Liam Levitz
MAG Lebanon18
I was going to write and tell the whole story about these shots but I’ve decided that this be a little self-indulgent. Not that this usually bothers me but for once, I’ll give it a rest.
These shots are taken near the town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon. The images are of the men (and one woman) who work daily to defuse the thousands of illegal cluster bombs fired into Lebanon as they withdrew from the country during the 2006 conflict.
They work for the Mines Advisory Group, an international NGO with a remit to make former areas of conflict safe for residents.
The job of these people is to painstakingly locate, mark out, arm and then defuse the cluster bombs and mines that claim so many innocent lives across the world. MAG has its own specialists who travel the world for little monetary reward but also attempt to employ locals wherever possible. In a post war world, jobs have to be found anywhere.
I was privileged and lucky to meet some remarkable people while in Sour. These people included the head of UN Security for the region, a man who has the job of keeping the peace between Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, the Druze, the Syrians and Israel. And you thought the Lib-Con pact would be hard to manage. I met the head of evacuations whose job it would be to leave thousands of innocent women and children behind at the time of attack in favour of key workers and soldiers.
I also met a remarkable lady who was the regional manager for MAG and it was she, after a few drinks or more, who invited me and my camera out to the field to take pictures of her staff. My remit was to take some happy pictures to raise morale. A worker had been killed recently and another, I believe, had lost an arm while defusing a bomb. This did not seem to be a rare occurrence.
So it was that it was my privilege to spend time with her and her staff in an active minefield. I was taken out, after signing a very detailed disclaimer and being given a more than rigorous saftety drill, to stand by the marked and armed bombs. I was talked through where they would send my various parts if they went off while I was standing there and I was allowed to be the one to press the detonator on those tiny little capsules. In return I did my best to get them to smile for the camera and take some nice snaps. For men whose job was to teeter on the brink of death all day long, they were remarkably nervous about the click of my shutter.
It would be unfair to write too much more. All I can say is that some people have called me brave for doing my trip and in some ways I was. However, what I did was genuinely nothing compared to the people working for MAG who have given up a life to save lives. From the globe trotting management to the local staff out there on the field, these people are heroes in every sense. They had been working through the 40 degree heat of summer, right through Ramadan and right through the pain of losing civilians and colleagues alike. Theirs is a remarkable world and a humbling story.
These shots were given to MAG who have used them for an internal calendar and each member of staff was given a copy of their picture. I don’t know if it cheered them at all but I can only hope so.
(www.maginternational.org/news/lebanon-removing-danger-in-...)
MAG Lebanon18
I was going to write and tell the whole story about these shots but I’ve decided that this be a little self-indulgent. Not that this usually bothers me but for once, I’ll give it a rest.
These shots are taken near the town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon. The images are of the men (and one woman) who work daily to defuse the thousands of illegal cluster bombs fired into Lebanon as they withdrew from the country during the 2006 conflict.
They work for the Mines Advisory Group, an international NGO with a remit to make former areas of conflict safe for residents.
The job of these people is to painstakingly locate, mark out, arm and then defuse the cluster bombs and mines that claim so many innocent lives across the world. MAG has its own specialists who travel the world for little monetary reward but also attempt to employ locals wherever possible. In a post war world, jobs have to be found anywhere.
I was privileged and lucky to meet some remarkable people while in Sour. These people included the head of UN Security for the region, a man who has the job of keeping the peace between Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, the Druze, the Syrians and Israel. And you thought the Lib-Con pact would be hard to manage. I met the head of evacuations whose job it would be to leave thousands of innocent women and children behind at the time of attack in favour of key workers and soldiers.
I also met a remarkable lady who was the regional manager for MAG and it was she, after a few drinks or more, who invited me and my camera out to the field to take pictures of her staff. My remit was to take some happy pictures to raise morale. A worker had been killed recently and another, I believe, had lost an arm while defusing a bomb. This did not seem to be a rare occurrence.
So it was that it was my privilege to spend time with her and her staff in an active minefield. I was taken out, after signing a very detailed disclaimer and being given a more than rigorous saftety drill, to stand by the marked and armed bombs. I was talked through where they would send my various parts if they went off while I was standing there and I was allowed to be the one to press the detonator on those tiny little capsules. In return I did my best to get them to smile for the camera and take some nice snaps. For men whose job was to teeter on the brink of death all day long, they were remarkably nervous about the click of my shutter.
It would be unfair to write too much more. All I can say is that some people have called me brave for doing my trip and in some ways I was. However, what I did was genuinely nothing compared to the people working for MAG who have given up a life to save lives. From the globe trotting management to the local staff out there on the field, these people are heroes in every sense. They had been working through the 40 degree heat of summer, right through Ramadan and right through the pain of losing civilians and colleagues alike. Theirs is a remarkable world and a humbling story.
These shots were given to MAG who have used them for an internal calendar and each member of staff was given a copy of their picture. I don’t know if it cheered them at all but I can only hope so.
(www.maginternational.org/news/lebanon-removing-danger-in-...)