July 18, 2007

And you think your bed is uncomfortable? This five-part video series from Balls Deep explores the sewers of Bogotá and the street "kids" who reside within them in order to evade death squads and social cleansing. Via [Flash, risqué clothing ad between clips, vbs.tv main site possibly NSFW due to snippets of nudity, YMMV, so on...]

I've been holding out for my post #100 because I didn't really want to post something crap - - no pun intended. I found this series to be an excellent look into a world that would otherwise go unnoticed.

posted by sugarmilktea 17 years ago
  • Luxury!
  • I'm currently wrestling with whether or not to install Adobe Flash so I can watch this movie. It looks really interesting, but, I don't know, installing Adobe flash ...
  • This is too much. Today is not a good day. This world appears to be pretty screwed up.
  • And at the same time, it *can* be a pretty amazing place. I didn't really look at this from the negative perspective I suppose one is apt to lean towards. I was quite amazed to see how well these people had adapted (the best they could anyways) to living in such conditions. I mean, I have never before envisioned a pregnant woman living in the bowels of a city. And yet, there she is... surviving, living, and seeming to get along. *gives GramMa a hug* Nick, I was not disappointed (I had to install flash myself. For me, it was totally worth it for another series vbs.tv had up (but now, sadly, appears to be gone), Heavy Metal in Baghdad [google cache]
  • Dammit. I can NOT get it to work.
  • You could try Gnash. It may not work with everything, but you don't have to install anything from adobe. ;)
  • Hmm, the Gnu website is a tad difficult to navigate. Here's a more appropriate download link.
  • I got video but no sound.
  • Thanks for the hugs, SMT. The human spirit is amazing, but no one should have to live in fear for their life if they rest in the wrong place.
  • These stories always bring to mind the wisdom of Warren Buffet: There are roughly 6 Billion people in the world. Imagine the worlds biggest lottery where every one of those 6 Billion people was required to draw a ticket. Printed on each ticket were the circumstances in which they would be required to live for the rest of their lives. Printed on each ticket were the following items: - Sex - Race - Place of Birth (Country, State, City, etc.) - Type of Government - Parents names, income levels & occupations - IQ (a normal distribution, with a 66% chance of your IQ being 100 & a standard deviation of 20) - Weight, height, eye color, hair color, etc. - Personality traits, temperment, wit, sense of humor - Health risks If you are reading this right now, I'm guessing the ticket you drew when you were born wasn't too bad. The probability of you drawing a ticket that has the favorable circumstances you are in right now is incredibly small (say, 1 in 6 billion). The probability of you being born as your prefereable sex, in the United States, with an average IQ, good health and supportive parents is miniscule. Now imagine that you were selected as the one person (out of 6 Billion) to create the systems of the world. This includes the type of government, social programs, tax systems, military systems, job markets, laws, regulations, etc. The only catch was this: You had to come up with systems that you believed were fair and that you wanted to live with, before you were allowed to look at your ticket. What type of system would you create if you didn't know what ticket you had drawn? Would you take a different position on some of the programs you are for or against if you were surrounded by a different set of circumstances?
  • John Rawls's social contract proposal in A Theory of Justice is quite close to Buffet's lottery. More on wikipedia.
  • I love vicemag in all its pretentious hipster glory. Vice Records: Great acts like Justice Vice TV: Great shows like Heavy Metal In Baghdad Vice Fashion: And of course...