LA POVERTÀ NON HA RAZZA

Quando si racconta la storia della povertà umana la razza non sembra svolgere un ruolo importante. Il fotografo della Reuteurs Finbarr O'Reilly si è recato all’inizio di quest’anno in Sud Africa ed ha visitato un certo numero di campi abusivi abitati, per lo più, da afrikaner, documentando il fatto che, nonostante i neri poveri siano la maggioranza, la povertà è una questione umana, non razziale.
O'Reilly racconta: “Mentre la maggior parte dei sudafricani bianchi gode ancora di privilegi e ricchezza, il numero di bianchi poveri è aumentato costantemente negli ultimi 15 anni. I ricercatori stimano ora che circa 450.000 bianchi (su di un totale di 4.500.000) vivano al di sotto della soglia di povertà e 100.000 lottino per sopravvivere in luoghi come Coronation Park, un campo di roulotte che ospita circa 400 occupanti abusivi. Costretti a vivere ai marrgini della società, si sentono come vittime di reverse-apartheid, che sembra metterli in una situazione di svantaggio ancor più grande rispetto ai milioni di poveri sudefricani neri.”

Andre Coetzee, 57, drinks a mug of coffee at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, South Africa on March 6, 2010. A shift in racial hiring practices and the recent global economic crisis means many white South Africans have fallen on hard times. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Children play on a tire being used to block the entrance to a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Friends talk through the window of a one-room hut at a squatter camp at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A man receives a monthly supply of food aid donated to residents of a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman pushes a cart with a monthly supply of donated food aid at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Leone Smit, 41, does dishes in her shack while her son and his friend rest on a bed at a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Mara Udwesthuizen, 64, sits outside her tent home in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Lukas Gouws, 29, tells off a boy for digging up snakes in Krugersdorp, South Africa on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Lukas Gouws smokes a cigarette at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A teenager plays cricket in a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Girls set up a play house in their garden outside a family shack in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A resident works on repairing a car in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Rudolph, age 12, does his homework in the kitchen of his family's shack in Krugersdorp on March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

On March 7, 2010 in in Krugersdorp, Donovan Durant, 23, (center) weeps as he looks down at blood-soaked rags burning in a fire the morning his girlfriend gave birth prematurely and their baby died after a few hours. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

People attend an Afrikaans Sunday service in a makeshift tent church at a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Desmond Thomas, 40, (right) lights a cigarette beside the charred remains of his caravan that burned down the previous night after a candle set it on fire at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans in Krugersdorp on March 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Vincent Abbott, 42, enjoys an evening smoke as his wife Esther Botha, 41, knits on their bed inside their small single-room hut at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A girl puts her hair in a pony tail as she gets ready to walk to school from a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Girls walk to school barefoot in Krugersdorp, March 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Anna Snyders, 20, (center) grieves beside her boyfriend, Donovan Durant at the funeral for their baby who died hours after she gave birth prematurely in Krugersdorp on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Donovan Durant carries the casket of his baby who died hours after being born prematurely while his girlfriend Anna Snyders (left) is comforted during a funeral service in Krugersdorp on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Accountant Vernon Nel checks his email on generator-powered computers using a wireless modem in a tented home attached to caravan that he shares with six other people at a squatter camp in Coronation Park in Krugersdorp on March 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Residents of a squatter camp in Krugersdorp are served food during a communal meal on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Residents of a squatter in Krugersdorp line up for a communal meal on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A girl cries after her father beat her in their makeshift home at a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman looks out her window as she drives a car in a squatter camp in Krugersdorp on March 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman looks out the window of her one-room hut at a squatter camp for poor white South Africans at Coronation Park in Krugersdorp, South Africa on March 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Fonte

More links and information
Hardship deepens for South Africa's Poor Whites - Reuters article by Finbarr O'Reilly
Poverty, and Little Sympathy, in South Africa - NYTimes.com, Lens Blog

>>>

RITRATTI DAL CONGO

Nella Repubblica Semocratica del Congo la lotta continua tra eserciti ribelli, tribù fra loro ostili, esercito congolese e forze ONU. Il fotografo della Reuteurs Finbarr O'Reilly ha attraversato quell’area eiportandone questa incredibile reportage.

Ano Mboligikpelani, 12, holds her sister, Honrine Ngbadulezele, 2, in the village of Bangadi in northeastern Congo, February 19, 2009. Thousands of Congolese have fled their villages since December as Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels roaming the bush carry out massacres that have killed some 900 civilians in northeastern Congo during the past two months. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A Congolese man pans for gold on a riverside at Iga Barriere, 25 kms (15 miles) from Bunia, in the resource-rich Ituri region of eastern Congo, February 16, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman displaced by violence returns from collecting firewood at a camp near Minova in eastern Congo, February 12, 2009. Reports are trickling in from the Congolese bush as people reach larger towns with stories of the killings of civilians by FDLR rebels, who are being hunted down by a coalition of Rwandan and Congolese forces. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A displaced woman lies in a tent with her child at a makeshift camp in Kibati near Goma in eastern Congo February 13, 2009. Congo's military said more than 40 Rwandan Hutu rebels had died in an air raid, as a 3-week-old joint Congolese-Rwandan offensive sparked rebel reprisals which a rights group said had killed 100 villagers. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A fighter from the FDLR rebel group, which is being hunted by the Rwandan and Congolese armies, stands guard deep in the bush of eastern Congo, February 6, 2009. Rwandan Hutu rebels are melting into the forests of eastern Congo before advancing Rwandan and Congolese forces, in a sign the surprise joint offensive has little chance of quashing militia groups at the heart of 15 years of conflict. Picture taken February 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman who has recently undergone surgery sits at the general hospital at Dungu in northeastern Congo, February 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Children walk along a road above a camp for people displaced by violence near Minova in eastern Congo, February 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Internally displaced people gather at a market in the middle of a makeshift camp near Goma in eastern Congo February 11, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman stands outside her hut deep in the bush of eastern Congo February 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A South African United Nations peacekeeper secures the landing site for a U.N. helicopter at the village of Pinga in eastern Congo, February 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Sisters displaced by war hold hands in front of a makeshift hut at Bulengo camp just outside Goma in eastern Congo, February 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A Congolese girl prays during Sunday Mass in the village of Mweso in eastern Congo, February 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Money changer Kwami Longange poses for a portrait on a streetcorner in Goma in eastern Congo, February 9, 2009. Longange, nicknamed "le Bon" - the Good - is a Sappeur, the local name for a dandy dresser. He has some 200 different matching outfits that he wears to work as a money changer and musician. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Jean-Pierre Kalikunshe (L), 10, comforts his friend Espoir Kangeshe, 6, both of whom have had surgery to correct leg deformities, at the Heal Africa hospital in Goma, February 10, 2009. Kalikunshe and Kangeshe are among some 70 children looked after by Stand Proud, a charity that assists children suffering from polio and other leg defects in war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, where 15 years of war has devastated public health services. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Beatrice Mapendo, 22, who fled after a massacre in the town of Kiwanja last November, stands at Kibati camp near Goma in eastern Congo, February 9, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A Congolese woman sells bananas in Goma in eastern Congo, February 9, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A man plays an electric guitar in the village of Pinga, a village with no electricity, in eastern Congo, February 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Fourteen-month-old Yabila Kubemboli, who is malnourished after his mother fled attacks on her village by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, awaits treatment at the hospital in the village of Dungu in northeastern Congo, February 20, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A Congolese girl displaced by fighting carries firewood at a camp near Goma in eastern Congo, February 9, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

A Red Cross worker covers the the body of Dieudonne Kulimbo who was shot and killed in the bush near Dungu in northeastern Congo, February 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman walks home carrying an umbrella near Minova in eastern Congo, February 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Villagers who have formed a local self defense force move during a training session in the village of Bangadi in northeastern Congo February 18, 2009. In the face of attacks and massacres by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, who have slaughtered some 900 Congolese civilians since December, villagers in Bangadi have formed a self-defense force with locally made weapons and have twice repelled LRA attacks in recent months. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Lea Mbikaz, 32, who wears a traditional Congolese hair style, poses for a portrait in the village of Bangadi in northeastern Congo, February 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Gold miners form a human chain while digging an open pit at the Chudja mine in the Kilomoto concession near the village of Kobu, 100 km (62 miles) from Bunia in north-eastern Congo, February 23, 2009. Civil conflict in Congo has been driven for more than a decade by the violent struggle for control over the country's vast natural resources, including gold, diamonds and timber, most of which is exploited using hard manual labour. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Gold miners pass mud along a human chain in an open pit at the Chudja mine in the Kilomoto concession near the village of Kobu in north-eastern Congo, February 23, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

War-displaced mother Marie Nako, 20, stands outside the hospital in the village of Dungu where her malnourished child is being treated in northeastern Congo, February 20, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A woman who fled attacks by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels stands outside a makeshift shelter at Ngalima in northeastern Congo February 21, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A war-displaced boy wears an improvised sun hat made from wood and flip-flops at Ngalima in northeastern Congo February 21, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A man displaced by war is reflected in a mirror as he gets a haircut at Bulengo camp just outside Goma in eastern Congo, February 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

War-displaced Mizelede mourns at the funeral of her grandfather, Leon Biliyo, 60, who died from malaria in Ngalima in northeastern Congo February 21, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Congolese troops patrol through the village of Bangadi in northeastern Congo, February 19, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A member of a local self-defense force poses for a portrait in the village of Bangadi in northeastern Congo, February 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

War-orphan Faustin Mugisa, 8, who has machete scars on his head and body, stands at the Kizito orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. Mugisa was left for dead in a pile of corpses when ethnic Lendu militiamen hacked to death his mother and seven siblings in 2003. Mugisa's father discovered him alive and took him to the bush to recover, but his father was later hacked to death by the same militia group. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A Congolese fighter from the pro-government Mai-Mai militia looks through a window in the village of Kalenge near the front line in eastern Congo, February 4, 2009. Rwandan and Congolese forces are hunting down thousands of Hutu extremist rebels in the wilds of eastern Congo in an operation intended to address the root cause of 15 years of conflict in Congo. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A war-orphaned child sits in a cardboard box at the Kizito orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

Men displaced by war play soccer at Bulengo camp just outside Goma in eastern Congo, February 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A girl displaced by violence wears a traditional Congolese hair style while standing near government soldiers in the village of Bangadi in northeastern Congo February 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

A war-orphaned child looks through a window at the Kizito orphanage in Bunia in northeastern Congo February 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #

More links and information
DR Congo outsources its military - BBC News 2/27
The Invisible War - NYTimes.com 2/21
Conflict in Congo, refugees on the move - The Big Picture, 11/03/08
Congo's crisis worsens - The Big Picture, 11/21/08
DR Congo - NYTimes Topics page
Fonte

>>>