Something to ponder.

[JamesDH]

I work for a large drilling contractor and presently I'm working out of Luanda, Angola, Africa.
I work there for 4 weeks and return home for 4 weeks.
On my way out of the country I am taken by helicopter to the airport where I'm picked up in a small bus and taken to a compound to wait until my flight leaves at around 11pm.
Up until a few years ago Angola was caught up in a horrible civil war. This has left Angola in a state of deep, deep poverty.
When I travel from the airport to the compound I am exposed to this poverty and being a photographer (amateur) I see so many things that I would like to capture.

Last time over I took my camera and was going to take some pictures. Just as I pulled my camera out of the bag the bus driver shouted "NO PICTURES". I immediately put my camera back in the bag. He went on to explain that the police will confiscate my camera and fine me $500 if caught taking pictures.

People you can not believe the living conditions over there. Dwellings made out of scrap wood, tin and anything they can find. Not one here and there but thousands and thousands of them. No electricity, no running water and no sewers. The roads are like rivers of trash, debris and filth everywhere.
Houses with no windows and no paint on them. Not houses like we know. Houses made from mud bricks with tin on top, no door but cloth hung instead. Very few paved streets (this is the capitol of Angola). Massive traffic jams as there are no signals or even lanes on the road. The downtown area used to be a tourist mecca and now is reduced to buildings with no windows, little in the way of sidewalks and massive holes in the walls from the shelling and gunfire. The smell of human waste is overwhelming.

I am on a mission to capture some images next time I go but don't have much in the way of covert cameras. I do have a Canon S500 but it's loud and takes too long to respond to the shutter button. Maybe a disposable film camera might be the way to go.
I tried to take some from the helicopter but the combination of dark, overcast day, extreme vibration of a helicopter and slow shutter speed made them into gray masses of blur.

We forget just how good we have it here. The freedoms. The good life.
When I get off that plane I want to kiss the ground and scream "I'm so proud to be an American"

Thanks for letting me vent

[Hogleg 44]

Thank You, for remindingus of How Good it is here! It is easy to take it for granted....!

[Duffy Pratt]

Cell phones may be getting good enough to capture what you want. Or are you not allowed to "talk" on the phone there either.