Wedding Traditions & Rites from silentriver on Vimeo.

I found the camera to be an excellent travel companion for capturing those moments. The fact that the camera is small and inconspicuous meant that you could take shots without really attracting much attention. The only limiting feature is the speed of the sensor as with many of the current compacts. I had to really keep it wide open most of the time which meant slight loss of detail is some of my shots. Saying that, for general street or reportage photography it makes an excellent second camera. Leica M9, here I come.

This was triggered by Micro Debt, a documentary by the award-winning Danish filmmaker Tom Heinemann first aired on Norwegian television in November 2010. Heinemann looks at the dark side of the micro-credit industry in Bangladesh, India and Mexico. He found that far from liberating the poor, these small loans trapped them even more in poverty and made them vulnerable to harassment from loan collectors and their peers.

The documentary raised the issue of “questionable” loan transfers by Yunus, something he, his bank and the Norwegians deny. The film is more than about one man being pulled down from the pedestal: Heinemann questions whether micro loans are fit for purpose as the “poor always have to pay”.

Tom Heinemann’s page

Over the past decade, however, the national laws and Aliens Consolidation Act have been changed repeatedly and this has led to international criticism and allegations that the Danish Government is constantly about to break international conventions.

The Danish people are torn between national interests and international human rights.

Nobody knows exactly how many refugees are living underground in Denmark but in fact there are Danish citizens who choose to break the law in order to help them. A Matter of Decency

Here’s an interesting film with Daniel Milnor on reportage photography.

The Vatican has approved an iPhone app which guides beleivers through confession for a measley £1.99. The app takes users through the sacrament, allowing them to confess their sins, and keep track of their wrongdoings. Source BBC News