What’s Wrong with This Picture?

What’s Wrong with This Picture?

Young Boys Tanzania

Just a picture of a cute kid standing in a corn field in rural Tanzania. Right? Look closer. See his distended belly? The child is malnourished while surrounded by plenty. Poultry, goats, and pigs are being raised in the immediate area, as well as guinea pigs that many families grow for protein. Vegetable gardens, like the corn patch in the picture, are common. So what’s the problem? Parasites are my guess. Clean drinking water and general hygiene are missing. Although there is plenty of food, intestinal parasites cause malnutrition and general poor health.

Young Boys Tanzania

The little boy in the photo above now sits with his young friend on the side of a dirt track. This child is even worse off as evidenced by his hair loss. In fact, he seems to be too weak to play with his friend.

I don’t have answers. This is an extremely impoverished area of rural Tanzania, but clean drinking water is not magic and should be available to everyone.  Although, on the other hand, local culture and politics seem to complicate everything.

Click here for my previous post on this subject

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.

___ J.K. Rowling

Ron Mayhew

Fine Art Photographer specializing in Still Life and Commercial Photography.

This Post Has 16 Comments

    1. Thank you, Don and thanks for stopping by.

  1. I was pondering the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, and how so many gatherings will have too much food — and how wrong it seems that there are others who are starving… or sleeping in tents/ or under plastic…. thank you for calling our attention to this…

    1. So true. As a nation, we throw away more food than many poorer countries consume. The inequality is astounding and is getting worse. Thanks for your comment, Lisa and I trust all is well with you.

      1. Strange; it’s still not working here.. If I right click to open in new page, it gives me a ‘copy’ prompt and other times a ‘back/reload’ option.. I am using Chrome but will try it on Opera…

  2. This is a beautiful and achingly poignant reminder of why the world needs to shed its selfish greedy shell and try to help those that desperately need to be able to help themselves. thank you for the uncomfortable moment.

  3. Thank you for a thought-provoking post.

  4. this is so sad,,and all over our african countries

    1. So true. The problem is simple to fix in theory but very complicated in reality.

  5. Evocative images. The solution is so simple yet we make it so complicated.

    1. So true. Bureaucracies always get in the way, it seems. Thanks, Trudie.

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