 Art or exploitation? That's the question for this picture. It seems that some money ($91,000) was paid for this portrait (not sure who holds the copyright for the photo, but if you click it you will goto the site I got it from) and was supposed to help CHILDREN in Cambodia. The doctor who administers the fund turned the money down 'out of respect for our patients and their mothers' because of the cultural differences in the country and the west.
I don't know about you, but letting someone potentially die (healthcare isn't that good in Cambodia or the good Swedish doctor wouldn't be needing money to run a clinic) because of 'respect' isn't my idea of a good thing. Morals are what keep us sailing the straight and narrow or whatever floats your boat, but personal morals shouldn't get in the way of healing kids. There are people who I admire that would argue with me on that point and to them I'd like to say, show me. Show me the child that has to die to assuage your morals. Show me the family that gets told no because you feel that a painting of a woman (who knew she was being painted and got PAID to do it) is not acceptable to raise money for them.
When you can show me, and still feel good about your morals, I will acknowledge you as being better than I am. Until then, heal the damn kids.
A DOCTOR running hospitals in Cambodia has refused a donation raised from the sale of a nude photo of France's first lady. Swiss paediatrician Beat Richner, head of a children's medical care group, said he had turned down an offer of $US91,000 ($97,700) raised at a New York auction last week of the 1993 picture of Italian ex-model Carla Bruni, now married to President Nicolas Sarkozy. "My decision was taken out of respect for our patients and their mothers," he said in an interview with Le Matin Dimanche. "Accepting money obtained from exploitation of the female body would be perceived as an insult." In Cambodia "use of nudity is not understood in the way it is in the West". He did not wish his institution, the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital Association, "to be involved in the media exploitation of Madame Bruni".
couriermail.com.au
Labels: Cambodia, children, health, morals, nudity |
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