With all the media bombardment we get in this country, it’s amazing how many significant issues/events there are that are happening and affecting us RIGHT NOW as human beings worldwide that we NEVER hear of.

Fortunately, the internet can connect people who’ve never met (and maybe never will)…

Today I received an email from David Bacon who appears to be a photographer and journalist. David enlightened me with the following message and attached photos (one of which is shown above) with descriptive captions:

NARIÑ0, COLOMBIA – Afro-Colombian families displaced by the expansion of oil palm plantations, and by Colombia’s paramilitary and military groups who protect the projects, have created squatter communities next to mangrove swamps at the edge of Tumaco, a coastal city in Nariño department. Afro-Colombian communities fear the passage of a free trade agreement with the U.S. will lead to more displacement by similar foreign-owned development projects.

In Nariño department, Afro-Colombian families are trying to implement the 1991 Constitution and Law 70, which guarantees them the land on which they have historically lived. Many communities are trying to recover land taken by large landowners to create oil palm plantations.

Photo caption: A bus driver pilots his ancient vehicle through a recovered palm plantation.

This is the type of investigative photojournalism I aspire to do one day when the 40+ hours a week I spend climbing the corporate ladder is no longer part of my agenda.

Not knowing David at all, I can still see and deeply admire the passion and commitment he’s made to give a voice to ethnic communities worldwide. See more of his work at http://dbacon.igc.org.