Notes from Day Two: 2105. Day two. Whoah. These buggers love their chilly. Just got smashed over dinner. Note to self. Bring a fire extinguisher whenever you go out for dinner here. That said, the food was magnificent. Love the mango syrup type bar they do. So today we started to step the pace up again, though there was no shooting involved. We checked out three different locations but I didnt get overly excited. Plenty to shoot visually, though not on the topic I am here to cover. The challenge here is honing on those areas that will give me what I am after visually. Ive covered so many of these types of operations around the world now that I have a high threshold that I aim for. The trick with that though is that you dont put blinkers on and miss things. Everything here is quite spread out so it could take four or five days to do a proper reconnaisance of the area. We covered only three sites today, though we got underground a couple of times which was good. At the moment I feel that Im missing that scale Im chasing. So tomorrow morning, well crank out a two and a half hour drive to another location to see what that might have to offer. These road trips are quite taxing on the body because of the swerving and the potholes. The swerving being to miss not only the potholes but the copious amount of livestock on the roads: goats, cattle and buffalo. The topic I have come to cover is difficult to get the head around. Id done quite a lot of preparation before coming here but I still feel that I have a lot to take in before I can do justice to my subject matter. Theres ancient indigenous peoples - still largely living traditional lifestyles (although it is disappearing quickly) - theres massive environmental carnage (this is the biggest coal region in India), theres the human toil side of the equation and then there are large organised crime groups and then freedom fighters all mixed in together. The last 24 hour Ive come to appreciate the insurgency issue a little further. The issue is real, and my concerns prior to leaving Australia appear to have been well-founded. Today, for example, I couldnt get out of the vehicle at times on the premise that it risked drawing attention to me and my contingent. Keep the head down being the key. Last night the insurgents (or guerillas for want of a better term) were active in the area putting up posters and the like. The workings of the insurgency appears complex. In essence, they appear to have risen up to fight for the rights of the poor farmers and the displaced tribal peoples. Theyre often referred to as Maoists. However, there are different insurgent groups and they seem to fight one another for supremacy as much as they do for the cause. They run parallel governments - not properly or legitimately elected as is the national governments for example - have their own laws (often arbitrary and not necessarily written down) and even their own court systems. Government MPs and public officers are often targets as they wage their ongoing war for the underprivileged. And they dont necessarily stop at how you going. Plenty of bombs and railway bridges and railway lines and roads have been going up in smoke in recent times. And plenty of MPs and public officials have come up more than worse for wear after running into strategically placed bombs. Those that inform against the insurgents are people that often come before the insurgents court systems. I was told today, that they start with an informants fingers, such that each time they inform against an insurgent group they take a finger. So ten times and you wont be playing the piano any more. Then they move onto the feet - they chop their feet off - and then the coup de gras is to shorten someone by six inches (ie, take their heads off). The activities of the insurgents are funded through various means. They charge levies on wealthy farmers. They cant say no, because the insurgent court system cuts in. And if those that get extorted inform the police or others about having to pay, the same system cuts in and fingers start disappearing quicker than a bunch of catholic priests at a gay wedding. People like myself become strategic plays potentially also and there have been a number of kidnappings of foreigners around here in recent years. They can be used as leverage to get Government to release members of their group that might currently be being held in prison. So far, since leaving the airport Ive not seen one white person. And that was three days ago. So how I ended up in all of this mess is that the subject I have come to photograph is a highly sensitive topic in this area: and India more broadly. All mineral rights are invested in the Government for what are five major minerals. Coal is one of the five major minerals. With the rapid expansion of the coal mines in recent years in this country a huge amount of previously arable land and forests have been destroyed. Water tables have been obliterated and polluted and many farmers cant irrigate their crops any longer because the water is gone or has become toxic. So large masses of some of the poorest people in the world have been displaced. All Government cares about is feeding Indias insatiable appetite for power generation. Coal companies care only about mining coal and so efficiency and material movements are all that matter. People are brought in from outside areas creating even further displacement among the local peoples immediately affected. Many of the indigenous peoples have moved into coal mining themselves - either legally or illegally but generally the latter: they see it as their moral right to harvest something from the lands that are being destroyed. Over many years, the Mafia have carved a major place in the whole coal production cycle. And then theres the insurgents. Everyone has an interest in coal here. Absolutely everyone. And it makes what we see in Australia around whether there should or shouldnt be a carbon tax absolutely laughable. This is the epi-centre of the whole shebang. And Im talking globally. Right here where I am standing. And also China. We visited a place late in the day that has good potential for some photographs, though Im still not convinced that it is the best on offer. I want to see as many places as I can before I take out the camera and start building my story. It is here that I would like to spend a couple of nights to see what photos I might pull, but my minders are baulking at the safety risk a bit. So it is my job to see how much of that safety risk is in fact manageable and also to know when to take a step back. Its not safe in the night they tell me and this place is right out in the boondocks...... See what gives.....
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 05:38:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015