R-e-s-p-e-c-t... all life, that's what you mean to me

(this is the same posting as currently appears on my Wild Orphans blog)

One would think 'sense and reason' should be the rule by which we travel through our lives, across the Earth, but sadly it's not always the route we humans choose, rather the road less traveled.

Today the folks representing how we treat all things but ourselves met in Doha to play god for another few years - elephants lucked out. Although not everyone was tickled pink, "We do not think our sovereignty has been respected," the Zambia's Tourism Minister Catherine Namugala said. "Respected", interesting word Ms Namugala, apparently that sovereignty doesn't extend to all life? No comment yet from the elephants who's sovereignty (and tusks) may have been spared.

Finally, perhaps, we have looked down that respect road, strewn with life other than our own, and decided they too have a place on earth. If that's the case it is somewhat ironic timing since this weekend in several countries the new BBC/Discovery Channel series LIFE took to the airwaves. Elephants, maybe more specifically African elephants have been given a short reprieve by a group with the highly ironic title the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - yes, I know you are scratching your head and saying, how can one "Trade" something that is labeled as "Endangered", if by the very meaning Endangered you are saying this thing is near disappearing, poof, gone! - doesn't that seem counter-intuitive? Oh well, I did say there were two roads and most of the time...

From a web article on BBC online:

"The UN's wildlife trade organisation has turned down Tanzania's and Zambia's requests to sell ivory, amid concern about elephant poaching.

The countries asked the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting to permit one-off sales from government stockpiles."

An overview article on the CITES vote and who's involved can be found in BBC Enviro corespondent Richard Black's article:

Ivory bids fall on poaching fears

And from the Washington Post: Elephant trade ban reaffirmed for Tanzania, Zambia

A fake wolf in any other clothing is...

... still, apparently, a fake wolf, at least according to the judges of the 2009 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

In an article published on the BBC website Wildlife photographer stripped of award photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez was the recently crowned winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award has been disqualified after judges ruled that the featured wolf was probably a "model".

Despite the panel's decision Rodriguez strongly denied that the wolf was a trained animal, according to a statement from the competition organizers. His photograph was selected as grand prize from more than 43,000 entries in October 2009.

The panel stripped Rodriguez and decided this year will be the first in 43 that no grand prize winner will be awarded.

I'm deeply saddened by this "problematic photo". Since the photographer denies the wolf is fake and the panel has ruled otherwise it resurfaces the question of what I refer to as the "covenant with the image". There has long been fakery in photography - since virtually its inception. In fact the miracle of photography is its ability to capture many things our eyes can not, and in so doing reveal worlds, emotions, perspectives that can awe, amaze, motivate and inspire. The one thing that we have had is a long standing agreement, that is photography, inclusive of the creator, when the image being shared is from realms of wildlife, nature, and journalism, respects a covenant with the image. That covenant allows all viewers to engage, rely, depend,... simply put, to trust, and in turn make valued decisions about our world based on that trust. Tear the covenant and you tear the trust.

Whether that trust is broken by a would-be contest winner or a trusted publication as in the mysterious moving pyramids in National Geographic (No one might have noticed had Gordon Gahan [the photographer], not voiced a complaint) the fallout becomes a source of controversy and erodes if not murders our trust. Some say all photographs are a lie, since they freeze a moment, but that's a comment of sheer stupidity. Is Henri Cartier-Bresson's leaping man frozen moment a lie? Is Eddie Adams' Vietnam execution of Nguyen Van Lem photo a lie? Is a memory a lie because it's frozen in our minds? In each we trust the source.

I have no idea if Rodriguez is pulling the wolf over our eyes. The leaping wolf photo is a wonderfully executed image, and if his covenant with us is indeed intact, I am saddened for him, if not then bravo the panel, regardless, the covenant with the image has been tarnished.

"ya gotta be good, but never turn down being lucky"

Every now and again someone sends me a link to a photo or series of photos worth sharing. These support the "ya gotta be good, but never turn down being lucky": http://www.pbase.com/redionne/kingkong

Also, if you just want another touch of visual inspiration check out the daily posting of images from around the world on the BBC Day in Pictures online and MSNBC.com The Week in Pictures.

Water thoughts

Last week rain finally fell on Portland, and my garden, and the roads I ride, but every drop of it was lapped up with joy and welcome - like a friend long absent.

Nearly daily I read articles addressing water issues which 'ping' my thinking about how to approach and communicate the our planet's growing water concern. Like the water problem itself, the solution for me photographically is equally elusive. Most of those stories, like this -Water reform is 'needed in Asia' - on the BBC news online, go unnoticed amidst the global panic over economies, wars, terrorists, etc. Ironically, in the coming years, regardless of how our car companies fare, and what leader is this week threatening his neighbors, water will remain at the core of our economic and security woes, it IS our woe. Yet for now, and likely until the day the tap runs dry in the homes of America and Europe, it's a problem to postpone. In the mean time:

• 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water
• 3 900 children die every day from water borne diseases
• 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation

And the statistics flow faster and with more clarity than the water we need - if you are interested check out the World Water Council and International Water Management Institute to get a broader perspective.

Over on my Japanese gardening blog (diary) I made note of the rain returning here to "my" little planet - it was a very personal reunion - both to my thirsty little green friends and my water bill, which has soared in trying to keep the little green friends alive. And that has made me think and post this blog - water isn't personal enough - "enough". Enough is the key word. How do I create images that tell what "enough" is, means, feels like, to those impacted today, so that those who are not will sit up and say, "hang on, we have a nightmare on our doorstep!" We simply, we the American/Europeans of the world, don't face the problem in a personal way daily or any day usually, we don't walk miles for a gallon or two of "clean" water, we don't have our children dieing agonizing deaths in our arms from ghastly sanitation conditions, so it doesn't really exist as a problem.

Hang on, be right back....

Whew, thanks.

I was really thirsty spouting all that, needed a glass of water, wow, that was easy, just turn on the tap, fill the glass.

Back to the blog....

In search of a solution, both to my creative challenge and, more importantly, to the real challenge, I wonder if it doesn't lie in a garden a top a mountain chain in the Highlands of Paupa New Guinea. There 25 years ago I met the Huli people, the "Wigmen of Papua", the spectacular fellow in the picture above, in their tiny mountain valley high above the world and it's problems. Where the Huli live is near Eden, the Tagali Valley , but off the map, most maps anyway (Google map it - it's a blank spot). The soil is lush, alive, and the rain falls with Swiss-like regularity. Literally, stick anything in the ground and it will grow. And that's what has me thinking. From childhood Hulis are gardeners - every man, woman and child works in the gardens. So pervasive is gardening in the Huli culture that even young men passing through the bachelor cult igari haroli must succeed as gardeners - specifically they must grow an orchid-looking bog iris plant (padume). Durning this period they also learn a series of chants important to their passage into manhood, one of them is the "Water Chant". (Women may likely have similar passages but as a male I was not privvy to them.)

For other, but similar reasons I use to thinnk wouldn't it be incredibly valuable if when entering college every student was handed a small seed or seedling and we said "here, care for this and see it grow, and at graduation, in addition to your 'other' studies, you must present this little plant, alive and flourishing, to graduate." Imagine how that would change our lives? Imagine how that would change the way we view life? Imagine future generations of young people who actually value life?

And now I wonder - Imagine how that would make us view every drop of water we use on this planet?