salt images - photo agency » economy

Dying Professions

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 15:14:38 +0000

A lone church and immaculately cared for cemetery stand among bovine skeletons, and a crumbling hotel structure. Tornados toss tumbleweed the dry expansive plane in the state of Ceara’s backcountry. Cocosi was once a thriving town, an anchor in an expanse of cow country, filled with cowboys, and their rich landowners. The town, which now resembles a wild western film was owned by the powerful Feitosa family, until a family feud left the houses and few businesses deserted. It now stands as a symbol of the degradation of Brazil’s Northeast which is going into it’s 5th year of severe drought, as Brazil as a whole faces near economic depression.

A combination of harsh weather conditions, advancement of technology and government subsidy has helped contribute to the extinction of some of the very unique and artisanal professions of this region of the country, professions that were born out of necessity and a mixture of cultures including Africans brought as slaves, Natives as well as various migrants, mainly European.

Nadia Shira Cohen & Paulo Siqueira set out to find those that are still hanging on to these professions or perhaps have been able to transform themselves in order to stay alive and continue to carry on the culture of Northeast. The project focuses on 10 professions from midwifes to artisanal salt miners, iron workers and bush cowboys, the story explores the history of the professions and their relationship with the building of the Northeast of Brazil as well as their contribution to it’s cultural richness.

Publication: Lilia Li-Mi-Yan in Aftenposten Innsikts

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 16:42:02 +0000

View feature

Egypt’s empty resort

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 13:40:07 +0000

Hurghada It is a main tourist center and third largest city in Egypt located on the Red Sea coast.
The city was founded in the early 20th century. Until a few years ago it was a small fishing village but since the 1980s has been continually enlarged by Egyptian and foreign investors to become the leading coastal resort on the Red Sea.

Hurghada is known for its watersports activities, nightlife and warm weather. Numerous Europeans spend their Christmas and New Year holidays in the city, mainly Germans and Russians but only a few of them know how the city looks like. People usually stay behind the hotel’s walls and rarely go out since they buy package tour and there is nothing to see but the sea. Hurghada used to be a very attractive place to buy property since it ridiculously cheap here majority of buyers were Russian.

Nowadays Hurghada looks forsaken. The number of Russian tourists dropped dramatically because of devaluation of the Russian currency. Today the streets are empty and the whole city its an endless construction most of the project sites seem to be abandoned forever in anticipation of the new dwellers.

My Big Tajik Wedding

admin — Thu, 28 May 2015 13:35:03 +0000

Every year nearly one million of Tajiks leave their homes and come to Russia looking for a decent work. The reality is tough — most of them end up with the lowest paid jobs due to language and cultural barrier, which allows the hiring side to go way below the statutory pay minimum. Not only that — In spite of the fact that Tajikistan was the first country to provide Russia right after the USSR’s collapse with highly needed then labour migrants, today surveys show that close to 70% of Russians admit they hate migrants.

Every day an average of three tajiks become victims of racist attacks, police brutality, dangerous working conditions and unsafe housing. Nevertheless they still come to Russia, coping with all hardship for the chance to earn four times more than they would have at home. Surprisingly enough, it’s not always family’s day-to-day living they save for. For thousands it’s a wedding ceremony.

In Tajikistan, live swirls around weddings. In the country, where 47.2% live below the poverty threshold, and 80% of the employable population work abroad as labour migrants, the amount of money spent on weddings per year equals the country’s budget of $2 billion. People save money for weddings for years, put it all in a ceremony of a lifetime leaving the new family’s provider with the need to hit the road again, now to earn the living. Yet despite all odds Tajiks all over the country still throw fabulous celebrations.

Dazzling colours of joyful ceremonies are quite a contrast to the behind-the-scenes reality.
The wedding industry is probably the only one with stable income, and it’s the country’s major industry encompassing entertainers, singers, musicians, restaurants, cameramen, photographers, sellers of wedding dresses and many more.

In 2013 Tajik authorities have issued a law that limits the number of weddings’ guests, wedding budget and even the hours a reception in the restaurant can last. But nothing can change the fact that for Tajiks the wedding celebration has literally become the most important day of their life and weddings last at least 3 days anyway.
Brides change up to 20 dresses that have to shine and sparkle, and a 200$ per meter fabric straight from Emirates is a preferred choice. For Tajiks a wedding is something that you have to do properly, by the tradition. A show that you put up for the neighbourhood and beyond, that makes you look good, like you can afford it. You can hardly tell the difference between a rich family wedding or a very poor one. They will do their best to fit in. Even if the whole family will end up with debts that only several years of work can cover. Even with the legal limits, Tajiks say, to pay for a wedding a total of four people from both sides have to work for at least a year abroad to save the money.

With a wedding being just a ceremony that celebrates marriage, marriage itself raises many more issues. The majority of marriages are still arranged. Men usually leave the country from the age of 16. Then they go back once the parents has chosen a wife, marry her, make kids and leave again. They either work abroad for an average of 10 years and then go back home with the savings, or sometimes just leave forever. Tajikistan has been branded as the country of the missing men.