Bas Princen‘s striking photo of Mokattam Ridge, a slum on the outskirts of Cairo, is not a doctored warning against urban pollution. Since the ’50s, the economy of “Garbage City” has revolved around collecting and recycling Cairo’s garbage. The Zabbaleen (Arabic for garbage collectors), a community of Coptic Christians who traditionally disposed of the waste, did so by feeding it to their pigs. Post-swine flu epidemic, that isn’t possible thanks to the state-wide slaughter of over 300,000 pigs.
Learn more in a recent documentary called Garbage Dreams. Peep additional images after the jump.
Photo by Alexander Heilner
Photo by Alexander Heilner
Photo by Alexander Heilner
Photo by Alexander Heilner
[via we make money not art]
Comments (2)
Caroline,
I watched Garbage Dreams and it is unreal how this situation is jeopardizing the garbage collectors’ livelihood. As if they didn’t have enough with the garbage corporations, now they kill their pigs! It is really infuriating!
GARBAGE DREAMS DVDs ARE BEING SHIPPED OUT NOW!
Check out the full length, theatrical version on the Home DVD, plus EXTRAS like:
Deleted scenes
Updates on the Zaballeen boys
A short film about how The Recycling School works!
http://www.garbagedreams.com/store/dvd.html
A portion of the proceeds go to The Recycling School. Definitely worth checking out.
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