Long walk to asylum Series

The photo above of a hungry vulture waiting for Claiming responsible ethical behavior of
a starving little boy to die and eat him was taken photographers, publishers and the viewers of
by South African photojournalist Kevin Carter. such photographs of shocking scenes, cultural
Near the village of Ayod, Carter found a boy writer Susan Sontag wrote in her essay
who had stopped to rest while struggling to ‘Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)’:
reach a United Nations feeding center, "There is shame as well as shock in looking at
the close-up of a real horror. Perhaps the only
whereupon a vulture had landed nearby. The
people with the right to look at images of
photo would later win Carter the Pulitzer Prize.
suffering of this extreme order are those who
Asked later what had happened to the child, he
could do something to alleviate it … or those
replied, "I didn't wait to find out because I had a who could learn from it. The rest of us are
plane to catch." A couple of months later Carter voyeurs, whether or not we mean to be."
took his own life due to depression. His constant
thought of that statement led to deep depression The photo and written scenarios above depict
and a decision to take his own life. He kept how persecuted artists, writers and
thinking - if he had just picked that little boy up investigative journalists arrive at the so-called
and brought him to the United Nations Feeding safe destinations exhausted, withered and
Center, where he was attempting to reach on his barely able to move nor reason well due to their
own. It is not known whether he reached the affected nervous systems as a result of what
center. Four months after being awarded the they have experienced in their countries of
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, Carter origin, and the environments and poor feeding
died of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning they have gone through during their journey
on 27 July 1994 at age 33. fleeing persecution. Sadly, what they find in
the so-called safe countries is more less the
Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape same; additional emotional, and psychological
Town, South Africa, wrote of Carter, "And we distress. They are housed in overcrowded
know a little of being traumatized that drive filthy dungeons during their first weeks of
some to suicide, that, yes, these people were
arrival before they are transferred to abusive
human beings operating under the most
shared facilities infested with bullying,
The “Long walk to asylum series” are a collection of stories about how artists, writers and investigative journalists
have eluded detention, their fleeing, and destination encounters. We then audit and polish the stories to share only
the synopsis on our platform. Similar to the ‘Banged Up Abroad’ a British documentary/docudrama television series,
the tales can be acquired by filmmakers at a favorable cost. Do you have a story to tell? Share it through;
stories@writerandartistdefenders.org