Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Modern photographers like Sebastião Salgado, Jimmy Nelson and Steve McCurry have built their reputations by recording the disappearing world, producing lush coffee table books which simultaneously bring closer while distancing us from the seemingly exotic.

 

 

Before photography, it fell to artists to serve this function, and even though centuries have passed, their work brings us into a different relationship with the subjects depicted, which is more about feeling than observation per se.

 

 

They also carry now a sense of being a museum within a museum, as much about the culture of the artist as the subject, both equally remote and exotic.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Perhaps future generations will look at contemporary photographs in the same way!

 

 

Humanity is and has been for several generations, an endangered species.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Sebastião Salgado

 

Salgado works on long term, self-assigned projects many of which have been published as books: The Other Americas, Sahel, Workers, Migrations and Genesis.

 

Salgado invites us to imagine our planet in a former state of grace.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He aims to capture the few places that have remained unspoiled by human beings, or scenarios in which indigenous people live in harmony with their environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Genesis was conceived as a "call to arms" for conservation and sustainability, and a way of advocating humanity’s rediscovery of itself as part of nature.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But there's a problem at the heart of Salgado's Genesis: the main sponsor is a Brazilian mining company called Vale. One of the largest producers of raw materials on the planet, they were identified in 2012 as the company with the "most contempt for the environment and human rights in the world".

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

A case-study released by Friends of the Earth International reveals Vale's lobbying activities, exerting pressure on politicians in order to influence and undermine climate change policies (their own carbon emissions went up by a third between 2008 and 2010).

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Their business clearly relies upon the exploitation, rather than the preservation of the environment - hardly an ideal source of funding.

 

The exploitation of the rain forest is in turn exploited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Serra Pelada

 

Ironically, Salgado's most famous pictures are of a gold mine in Brazil called Serra Pelada.

 

Gold mining in the rain forest is supported by the Brazilian government even though it threatens the extinction of the tribes. This is because the Brazilian government carries an international debt running to billions of dollars and is desperate for the foreign currency only exports can yield.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Serra Pelada (English: "Bald Mountain") was a large gold mine in Brazil 430 kilometres (270 mi) south of the mouth of the Amazon River.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The mine was made famous by the images taken by Sebastião Salgado showing an anthill of workers moving vast amounts of ore by hand.

 

 

 

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Because of the chaotic nature of the operation estimating the number of miners was difficult, but at least 100,000 people were thought to be present, making it one of the largest mines in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Because of the use of mercury in the gold extraction process large areas around the mine are considered dangerously contaminated. People eating fish downstream from the mine have elevated mercury levels.

 

Today the Serra Pelada mine is abandoned and the giant open pit that was created by hand has filled with water, creating a small polluted lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But elsewhere, conflicts continue between the Amazon tribes and the gold miners, which have led some tribes to the brink of extinction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Next:Yanomami

 

“You can’t uproot us and put is in another land; we don’t exist away from the forest”

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

I've been a chief executive in the charitable sector since 1995. Part of my role has been to fundraise and I estimate that I've raised close to £2,000,000 spread over those years.

 

I've also co-founded a front line charity, acted as a consultant for a non-government organisation in West Bengal, volunteered in a war zone on behalf of the charity Warchild, and currently serve as a non-paid Director on the boards of two other local charities.

 

One of these is an infrastructure agency which exists to nurture, train and develop front line charities and community groups. Our remit embraces approximately 80 charities and 1500 groups.

 

Many of the hundreds of funding bids I've made have been to charitable trusts and foundations of varying sizes. The largest of these manage vast funds.

 

The entire charitable sector here in the UK is overseen by the Charity Commission.

 

Every charity is expected to have a board and to publish an annual report and published accounts.

 

Large or small, there is an onus of responsibility to remain true to the charity's objects, and to handle funds with care. It is considered good practice to maximise the percentage of funding that goes to benefit the general public, including groups of special interest and minorities, the vulnerable, the excluded and abused, etc, etc.

 

Consequently it is also good practice to minimise staffing costs and overheads.

 

It is considered malfeasance to misappropriate a charity's funds, and/or misrepresent it's mission, values, public benefit or charitable objects.

 

With reference to Arc, the charity I co-founded, we turn every £1 received from the statutory sector into the equivalent of £11 worth of delivery. That is twice as much as any other charity in our area.

 

So you could say, I know a little bit about the subject.

 

 

Next:

 

 

Sting in the tail

[Flex Mentallo]

"A charity built on promises that has failed to deliver."

World in Action

 

 

Including his years with The Police, Sting has sold over 100 million records worldwide. In the UK, he has been awarded seven Platinum album certifications, three Gold and a Silver, and in the US, nine Platinum and three Gold certifications. In 2006, Paste magazine ranked him 62nd on their list of the "100 Best Living Songwriters". He was also ranked 63rd on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Rock" and 80th on Q magazine's "100 Greatest Musical Stars of 20th Century".

 

"With his wife Trudie Styler and Raoni Metuktire, a Kayapó Indian leader in Brazil, Sting founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund to help save the rainforests and protect the rights of the indigenous peoples living there. A species of Colombian tree frog, Dendropsophus stingi, was named after him in recognition of his "commitment and efforts to save the rain forest".

Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

Those of you who have followed this thread from the beginning will recall that in our youth, Gordon and I attended the same school. We were in the same class for five years.

 

We were not friends.

 

Sting

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

In 1990 Sting made a television commercial broadcast free of charge as it was for a charitable foundation. It was broadcast all around the world. Sting recorded it in seven languages, it was slick, it was fast, and it went like this:

 

“The faster the forest burns, the quicker the planet warms up....the greenhouse effect... earthquakes... hurricanes... droughts... famines...

I am worried... What are we leaving for our children?

If you want to protect the rainforest for the indians and for your children and grandchildren, you can help create vast Amazon National Parks (like in the USA or Africa) by making a donation to The Rainforest Foundation before it’s too late. It’s up to us...Now..”

 

Then a local address for The Rainforest Foundation would flash on the screen where you could send your cash donation.