The people who live on the road.
Gypsy Camp 28th July 1951. Gypsy children play happily in overcrowded encampment at Corke's Meadow, Kent. Photo by Bert Hardy.
Fun with old photos for a new month...Sepia Saturday collections start with three guys in a pup-tent. They don't really look at all happy.
Sharing with Sepia Saturday
Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have.
In February and March of 1991, President Bush encouraged the Iraqi Kurds to rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
In March 1991, following a failed uprising against Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War, over 1 million Iraqi Kurds fled to the borders of Turkey and Iran to escape brutal retaliation.
Roughly 500,000 refugees became stranded in the mountains on the Turkish border, suffering from exposure, hunger, and disease.
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Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have.
PEMA CHÖDRÖN
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From Peter Turnley on FB:
The last time the US encouraged the Kurds to overthrow a government.
All photos here by Peter Turnley
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By Helena Nelson Reid
By Helena Nelson Reid
The Kurdish people have been used as pawns and badly treated for a long time. Being split between several countries post WW1instead of the promised establishment of Kurdistan said it all.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much of their history. It does sound sad the Kurdish people have been pushed around by geopolitics.
DeleteI really like to avoid the G word if we can. And the Kurds have been pushed around and used for centuries, never allowed to gain their own freedom, always hoping for better.
ReplyDeleteWell, since no gods or goddesses were mentioned, (as a g-word) I have to assume you mean Gypsy. I have no trouble with it...must not have ever heard that there is anything disparaging about the word. I've great respect for the people however, including thinking of my own wandering episodes as living like one.
DeleteIt's a pejorative term, from an origin I won't go into. We used to know them when I was a child. They prefer traveler or Romany. Just fyi.
Delete...there have always been people on the fringes of society, facing economic hardship and little seems to have changed.
ReplyDeleteI think those who live mobile lifestyles (used to be called the nomads I believe) sometimes are quite happy and healthy with their shelters...as opposed to those forced to flee their homes by wars. Or maybe those forced to fight wars and live in tents. But then there are the rest of us who choose to spend time out of doors and live in portable ways just to "get away from it all."
DeleteIt is sad to see anyone treated badly and facing such hardships.
ReplyDeleteI found many photos of residents of Gaza with horrible conditions. Quite a few other refugee camps are not photographed. Perhaps because there isn't any audience for suffering people. Sad.
DeleteNice post! The little camper reminds me of the one my ex and his current wife have. He always wanted one. She is far more indulgent than I ever was.🤭. Oddly, I don't think it has been mushed used.
ReplyDeleteI think the Kurds, along with Palestine, are among the few people who do not have their own country..
Google is being weird again.....suzi/smartcat......not anonymous!
Thanks suzi, I appreciate your comment which was made about the same time I left mine on your blog. There are way too many people who’ve been misplaced these days - through no choice of their own!
DeleteAh, the dream of living on the road! Remember Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows when he took off in his caravan? Oh, how entranced he was with the idea! What a wonderful book that is.
ReplyDeleteI have little memory of the Wind in the willows. Will have to find a copy again!
DeleteThose are some moving photos. They fit the book I just finished The Light Pirate - a book in the future when global warming has finally upended living in Florida and everywhere else too. Have you read it?
ReplyDeleteNo I haven't read it. Thanks for the recommendation.
DeleteI've put it on hold...about 24 weeks wait for Libby!
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