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cowmoocher — Beggar
Published: 2007-01-01 02:06:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 3654; Favourites: 35; Downloads: 44
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At first, I didn't see him... what got my attention was his wailing. Didn't speak or smile just wailed.On the same street:
a man and a writer.
ATTENTION, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING!
This may be a tearjerker, but I'd like to enlighten you on a secret that the picture may be hiding. A lot of the beggars and street performers in China are con artists. Some young children, usually orphans, are taken in by an adult who forces them to beg on the streets for money. At the end of the day, all the money must go back to the
"caretaker" and he/she then uses it to buy food for the kids. This may sound all nice and fluffy on the outside, but in reality the caretaker is often found taking almost all of the daily earnings and using it to his/her personal benefits. There are some caretakers who beat the children to disfigure them, and this is just to get a couple more dollars out of sympathetic tourists. Some people cut off a limb or two to make believe that they're crippled to maximize profits. The sad thing is that when giving money to these people, you never really know where it's going.
A picture may tell 1,000 words, but 500 of them are written in invisible ink.
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Comments: 41
I'm featuring your photo here :
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If you want it removed, please contact me via note :] thank you.
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Indonesia is no exception. In main road, I often see their parents keep an eye to them just to ensure that they are doing "their job".
it's painful to see this kind of picture.
love ye message, darl!
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this kid look very thin.....its probebly because he dont get enough food!
poor kid!!
i think turist shuld give them food, instead of money...to make sure, they will get food.
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My children were complaining about he meal I made last night, and I began to talk to them of children and families in other countries. This photo is very emotional,and I thank you for sharing it. I will s hare with my children and read to them about the poor children being forced to beg for money. It is very sad.
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Thank you for spreading the story, it means a lot to me. I am one of those children as well. Complaints often slip out of my mouth, but each time I remind myself of the little boy I saw. I used to complain all the time about how I don't have a cellphone, ipod, or brandname clothes. Now everytime I see one of those things I ask wonder how people categorize them as necessities. Thanks again, and I hope you children are as touched as you.
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Very disturbing photo, and story to go with it. Great work with the shot, great framing, and its perfect in B&W.
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*bows I'm truly grateful for those words :]
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no problem, I admire people like you who in a way promote social awareness through the arts
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I Myself appriciate the message of this photographic series.
It may be true people who try to get the message of the plight of the downtroden across are taking advantage of the complacent, in the same sense Restaurants take advantage of hungry people with money.
Most of us who are even lucky enough to read this probably own the computer were using to read it on, and since less than 1% of the world's population owns a computer, few of us are really qualified to lecture eachother on the virtues of economic hierarchy, social injustice and so on.
Sufice it to say that most of us take our lives, our senses, even the air we breateh and the water we drink for granted every day in some way or another. And it's people who try to get the message across that real suffering occurs in the world who have a nobility a great many of us will never aproach,
So to you I say Excalent Work!
(I wont even bother guessing where I scale on Kohleberg's stages of Moral development, I had to look it up on Wikipedia to see what it was 
--
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
-Dr. Carl Sagan
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And i'm glad I found yours
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I feel this image (as well as the 2 others from this series) exploits its subject matter. I like what you are trying to do here, so I am not tearing down or negatively criticising your work at all. Images like these are taken to evoke strong emotions in viewers that will probably never step foot where you were when you snapped these. When an artist is placed in this position, he/she must think very hard whether he/she is acting ethically in how they turn someone else into art. Would the subject of this image appreciate himself in your art? or better yet if the tables were turned and you were limbless in the streets being beaten and robbed of your daily earnnings would you want to be commented on in Deviant art? Just a thought.. I am not trying to be preachy or anything like that... like I said before I like what you are attempting to do here..
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lol... you have a great eye and I just wanted to throw that out there.. thank you for not being one of those crazy people who goes off when something is said to them constructively... but I just want to make clear that I am not criticizing your work in a bad way I was just curious what your response would be to my statement... anyways
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like others have said before, this photo is extremely powerful to ANY viewer. well done, this is art with TRUE feeling and thought.
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If this photo does not wake people up.....nothing will. Thanks for this bleek but much needed photo
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My God... so sad. Amazing photograph. In my opinion this is the stuff of National Geographic and Time Magazine. Bravo.
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Wow, this is incredible, so powerful. It takes alot to capture something like this, you did well.
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thanks for opening our eyes...if only more people knew about this....
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gruesome and harsh picture. your not closing your eyes for it and it maybe it helps to open the eyes of others.
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Oh my god.. just looking at that makes me want to cry.. very very emotional photo.. great work.
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very intense photograph, he looks young too - amazing photograph, the fact that he's looking right at you, too, makes this photo really strong
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that's ok, i think your photo's just real and therefore something special
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This caught my eye.
Its alot of emotion for a picture.
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