Grieving for the people of Bam - by Yusuf
I woke up on Saturday morning, picked up the papers and almost cried when I read the headlines -
5000 people Dead in Bam. 20,000 injured
On that Friday morning after Christmas, a massive earthquake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, destroyed both the 2000 year old ancient abandoned City of Bam in S.E. Iran, as well as its 150 year old replacement city. As I write this, the death toll has risen to more than 20,000, and the injured and the maimed now exceed 40,000. It was a tragic day for the people of Bam, and I grieve deeply for them. Although I knew Bam only briefly, I have several images of Bam that I want to share with you, to show you what this calamity has destroyed, besides the human suffering, and to urge you to send a small donation to the survivors in Bam.
My pictures were shot on film with my spare EOS1X, and scanned, because I had dropped and ruined my Nikon Coolpix 990 on just the third day of my 20,000km Old Silk Road expedition. I tell you, if you are dependent on Digital like me, going back to film is quite unsettling. I felt “normal” again only after I managed to get a replacement Coolpix 995 two weeks later in Pakistan.
Bam and its surrounding villages was home to about 80,000 people, so with 60,000 dead or injured, it means three quarters of the population of Bam have directly suffered. Among the remaining one quarter, many will be wishing that they too should have died. Everyone lost someone they were close to - a son, a daughter, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, or a friend . In many cases, entire families were wiped out…. Full Article.