PORTRAITS (8 images)

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Portraits. Faces. People.
  • 2 may 2009 - La Gloria, Mexico - Guadalupe Serrano Gaspar, environmental activist, fights to regulate the Carroll pig farms. He has lived in La Gloria all his life, says officials have never paid this much attention to the town and that for years they ignored residents' complaints that contaminants from nearby Carroll hog farms were making them sick. Located in the states of Veracruz and Puebla, near Mexico City, Granjas Carroll is an industrial pig farms that produces close to 1 million animals a year. It is 50% owned by US company Smithfield Foods, the worlds largest producer and processor of pork products. In La Gloria, near where the farms are located, residents have been complaining about manure dumps, flies and smell from the farms for a long time. Since February, they have warned the authorities that the wastes of these pig breeding farms caused an outbreak of respiratory infections and pneumonia in 60% of their 3000 inhabitants. Mexican media has called the Carrol pig farms "ground zero" for infection. It recently was confirmed that an influenza case in the city, reported two weeks before the cases in Mexico City, was in fact the new strain of H1N1, combining genetic material from avian, swine and human influenza. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that so far there is no established evidence that this strain of the influenza A virus has entered the human population directly from pigs, but it urges national governments and the international community to step up disease surveillance in swine. FAO together with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), will send a team of experts to Mexico this week to help the government assess the epidemiologic situation in the pig production sector. A spokesperson from Smithfields Foods said there is no clinical signs of influenza being reported in pigs or employees in the farm. Photo credit: Benedicte Desrus / Sipa Press, environmental activist, who has lived in La Gloria all his life, says officials



  • Mexico

  • French writer


  • Chef in Alaska

  • 1 November 2007 - New Orleans, United States - The McDonogh 35 Roneagles Marching Band perform at an important football game in New Orleans. McDonogh No. 35 Senior High School was the first high school for African-American pupils in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to 1917, during the era of segregated school systems in the Southern US, no public high school existed in New Orleans for African-American pupils. Those interested in pursuing an education beyond the eighth grade had to attend one of the city's three private secondary schools for blacks. It was in that year of 1917 that a group of spirited citizens met to petition the Orleans Parish School System to convert McDonogh 13 Boys' School from a white elementary school to a secondary educational facility for black pupils. The petition was granted and in the fall of 1917, McDonogh 35 became recognized as a four-year high school...MacDonogh No. 35 is also known for its marching band, a long cultural tradition in music rich New Orleans. The High school marching band plays at football games but also for cultural events, parades, and fierce yearly competitions between high schools. ..Like many high schools MacDonogh was destroyed by the hurricane Katrina and its students dispersed all around the country. New Orleans' high-stepping school bands fell silent. But the school was one of the first to re-open in 2006, and the band working with donated instruments started practise soon after. For many of the children playing music has been critical to their ability to return to normal life. Photo credit: Benedicte Desrus

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