Grandmother Begging to Bury Grandchild (1995)

This image illustrates the apathy that has driven a people to show disdain for death. So much death that it  has become routine and it can drive people to ignore it even when presented in front of your eyes.

This young grandmother approached me as I walked to the bakery one morning, sometime in early 1995. She was collecting money to bury her born-dead grandchild who she had just picked up from the hospital a block away. She has bought a small white casket but lacks the money to pay for the small plot to bury him. It is a scene that under any other culture, or society, would have people, neighbours, passersby, totally shocked. But not in my native country, where dead is an everyday occurrence. 

So much so that the two women in the background can carry-on discussing the small town gossip after seeing this harrowing, very sad scene, as if nothing had happened...