A truly HORRIFIC tsunami picture

I guess ths is the type of images that were unsuitable for publication.
I've read papers and websites, and the ~130,000 death toll seemed
difficult to comprehend, but I guess it's true that one image is worth
a thousand words, or more. Now I can imagine the massive death toll.


[WARNING : VERY, VERY DISTURBING!]

http://img145.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img145&image=ruumiita4ft.jpg
[WARNING : VERY, VERY DISTURBING!]

 

I guess ths is the type of images that were unsuitable for publication.

Is it just me, or do others have issues with photos like this one, posted on
a site that asks you to "rate this image?" Yes, I understand that,
regardless of subject, one can analyze a photo on its technical and artistic
merits, but just because you *can* do that doesn't mean you *should.*

I don't fault the original poster, who did warn that it was a very
disturbing thing to view. But the context (the site where it was posted)
just seems way-wrong to me. Way way wrong. Expecially so close on the heels
of the tragedy. Ah, the wonders of the age of the Internet. No time to
ponder responsibility, just post it quick before somebody else does. No
ethics involved, because ethics are to be decided by the viewer, and to not
post would imply censorship.

But again, I'm not taking to task the OP for posting it here. After all, I
apparently found it interesting enough to want to follow the link and see
what it was all about, so there's some relevance to the newsgroup. But to
display the photo on a page with advertising, and with this caption
underneath the photo-

"Rate this image! 3697 people have rated this image, and the average rating
is 3.88."...

Makes you wonder what people were rating it for, and what it would have
taken to get a higher rating.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

 

Hi. I didn't post it on that site. I saw the link on some news forum
and it shocked me, so i shared it here. In fact, it shocked me enough
that i didn't notice the rating thing you mention.

 

I'll tell you what is offensive, Mr. Mike Jacoubowsky.
YOU...were more upset that there were ratings offered by default on this
particular web-site, than you apparently were to the horrific image of
death.

Don't start THIS AGAIN!!

Most people...UNLIKE YOU...were too busy being floored by the enormity of
the tragedy to notice something as petty as you have, least of all to stop
and whine about something so totally unrelated.

UNBELIEVABLE that one cannot post an image without
someone...somewhere...taking offense.

I am so sick of this politically-correct BS that I could just spit.

 

EXACTLY!!!!!!
He was so busy looking for ways to get offended, that he completely ignored
the horror of that image, and instead focussed his supposed "sensitivities"
on total irrelevant BS.
I'm so sick of his kind of "sensitivity" that he now resides in my
kill-file.
Thank you for posting this image.
People need to understand the enormity of this tragedy, and if even it is
posted on the cover of PLAYBOY...I would appreciate it, simply because
people need to be confronted with REALity these days, rather than the
candy-coated versions so many of these quasi-sensitive phonies insist upon.

Thank you again for this link.

 

There are zillions of images like this that are never used by the media.
All disasters produce some pretty horrific images, but only the most
inoffensive among them are usually published. This one apparently was
taken by Darren Whiteside for Reuters in Banda Aceh on December 29
(according to the file information).

For those who'd like to know what the image contains before viewing it,
it's a portrait-oriented color photo of the beach, with innumerable
human cadavers crowded together amongst debris from buildings, floating
in the water. Most are somewhat bloated and blackened by advancing
decomposition (remember, this is 4 days after the tsunami) and floating
face-down in the water. Presumably they mainly drowned or died of
internal injuries after being stuck by debris, as very few of them show
any signs of gross injury externally.

I'm sure this type of image won't make it to most media outlets, but I
think it's very important that photojournalists take such pictures for
information and reference.

From a technical standpoint, the photo is unremarkable; clearly, it's
just intended as documentation.

 

It was probably posted there just to give it wider exposure, since it
probably won't ever be published by the media.

Exactly. I'm totally opposed to censorship. If you don't want to see
the photo, don't look. But withholding information just to avoid
offending your delicate sensibilities is not acceptable. If you must
censor content, do it at the entrance to your PC, not at the exit of
someone else's PC.

 

Why did it shock you? The media have been talking for days about
135,000 people dead, and mass graves and cremations. Does it surprise
you that thousands of bodies would be floating near the beach?

Perhaps these photos should be more widely distributed, as it sounds
like people don't reflect very much on the texts they read. A photo is
harder to ignore, I think.

 

I agree. This sort of image makes the magnitude of the disaster much
easier to grasp.

 

Thanks for posting the image/link.

Sitting here in my safe air-conditioned room listening to reports on my TV,
I thought "OH how terrible". This image has just brought the magnitude of
the disaster to me..

I have been going to donate when things open up after the new year. I have
just doubled that donation.

Thanks for bring the reality to cosy room. The media do shelter us from the
reality of this sort of thing..

 

Well why don't people get 'floored by the enormity of the tragedy' in Iraq ?

Tens of thousands of innocent women and children killed by
occupying forces, but no-one gives a toss, cos photos of their
dead bodies aren't being shown in the media.

JK.

 

Because a lot of information about Iraq is being withheld from them,
including the horrific pictures.

Right.

 

Good point, asking for a aesthetic rating on something so awful
is pretty tasteless.

JK.

 

?

We were floored. Also floored that nobody else cared to take Sadddam out,
even though he murdered **countless** thousands.
-Which is one of MANY reasons we are now there.
Oh.....
You mean you didn't notice the DELIBERATE tragedy under Saddam, but we
should now object to tragedies which come in spite of attempts to avoid,
right?
Interesting.

Yes they are.
Tens of thousands (assuming that's accurate) is very very sad, and actively
avoided by "occupying forces" with a few exceptions. Still, that is a
comparatively tiny number compared with the horror Saddam unleashed there
during his many years in power. I find it interesting that you're not upset
by hundreds of thousands of deaths under Saddam.
Try to keep a bit of perspective.

 

Hi all, I also think the photo was disturbing indeed but needed to be seen,
by adult people at least.
We all try to imagine the vastness of the distruction there but I think
noone without preceding experiences in disasters can truly come near the
real situation. So a photo does help.
As for the point made in the last message, here are my two cents.
As a long-term human rights activist I've come across discussions like these
many times. Every part has its reasons and fierce patrioctical feelings or
equally felt pacifist ideas can flame the discussion. I have long ago, in my
conscience, settled on a practical way to take part on such arguments. I've
taken the Human Rights Declarations as a non-trespassable line against which
to check every action. If it agrees with HRD, it's ok, if it doesn't agree,
it is questionable (not absolutely wrong, look, but surely questionable...)
So I wouldn't see killing thousands of people *better* than killing tens of
thousands, or object to the latter more in perspective than object to the
former... Every single life and every single person counts and has to be
preserved, no matter the effort it may take on our part. That's my thought,
anyway. Now we should all do what we can to help those unfortunate people,
and not forget all the others in so many countries (not counting our own
neighborood...) whose tragedies we do not know from the media.
Best wishes to all.
Sergio La Marca
Italy

 

This was Banda Aceh?

Wow, Banda Aceh was badly hit, as it was so close to the epicenter.

I just saw a video from Banda Aceh on the 26th! Very heart-wrenching.
The violence of the water in the video if you look closely at it is
staggering. There's what I think is a child crying and a woman calming
him. I think he lost his parents; I don't know indonesian but he said
what sounded like "mama, papa" while watching the water :-(

(links all same video - just different mirror)
http://steelerdirtfreak.com/videos/KATC.wmv
http://gloubinet.free.fr/tsunami/03.katc.wmv
http://www.kba-solutions.ru/ThaiVideo/KATC.wmv

And here's a PDF of satellite images of the before and after the
tusnami in Banda Aceh
http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/tsunami/Banda_Aceh_Tsunami_Damage.pdf

And here's an image of the grand mosque that appears in the satellite
photos
http://tinypic.com/159dlk

directly.

 

That's what the info on the JPEG says.

 

A very historic, and horrific, post of reality Mike. Thank you for making
it available. The amount of censorship in the U.S. media theses days, too
often shelters us from the reality of the times we live in. I immediately
showed this to my wife, and son. I also sent it to everyone on my mailing
list (with the appropriate warning). This leaves it up to their discretion,
as to viewing it, or not...just like you did.

I'm quite certain that those of us who viewed the 9/11 tragedy, as well as
Iraq, though the eyes of the media, have no concept of the reality there
either.

Bill Crocker

 

You know ... I saw the first news report on the TV and it claimed the death
toll may be as high as 1,000. Each day it has gone up by tens of thousands
and yet any video that is shown only shows some resort area where video
cameras were running as people watch the waves in awe.

Yes, you see a few people floating by and wonder if they made it, hoping
that they did, however until I saw this photo I can only imagine the "real"
devastation that occured to kill this huge amount of people. I don't have a
strong stomach for photos like this and will not need to look a second time
but it did touch me in many more ways than I thought it would but I do
partially understand the tradgedy a lot more now that I have seen such
graphic proof.

Bless those souls!

 

I have to wonder if the rating thing isn't something added to all
pics? I'm not familiar with ImageShack, so I don't know.