of an “axis” when they really hated each other; lying about mushroom clouds; stealing the election from you-know-who; acting like he had a mandate when he lost the popular vote (a real man would’ve said, “Count all the votes,” by the way); the deliberate outing of a CIA operative as political retribution for her husband telling the truth about Bush’s yellowcake uranium…
God, if Billy Joel were here he’d make this rhyme…
If we as a nation could get over Medicare Part D; encouraging attacks on our own soldiers by saying, “Bring it on;” over 4,400 dead soldiers; [up to] 100,000 dead Iraqis; announcing he didn’t care about finding bin Laden while families were still grieving; inventing pre-emptive war (it’s very Christian — “Forgive us our trespasses while we trespass against those we think will one day trespass against us”); giving our economy away to the banks; bailing out the banks who ripped us off; calling prisoners of war “enemy combatants” so we wouldn’t have to observe the Geneva Convention; losing 800,000 jobs per month by the time he left office; squandering worldwide goodwill; squandering a surplus; squandering lives and not being able to pronounce “nuclear”…
He was actually a pretty good guy. He tripled AIDS funding to Africa; raised the debt ceiling seven times — that was freedom debt — [was] right in saying regular baseball season interleague play diminished the power of the World Series; prosecuted the 20th 9/11 hijacker in criminal court…
But most importantly, Bush’s greatest achievement for which I will always personally thank him: He didn’t die in office.
So thank you, President Bush. And thanks to all your tax cuts for creating all those jobs. In Asia.
”