Over the last while I have been feeling a bit sorry for myself. "Poor poor Gerry, he has to work all of these 12 hour shifts in a row".
Today I was reminded about how easy I've got it. I was chatting to a lady in Thailand this morning, she lives in Buriram Thailand, which is located in Issan province, the poorest area of the country. We were talking about her job, I asked her how many hours she works a day, she told me 12. This lady works 12 hour days everyday, probably only gets a day or 2 off a month and yet is very poor (the norm for many in Thai). I asked her if she traveled inside Thailand where bus fares are very cheap (by my standards), she told me she could not travel at all because her family was too poor and she did not have money for such things. That is the difference, she works 12 hour days, almost everyday and does not have the funds to travel inside her own country. I work 12 hour shifts 7 on 7 off and I can travel half way round the world for 7 weeks making photographs with expensive world class photo equipment. No matter how many hours she puts in or how hard she works she cannot get ahead, meanwhile I make STAT pay and OT pay and rake in the dollars. My job gives me the freedom to do what I want, her job allows her to survive and help support her family.
This chat today made me think of the lives of other people I have met on my travels, others who I have photographed that have it much worse off, worse off then even than this Thai lady in Buriram.
- The young man from Cambodia who worked as a migrant construction worker in Bangkok. Young, away from his family in a foreign country, with no protections and very little salary. He still earns 3 or 4 times what he could back home in his Cambodian village.
- Nid the sex worker in Pattaya who has been going with foreign men for over a decade, using the money to try and build a home up country for her child and family. Does she have HIV? Will she get it? Is she still on that Pattaya street hustling? How much longer must she sell her body?
- Doo-Aye the young Burmese child in the dump, who digs in the garbage with her family for recyclables. A smile never leaving her face. What does her future hold? Little or no school, little or no future?
I got it f-ckin easy, time to stop whining little boy. I need to finish this off, get to Asia and then tell the stories of the people I meet, tell the stories of good decent hard working people like the folks in this blog entry. I need to work to let their voices be heard.
Today I was reminded about how easy I've got it. I was chatting to a lady in Thailand this morning, she lives in Buriram Thailand, which is located in Issan province, the poorest area of the country. We were talking about her job, I asked her how many hours she works a day, she told me 12. This lady works 12 hour days everyday, probably only gets a day or 2 off a month and yet is very poor (the norm for many in Thai). I asked her if she traveled inside Thailand where bus fares are very cheap (by my standards), she told me she could not travel at all because her family was too poor and she did not have money for such things. That is the difference, she works 12 hour days, almost everyday and does not have the funds to travel inside her own country. I work 12 hour shifts 7 on 7 off and I can travel half way round the world for 7 weeks making photographs with expensive world class photo equipment. No matter how many hours she puts in or how hard she works she cannot get ahead, meanwhile I make STAT pay and OT pay and rake in the dollars. My job gives me the freedom to do what I want, her job allows her to survive and help support her family.
This chat today made me think of the lives of other people I have met on my travels, others who I have photographed that have it much worse off, worse off then even than this Thai lady in Buriram.
- The young man from Cambodia who worked as a migrant construction worker in Bangkok. Young, away from his family in a foreign country, with no protections and very little salary. He still earns 3 or 4 times what he could back home in his Cambodian village.
- Nid the sex worker in Pattaya who has been going with foreign men for over a decade, using the money to try and build a home up country for her child and family. Does she have HIV? Will she get it? Is she still on that Pattaya street hustling? How much longer must she sell her body?
- Doo-Aye the young Burmese child in the dump, who digs in the garbage with her family for recyclables. A smile never leaving her face. What does her future hold? Little or no school, little or no future?
I got it f-ckin easy, time to stop whining little boy. I need to finish this off, get to Asia and then tell the stories of the people I meet, tell the stories of good decent hard working people like the folks in this blog entry. I need to work to let their voices be heard.
