She was selling candy in order to help feed her children. 1 Peso for one pack of Chiclets gum. I bought 20 packs (all she had), but they tasted as if they had been sitting around for about two years - so my son and I left them in the hotel room for the maid.
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." — Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
Mexico City has a massive museum called the “Tolerance Museum” or Museo Memoria y Tolerancia that displays the reality of genocide around the world. Multiple floors are dedicated to the Holocaust, Darfur and more.
Inside the museum is an Olive Tree that sits before the memorial for the children who were murdered in different genocides from around the world. Artist Jan Hendrix created this display using the Olive Tree as a visual motive behind her work called Lamento.
The sculpture is made up of 20,000 pieces of irregularly shaped glass (photographed).
When you exit the museum you have a new idea of what tolerance should be as opposed to racial or ethic divide.
“It's a universal law-- intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Historian and Russian Novelist (1918-2008)
He stands hour after hour in the hot sun on the grounds of an ancient pyramid near Mexico City selling souvenirs in an attempt to make enough pesos to feed his family.
20 Pesos are what the lion noisemakers cost for some while others pay the full price of 30 pesos. It all depends on who bargains with him to get the lower price.
Out of country tourist confused by the exchange rate, sometimes pay as much as 100 pesos for the same item made of plastic. Regardless, the money is not being used in a negative way – it is simply allowing for a family to eat.
There is a lot of dislike for U.S. President Trump in Mexico. I did not fully understand the reasoning until a visit to Mexico City. I now understand more about the situation. Keep in mind, I fully believe to become an American resident, you need to go through all legal avenues. However, my visit did allow me to get a better grasp on why so many struggling families in Mexico want to make that journey to the United States.
The manufacturing industry in Mexico is very alive with America being one of the largest importers of Mexican made goods. With extra taxes on the imports as proposed, it will potentially drive Mexican families into deeper despair in an already impoverished area. But, is this an American problem or a Mexico issue?
Currently, about 40% of the residents in Mexico live in complete poverty earning between $4 and $8 per day. Furthermore, 5.1 million residents in Mexico live off of $2 or less per day in income.
The schools in Mexico are not doing well, which means children lack a good education. 48 Percent of state schools have no access to sewage while 31 percent have no drinking water. Another 11% of schools operate without any electricity.
Despite the sound of things, Mexico is actually the 15th richest country in the world. While this may sound a little hard to believe after reading through my statistical post, it is quite true.
That being said, is the problem with America adding taxes to imports or is the problem within the Mexican government and the manufactures failing to pay employees for their hard labor efforts?
In other words, if Mexico is to change their poverty rates, the focus should be on large employers taking a new approach to their employees and actually valuing their workers by increasing their pay.
What I learned is that Mexican manufacturing companies are taking full advantage of their employees by paying them $4 to $8 daily for 8 full hours of work. The heads of these companies are gathering wealth at a record pace by not helping the employees that make them wealthy.
Mexico City: He lives in the shadows of everyone, unable to clearly speak or think. In this photo, he is looking into the window of a store watching people shop as if he is imagining what it would be like to do the same.
Homeless in Nashville: He told me, “I was in Vietnam… I’m use to the jungle, that’s why I live here.” He said, "I joined the military when I was 17, my parents had to sign off on it."
“Our purpose in Vietnam is to prevent the success of aggression. It is not conquest, it is not empire, it is not foreign bases, it is not domination. It is, simply put, just to prevent the forceful conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam.” - Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), 36th president of the United States
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
―Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay
When I saw him he was talking to someone whom I could not see. The person or persons were in his imagination. I saw that he was agitated at something as he yelled, but when I approached him to talk he was calm, nice and outgoing. He was proud to tell me that he does roadwork for a living.
60 Year old Bill has done roadwork his entire life in East Tennessee. He told me, “I rarely ever get sick because I’m always working outdoors.”
He told me that he loves the Sevierville area, but stated, “I once visited West Virginia and it was beautiful.”
“There is no substitute for hard work.” - Thomas A. Edison
As with anything, there are rules in photography and rules in life. The rules in life are often hard facts whereas photography, an art, has rules that are loose.
Typically, I don’t aim for dark pictures, but some subjects and locations call for it. I felt this was one that called for it. Striking a balance between light and dark are usually important, but sometimes the darkness can illustrate the true darkness of the subject, a problem or the future.
The Photo:
In this photo, after someone called 911, the man tried to explain how sober he was to police and paramedics. The Metro Officer gave him a choice of the hospital or jail. After the man thought wholeheartedly about the two choices, he picked the hospital.
Prior to police arriving he fell over the edge of a wall, hit his head and then stumbled over to a set of steps leading down to the edge of the Cumberland River and passed out.
Police and rescue spend a considerable amount of time on intoxication calls. Officers often give the choice of a hospital visit or a jail visit in order to allow someone time to sober up or even seek help. The reasoning, is the fear of someone accidentally harming themselves just as this gentleman proved was likely. Of course not on purpose, but on accident.
Public Intoxication:
The FBI National Crime Report annually lists over 1,500,000 arrests for public intoxication. Of course, not all agencies report total statistics to the FBI.
Auto Vehicle Accidents:
An analysis of alcohol dependence among trauma center patients found that the prevalence of alcoholism was substantially higher among vehicular crash victims and other trauma patients than among the equivalent general population group. More than half of trauma patients with a positive BAC at the time of the trauma were diagnosed as alcoholics. – SOURCE: "Alcoholism at the Time of Injury Among Trauma Center Patients: Vehicular Crash Victims Compared with Other Patients,# Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 29, No. 6, 1997.
Crime and Alcohol:
Among the 11.1 million victims of violence each year, 1 in 4 were certain that the offender had been drinking before committing the crime. – U.S. Dept. of Justice
About 1 in 5 alcohol-related incidents involved a weapon other than the offender’s hands, feet, or fists. – U.S. Dept. of Justice
About a third of all convicted inmates in local jails described themselves as having been daily drinkers at the time of the offense. – U.S. Dept. of Justice
Alcohol and College:
Death: It is possible that more than 1,800 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol- related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes -Hingson et al. 2009
Roughly 20 percent of college students meet the criteria for an alcohol use disorder in a given year (8 percent alcohol abuse, 13 percent alcohol dependence). -Blanco et al. 2008
95% of all violent crime on college campuses involves the use of alcohol by the assailant, victim or both. – National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.
Drinking Underage:
Excessive drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths among underage youth each year, and cost the U.S. $24 billion in economic costs in 2010. –Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Treatment Vs. Criminal:
One study found that each dollar spent on substance abuse treatment saved $5.60 in terms of fewer arrests, incarcerations, food stamp use, and less child welfare and medical costs. In other words, if $75,000,000 were spent on public intoxication arrests last year, then $13,392,857.14 could have been saved and utilized for treatment. . – National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.
“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.” ― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
How is it that children are able to win over the hearts of adults, even when they are up to no good?
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