On Wednesday night (24th August) a group of TEAR Fund supporters held a special screening of the 90 minute documentary Precious Life - an excellent film for people concerned with peace, justice and humanitarian issues.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the symposium on conflict photography as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography. I’m not well versed in the personalities who work in this area but after hearing from a few of them I’m staggered that I got to hear them for free – especially Tim Page. His work and experience are mind blowing. I plan on doing a post for each of the  three symposium speakers I [...]

As a keen amateur photographer I’m very interested in the Auckland Festival of Photography and this year one of the areas it touches on has really caught my attention as it connects with my wider work – conflict photography. Conflict photography is a minefield of ethical discussion as it documents everything from protests to war zones to the aftermath of conflict. It demands questions about both the place of the photographer in those things and [...]

With all the media hype that exists around this time every year about the tragic events that unfolded in New York on September 11, 2001 where extremists flew two aircraft into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, bringing a horrible end to the lives of nearly 3000 innocent people, it is easy to forget another large tragedy that occurred on the same day many years earlier in Latin America. It is a tragedy [...]

I don’t like the word democracy. It is one of those words that is used to mean all kinds of things, and it is interpreted in all kinds of ways. Democracy is not the world’s saviour… and neither is the blind belief in human progress. Here we are in 2010 and despite our progress, governments still kill their own citizens. A few interesting things happened in Wellington recently, mostly unnoticed by media outlets. A small [...]

The information war is being employed to its fullest at the moment due to the tragic incident that took place this week where a flotilla of ships tried to break the naval blockade off the coast of Gaza and were boarded by Israeli Defense Force (IDF) commandos, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries. Predictably, all involved parties are painting themselves as victims and pointing to the ‘other’ side as the provocateurs and perpetrators of crime [...]

On July 11, 1947 a ship once known as President Warfield but renamed SS Exodus, left the port of miggets Sete in France. The ship had served as part of the American navy during WW2 but was sold by the War Shipping Administration in 1946. It was purchased by the Potomac Shipwrecking Company which was acting as an agent of the Haganah. The Haganah was an underground militant Jewish organisation operating in Palestine at the [...]

“Damn Israel”. That’s what Turkish protesters have been yelling outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. Israel is accused of attacking a flotilla of vessels bringing aid to Gaza. Apparently 10,000 tonnes of aid was aboard. About 9 “activists” were killed in the incident. Like most other news emanating from any Israeli-Palestinian conflict – truth is the first casualty. Even a brief perusal of a number of news sources shows contradictory and confusing information. The Telegraph [...]

Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country – is well known for being a political enigma. Every year when the state failure warnings come out, Nigeria is always coloured a bright red. ‘Why doesn’t Nigeria collapse?’ has become a compelling question for political scientists. The lifeblood that keeps the Nigerian government running is oil revenue. However over the past decade Nigeria’s major oil producing states in the Niger Delta have been gnawed at by one of [...]

Imagine that you are an operator at a nuclear power plant, and you receive an alert that toxic gases have leaked and are on their way to the cafeteria, where the gases will imminently and certainly kill all five people inside. You have the power to flick a switch and divert the gases to an office with a single person working. Would you flick the switch? Now imagine that you are tramping the Tongariro Crossing. [...]