Taste of Heaven (Salgado #2)
11,000 people.
That is almost the size of my entire hometown.
4,400 children.
That is five and half times the size of my high school.
These figures are the numbers of the Vietnamese who lived in
the Whitehead detention camp. Their families immigrated to Hong Kong to escape
the Vietnam War. These children spent a majority or the entirety of their lives
inside this refugee camp. They were completely robbed of their childhoods, their innocence, their joy.
The Salgado photo I chose depicts the horrors of the lives
of the children of Whitehead. Barbed wire can be seen on the buildings. Six
little faces peek through the bars of their living space--a 4x6 foot cubicle. Caged. One girl is
pressed up against the bars—leaving indents in her legs. Crowded. Another
girl’s face expresses the emotions of all the refugees. Pure horror.
Desperation. As she cries, the viewers of the photograph cry too.
Her screams echo through the pages of the book. I can hear
them from here.
Though no longer in existence, Whitehead detention camp hold the dark memories of the Vietnamese people. Author Eleanor Stewart described it as "hell on earth for innocent refugees who sought freedom and landed in the wrong place." We may not be able to go back in time and rescue these children from their hell. We may not be able to save other refugees from their current situations. Instead, we can only provide them our love, prayers, and generosity--hopefully giving them a little taste of heaven.
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"Hongkong Refugee Camp 1975-2000." Refugee Camps. Refugee Camps Info, Web. 25 Sept. 2013. <http://www.refugeecamps.net/HKStory.html>.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. 1994. Photograph. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. 68-69. Print.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations. 1994. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. 5. Print
Salgado, Sebastio. The Whitehead, Hong Kong. 1995. Right Now. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. <http://www.rightnow.io/breaking-news/the-whitehead-hong-kong_bn_1331835111199.html>.
The fact that we, as mere college students, might not be able to offer much help to the refugees is inevitable. We are not likely to have the resources, the time, or the knowledge to make a great impact. These observations seem bleak and dreary until you proposed the fact that there is something we can do. We can pray for them. We can take time out of our lives to ask our Heavenly Father to bless someone other than ourselves and our immediate families. Thank you for helping me realize that there is something I can do!
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