Ocher and rose [West LA]: photo by Andrew Murr, 27 May 2016

Mexican War Streets detail | by Summ....

Mexican War Streets detail. the Streets is an historic district in Pittsburgh full of lovely restored homes closer to town and more rustic ones deeper within.: photo by Summ...., 27 September 2017

Trackside Cotton [Hamilton, Ontario]: photo by Tyler Wilson, 27 March 2015

Untitled [Barclay, Baltimore]: photo by Patrick, August 2017

Untitled: photo by Barry Talis, 9 October 2016

Marine Drive; Mumbai | by Md. Imam Hasan

Marine Drive, Mumbai: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 9 September 2017

Untitled | by find myself a city (1001 Afternoons in Chicago)

400 block of East 130th Street [Chicago]: photo by curtis locke, 28 September 2017

Untitled [Baltimore]: photo by Larry Cohen, 23 September 2017

Hairdresser [L'viv, Ukraine]: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 6 May 2017

Death Valley: photo by Missy Prince, 27 September 2017

los angeles, california. | by Tag Christof

los angeles, california. kodak portra.: photo by Tag Christof, 28 September 2017

Fire engine red [south LA]: photo by Andrew Murr, 28 September 2017

Linnton, Portland, Oregon: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, February 2013

Shopping center landscape. More puddles than cars, more empty storefronts than full. [Clarksdale, MS]: photo by Andrew Murr, September 2017

SYRIA - Girls pose against a bullet-riddled wall in the rebel-held village of Kafr Ghan in the northern countryside of Aleppo. Photo @NazeerAlk: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 28 August 2017

Puerto Rico in the dark: Much of the island is still without electricity a week after Hurricane Maria struck: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 27 September 2017

Where the Rohingya once lived: Aerial images of the torched villages in Myanmar's Rakhine state: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 27 September 2017

A boat with Rohingya refugees capsized off the Inani beach in Bangladesh. Many children are among killed. Absolutely heartbreaking: image via Damir Sagolj @damirsagolj, 29 september 2017

Under the cover of darkness hundreds of Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh last night - please keep reading reports on this tragic story.: image via Damir Sagolj @damirsagolj, 27 September 2017

Massive destruction of villages in western #Myanmar seen in these powerful aerial @reuterspictures by @soezeya: image via Antoni Slodkowski @slodek, 27 September 2017

British minister of state @MarkFieldUK met Suu Kyi today. Did he ask her whether her spox represented her views (as hinted in parliament)?: image via Jonah Fisher @JonahFisherBBC, 27 September 2017

Jonah FisherVerified account @JonahFisherBBC

UK minister @MarkFieldUK just on @BBCr4today He highlighted 3 things on Rakhine 1. stop violence 2. humanitarian access…

Jonah Fisher Retweeted Jonah Fisher
Jonah Fisher added,

What @markfielduk didn't mention was the need to find out what has been going on. Suu Kyi says she wants to know but blocking UN mission.
tweet via Jonah Fisher @JonahFisherBBC, 28 September 2017

Jonah FisherVerified account @JonahFisherBBC
replying to @JonahFisherBBC @MarkFieldUK

Also the minister who said "burnt land becomes state managed land" - is from Suu Kyi's party and in charge of implementing Kofi Annan report
tweet via Jonah Fisher @JonahFisherBBC, 28 September 2017

Has the UN failed Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims? The UN leadership in Myanmar tried to stop the Rohingya rights issue being raised with the government, sources in the UN and aid community told the BBC: Jonah Fisher BBC News, Yangon, 28 September 2017

One former UN official said the head of the UN in Myanmar (Burma) tried to prevent human rights advocates from visiting sensitive Rohingya areas.

More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled an offensive by the military, with many now sheltering in camps in Bangladesh.

The UN in Myanmar "strongly disagreed" with the BBC findings.

In the month since Rohingya Muslims began flowing into Bangladesh, the UN has been at the forefront of the response. It has delivered aid and made robust statements condemning the Burmese authorities.

But sources within the UN and the aid community both in Myanmar and outside have told the BBC that, in the four years before the current crisis, the head of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), a Canadian called Renata Lok-Dessallien:

tried to stop human rights activists travelling to Rohingya areas
attempted to shut down public advocacy on the subject
isolated staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing might be on the way.

One aid worker, Caroline Vandenabeele, had seen the warning signs before. She worked in Rwanda in the run-up to the genocide in late 1993 and early 1994 and says when she first arrived in Myanmar she noticed worrying similarities."I was with a group of expats and Burmese business people talking about Rakhine and Rohingya and one of the Burmese people just said 'we should kill them all as if they are just dogs'. For me, this level of dehumanisation of humans is one sign that you have reached a level of acceptance in society that this is normal."

For more than a year I have been corresponding with Ms Vandenabeele, who has served in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Nepal.

Between 2013 and 2015 she had a crucial job in the UNCT in Myanmar. She was head of office for what is known as the resident co-ordinator, the top UN official in the country, currently Ms Dessallien.

The job gave Ms Vandenabeele a front-row seat as the UN grappled with how to respond to rising tensions in Rakhine state.

Back in 2012, clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists left more than 100 dead and more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims in camps around the state capital, Sittwe.

Since then, there have been periodic flare-ups and, in the past year, the emergence of a Rohingya militant group. Attempts to deliver aid to the Rohingya have been complicated by Rakhine Buddhists who resent the supply of aid for the Rohingya, at times blocking it and even attacking aid vehicles.

It presented a complex emergency for the UN and aid agencies, who needed the co-operation of the government and the Buddhist community to get basic aid to the Rohingya.

At the same time they knew that speaking up about the human rights and statelessness of the Rohingya would upset many Buddhists.

So the decision was made to focus on a long-term strategy. The UN and the international community prioritised long-term development in Rakhine in the hope that eventually increased prosperity would lead to reduced tensions between the Rohingya and the Buddhists.

For UN staff it meant that publicly talking about the Rohingya became almost taboo. Many UN press releases about Rakhine avoided using the word completely. The Burmese government does not even use the word Rohingya or recognise them as a distinct group, preferring to call them "Bengalis".

During my years reporting from Myanmar, very few UN staff were willing to speak frankly on the record about the Rohingya. Now an investigation into the internal workings of the UN in Myanmar has revealed that even behind closed doors the Rohingyas' problems were put to one side.

Where have the Rohingya fled to

Multiple sources in Myanmar's aid community have told the BBC that at high-level UN meetings in Myanmar any question of asking the Burmese authorities to respect the Rohingyas' human rights became almost impossible.

Ms Vandenabeele said it soon became clear to everyone that raising the Rohingyas' problems, or warning of ethnic cleansing in senior UN meetings, was simply not acceptable.

"Well you could do it but it had consequences," she said. "And it had negative consequences, like you were no longer invited to meetings and your travel authorisations were not cleared. Other staff were taken off jobs - and being humiliated in meetings. An atmosphere was created that talking about these issues was simply not on."

Repeat offenders, like the head of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination for Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) were deliberately excluded from discussions.

Ms Vandenabeele told me she was often instructed to find out when the UNOCHA representative was out of town so meetings could be held at those times. The head of UNOCHA declined to speak to the BBC but it has been confirmed by several other UN sources inside Myanmar.

Ms Vandenabeele said she was labelled a troublemaker and frozen out of her job for repeatedly warning about the possibility of Rohingya ethnic cleansing. This version of events has not been challenged by the UN.

Attempts to restrict those talking about the Rohingya extended to UN officials visiting Myanmar. Tomas Quintana is now the UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea but for six years, until 2014, held that same role for Myanmar.

Speaking from Argentina, he told me about being met at Yangon airport by Ms Dessallien.

"I received this advice from her - saying you should not go to northern Rakhine state - please don't go there. So I asked why and there was not an answer in any respect, there was just the stance of not trying to bring trouble with the authorities, basically," he said.

"This is just one story, but it demonstrates what was the strategy of the UN Country Team in regards to the issue of the Rohingya."

Mr Quintana still went to northern Rakhine but said Ms Dessallien "disassociated" herself from his mission and he didn't see her again.

One senior UN staffer told me: "We've been pandering to the Rakhine community at the expense of the Rohingya.

"The government knows how to use us and to manipulate us and they keep on doing it - we never learn. And we can never stand up to them because we can't upset the government."

The UN's priorities in Rakhine were examined in a report commissioned by the UN in 2015 entitled "Slippery Slope: Helping Victims or Supporting Systems of Abuse".

Leaked to the BBC, it is damning of the UNCT approach.

"The UNCT strategy with respect to human rights focuses too heavily on the over-simplified hope that development investment itself will reduce tensions, failing to take into account that investing in a discriminatory structure run by discriminatory state actors is more likely to reinforce discrimination than change it."

There have been other documents with similar conclusions. With António Guterres as the new secretary general in New York, a former senior member of the UN was asked to write a memo for his team in April.

Titled "Repositioning the UN" the two-page document was damning in its assessment, calling the UN in Myanmar "glaringly dysfunctional".

In the weeks that followed the memo, the UN confirmed that Ms Dessallien was being "rotated" but stressed it was nothing to do with her performance. Three months on Ms Dessallien is still the UN's top official there after the Burmese government rejected her proposed successor.

"She has a fair view and is not biased," Shwe Mann, a former senior general and close ally of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told me. "Whoever is biased towards the Rohingyas, they won't like her and they will criticise her."

Ms Dessallien declined to give an interview to the BBC to respond to this article.

The UN in Myanmar said its approach was to be "fully inclusive" and ensure the participation of all relevant experts.

"We strongly disagree with the accusations that the resident co-ordinator 'prevented' internal discussions. The resident co-ordinator regularly convenes all UN agencies in Myanmar to discuss how to support peace and security, human rights, development and humanitarian assistance in Rakhine state," a statement from a UN spokesperson in Yangon said.

On Tomas Quintana's visits to Rakhine, the spokesperson said Ms Dessallien had "provided full support" in terms of personnel, logistics and security.

Ten ambassadors, including from Britain and the United States, wrote unsolicited emails to the BBC when they heard we were working on this report, expressing their support for Ms Dessallien.

There are those who see similarities between the UN's much-criticised role in Sri Lanka and what has happened in Myanmar. Charles Petrie wrote a damning report into the UN and Sri Lanka, and also served as the UN's top official in Myanmar (before being expelled in 2007).

He said the UN's response to the Rohingya over the past few years had been confused and that Ms Dessallien hadn't been given the mandate to bring all of the key areas together.

"I think the key lesson for Myanmar from Sri Lanka is the lack of a focal point. A senior level focal point addressing the situation in Myanmar in its totality - the political, the human rights, the humanitarian and the development. It remains diffuse. And that means over the last few years there have been almost competing agendas."

So might a different approach from the UN and the international community have averted the humanitarian disaster we are seeing now? It's hard to see how it might have deterred the Burmese army's massive response following the 25 August Rohingya militant attack.

Ms Vandenabeele said she at least believed an early warning system she proposed might have provided some indications of what was about to unfold.

"It's hard to say which action would have been able to prevent this," she told me. "But what I know for sure is that the way it was done was never going to prevent it. The way it was done was simply ignoring the issue."

Mr Quintana said he wished the international community had pushed harder for some sort of transitional justice system as part of the move to a hybrid democratic government.

One source said the UN now appeared to be preparing itself for an inquiry into its response to Rakhine, and this could be similar to the inquiry that came after the controversial end to Sri Lanka's civil war - and which found it wanting.

An albino Rohingya refugee poses for a picture in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh Photo @Cathal1978: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 27 September 2017

DSC05906 [Chumphon. Thailand]: photo by noppadol maitreechit, 4 September 2017

III [Hollywood Hills]: photo by Andrew Murr, 26 September 2017

X -- abandoned RR line. The crossing marks outlived the tracks.: photo by Andrew Murr, 27 September 2017

Egg of Columbus. I ate it 10 minutes later.: photo by Jacper "Kangel" Aniolek, 27 January 2007

Wrong from the Start (Deviant Egg of Columbus)

The path of least resistance
is a straight line
but once you deviate
even slightly
the path of least
resistance becomes
that of greater
and greater
deviation

Thumbnail for version as of 14:08, 27 January 2007

Egg of Columbus. I ate it 10 minutes later.: photo by Jacper "Kangel" Aniolek, 27 January 2007

'Columbus Breaking the Egg' (Christopher Columbus): William Hogarth, 1752, etching (141 mm x 178 mm) (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Replying to @realDonaldTrump Sorry #Dotard but it was "Once" an honor to visit the WH.. it ended the day u stepped in and it will cont when ur kicked out #Curry #AMJoy: image via Truthtalker @Brotatopics, 23 September 2017

All! Of! THIS! #SteveKerr on #DOTARDDRUMPF TELL IT!: image via #BackYouUpCreep @EmaCornaCopia, 24 September 2017

for people like the guy on the left to take a stand, they need to know the guy on the right has their back #stevekerr: image via Brad Hartman @BradHartman7, 23 September 2017

Must be a reason Trump doesn't want Golden State Warriors in the White House, but I just can't put my finger on it #Curry: image via Jeremy Levy @jewgravy, 23 September 2017

Trump is indulging in his favorite kind of drama - personal, aggressive, culturally volatile and of his own making.: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 25 September 2017

Buffalo Bills players kneel during the national anthem prior to an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017, in Orchard Park, N.Y. : photo by Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP, 24 September 2017

The Burmese military is committing crimes against humanity: Peter Bouckaert, The Washington Post, 27 September 2017

Rohingya refugees line up for aid in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Tuesday.: photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters, 27 September 2017

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh – In Bangladesh’s overflowing and squalid camps for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing the Burmese army’s campaign of ethnic cleansing, I met three remarkable women who told me their stories of horror and survival in the village of Tu Lar To Li.

Rashida, 25, spoke so softly that she was often hard to hear because Burmese soldiers had cut her throat and left her for dead in a burning house. (I refer to Rashida and others mentioned in this article solely by their first names in order to ensure their security.)

She said the soldiers trapped her and fellow villagers at the river’s edge, separated men from women and children, and made the women and children stand in waist-deep water as the soldiers gunned down their husbands, fathers and brothers. The river that runs alongside Rashida’s village — the villagers’ only hope for an escape route from gunfire pouring in on them from security forces — was too deep to cross.

Then, as some soldiers collected and burned the men’s bodies, others began taking away the women and children in small groups.

Four soldiers took Rashida and four other women to a house. Rashida said that at the house, a soldier grabbed her 28-day-old baby, Mohammed Eukhan, from her arms and smashed him on the floor, killing him instantly. Two other women’s young infants were killed in the same way. The soldiers then began slashing at the terrified women with knives and machetes, and cut their throats.

Rashida woke up in a burning, locked house, and the first thing she saw was her dead baby next to her. She managed to crawl through a burning bamboo wall and escaped. She was the only survivor from the group of five women and their children. Satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows the entire village razed by fire.

Human Rights Watch has since 2012 found that the Burmese government has committed crimes against humanity against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State. Since Aug. 25, when an armed group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked about 30 police outposts in northern Rakhine State, Burmese security forces have carried out have carried out mass arson, killing, rape and looting, destroying hundreds of villages and forcing more than 400,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Given the scale and overall context of these latest atrocities, together with evidence of intent on the part of the Burmese military, Human Rights Watch believes that these more recent crimes also constitute crimes against humanity. The fact that the powerful military is behind these acts means that there is almost no chance that the government will bring key perpetrators to justice.

Two days before I spoke with Rashida, I had met Hassina, 20, and her sister-in-law Asma, 18, who had been with the same group during the massacre. They had also witnessed the killing of the men as they were forced to stand in the water and had suffered similar horrors.

Hassina said that while the soldiers were burning the bodies of the men they had killed, one of them noticed that she was trying to hide her year-old daughter, Sohaifa, under her robes. The soldier came over and ripped Sohaifa from Hassina’s arms, and tossed the infant alive on the fire burning the men’s bodies.

Hours later, the soldiers took Hassina, Asma, Hassina’s mother-in-law, Fatima, 35, and three of Fatima’s young children to a nearby house. They tried to rape the women, knifing Fatima to death when she resisted, and then beating Hassina and Asma unconscious. The three children were beaten to death with spades, Hassina and Asma said.

When Hassina and Asma regained consciousness, they found themselves in a burning, locked house. They managed to escape the flames, but with serious burns. Asma showed me the big gash on the back of her head from when she had been beaten unconscious. A doctor had stitched it up.

Such graphic accounts of the horrors unfolding in Burma seem too terrible to be true, but these are what Human Rights Watch researchers are hearing day after day, and they are too consistent and credible to be dismissed as fabrications or exaggerations.

Let there be no doubt: The Burmese army is engaged in horrific atrocities in its ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. When soldiers shoot men in their custody, hack women and children to death, and burn their homes, the world needs to pay attention and act together to stop these crimes.

And although the surging river waters near Tu Lar To Li may wash away the blood and ashes of the people brutally killed and burned by the army, the nations of the world should not ignore these crimes. The U.N. Security Council and concerned governments need to take immediate action by imposing an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on military leaders and pursue all avenues to hold those responsible to account. More specifically, the council should refer the situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court. Victims such as Rashida, Hassina and Asma, who have lost almost everything, at least deserve justice.

Peter Bouckaert is emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

#Bangladesh #RohingyaCrisis "At least 14 dead as Rohingya boat capsizes off Bangladesh" #AFP Photo @freddufour_afp: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 September 2017

Hundreds of Rohingya cross into Bangladesh from Myanmar in the dark of night: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 September 2017

A Rohingya refugee carries his relative as hundreds arrive in Bangladesh under cover of darkness Photo @damirsagolj: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 28 September 2017

Rohingya woman Dildar Begum and her daughter Noor Kalima recover at Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar, after crossing to Bangladesh. Photo @daryasin: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 27 September 2017

Rohingya girl Noor Fatima, plays with her father Muheeb-Ullaha as she recovers at Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Noor was badly wounded four months back when Myanmar soldiers burned her house while she was inside.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 27 September 2017

What happens when #Bangladesh army takes control of #Rohingya refugees: men w bamboo sticks hitting terrified new arrivals at border.: image via Peter Bouckaert @bouckap, 26 September 2017

Grim milestone as #Rohingya arrivals in #Bangladesh reach 500,000, fleeing #Myanmar army ethnic cleansing campaign, crimes against humanity.: image via Peter Bouckaert @bouckap, 28 September 2017

In this Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 photo, Indian villagers prepare to apply sacrificial blood of animals on their foreheads at a temple of Hindu goddess Durga at Rani village on the outskirts in Gauhati, Assam state, India. Participants in the five-day Durga Puja festival believe the sacrifices bring prosperity and good health. But in some parts of India, religious animal sacrifices are banned.: photo by Anupam Nath/AP, 28 September 2017

People affected by Hurricane Maria bathe in water piped from a creek in the mountains, in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Residents of the area drive to the pipes to bathe because they were left without water supplies by the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. The pipe was set up by a neighbor who ran it from a creek in his property to the side of the road in order to help those left without water.: photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP, 28 September 2017

A resident bails water from a flooded home in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in Catano, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. A week since the passing of Maria many are still waiting for help from anyone from the federal or Puerto Rican government. But the scope of the devastation is so broad, and the relief effort so concentrated in San Juan, that many people from outside the capital say they have received little to no help.: photo by Carlos Giusti/AP, 27 September 2017

This aerial photo shows buildings still surrounded by flood water, a week since the passing of Hurricane Maria, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly 100 years and officials say the cost of recovery will dwarf that of the punishing Hurricane Georges in 1998.: photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP, 27 September 2017

Marta Sostre Vazquez reacts as she starts to wade into the San Lorenzo Morovis river with her family, after the bridge was swept away by Hurricane Maria, in Morovis, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. The family was returning to their home after visiting family on the other side.: photo by Gerald Herbert/AP, 27 September 2017

A damaged Puerto Rican national flag spray painted with the words "Together as One" hangs from the facade of a business, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. The relief effort from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico has so far been concentrated largely in San Juan, and many outside the capital say they've received little or no help.: photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP, 27 September 2017

Residents from Juana Matos buy groceries at Catano Mini Market in the middle of a supply shortage caused by the passage of Hurricane Maria, in Catano, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Since the devastating impact of the hurricane, the supply of goods has been interrupted in the US territory, causing endless lines in gas stations and commercial centers.: photo by Carlos Giusti/AP, 27 September 2017

Trump administration denies Puerto Rico's request to waive the Jones Act, which it did for Harvey and Irma.: image via Matt Pearce @mattdpearce, 26 September 2017

People affected by Hurricane Maria collect water in the mountains in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. The relief effort from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico has so far been concentrated largely in San Juan, and many outside the capital say they've received little or no help.: photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP, 27 September 2017

#Brazil View of Rocinha (L) favela, in the background of a building of Sao Conrado neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Photo Mauro Pimentel: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 September 2017

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish youth holds a chicken as part of the Kaparot ritual in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Observant Jews believe the ritual transfers one's sins from the past year into the chicken, and is performed before the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year which starts at sundown Friday.: photo by Oded Balilty/AP, 27 September 2017

35 years ago today, @AP photog Bill Foley took a @PulitzerPrize photo of a Palestinian woman mourning victims of the Sabra refugee massacre.: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 27 September 2017

Palestinian demonstrators clash with Israeli forces following a protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land in Tamun.: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 September 2017

Fans hold up signs before an NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017, in Green Bay, Wis.: photo by Mike Roemer/AP, 28 September 2017

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish youth stands next to his chicken during the Kaparot ritual in Bnei Brak, Israel, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Observant Jews believe the ritual transfers one's sins from the past year into the chicken, and is performed before the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year which starts at sundown Friday.: photo by Oded Balilty/AP, 28 September 2017

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men of the Vizhnitz Hassidic sect listen to their rabbi on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea as they participate in a Tashlich ceremony in Herzeliya, Israel, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Tashlich, which means "to cast away" in Hebrew, is the practice in which Jews go to a large flowing body of water and symbolically "throw away" their sins by throwing a piece of bread, or similar food, into the water before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which starts at sundown Tuesday.: photo by Ariel Schalit/AP, 28 September 2017

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man of the Vizhnitz Hassidic sect prays on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea as he participates in a Tashlich ceremony in Herzeliya, Israel, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Tashlich, which means "to cast away" in Hebrew, is the practice in which Jews go to a large flowing body of water and symbolically "throw away" their sins by throwing a piece of bread, or similar food, into the water before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which starts at sundown Friday.: photo by Ariel Schalit/AP, 29 September 2017

Untitled | by Barry Talis

Untitled: photo by Barry Talis, 27 June 2015

Untitled: photo by Barry Talis, 12 June 2014

Untitled: photo by Barry Talis, sometime in 2015

DSC_5242 hetlake ceremony haircut: photo by ilan Bin yehuda, 13 May 2017

A person pushes a cart through a passageway through City Hall in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017.: photo by Matt Rourke/AP, 27 September 2017

A man kneels as the motorcade of @realDonaldTrump passes him in Indianapolis, Indiana: photo by Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 28 September 2017

A portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump is set on fire by Iranian mourners during the state funeral of Mohsen Hojaji, a young Revolutionary Guard soldier beheaded by the Islamic State group in Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, in Tehran, Iran. The death of 25-year-old Hojaji has struck a nerve in Iran, which has suffered casualties while its troops are deployed into Iraq fighting the Islamic State group and in Syria.: photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP, 27 September 2017

Anti-war activists attach "X" signs on a banner showing a caricature of US President Donald Trump in #Seoul #SouthKorea Photo Jung Yeon-Je: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 27 September 2017

President Donald Trump leaves the Oval Office and walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, in Washington.: photo by Evan Vucci,/AP, 27 September 2017

President Donald Trump up the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, where he is heading to New York. Trump will meet with major GOP donors for a private dinner in New York as part of a fundraising effort for the Republican National Committee.: photo by Susan Walsh/AP, 26 September 2017

Brooke Fiddes, 5, and her brother Carter Fiddes, 9, both from Charlotte, N.C., react from the rotor wash of Marine One as President Donald Trump departs the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, in Washington. Trump is headed to New York.: photo byAlex Brandon/AP, 26 September 2017

#Mayorga villagers commemorate the arrival of Santo Toribio's relics to his birthplace in the #ElVitor procession: image via Getty Images News @GettyImagesNews, 27 September 2017

A Rohingya refugee girl at a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton: image via Cathal McNaughton @Cathal1978, 28 September 2017

An ill Rohingya refugee child in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton: image via Cathal McNaughton @Cathal1978, 28 September 2017

Rohingya refugees arrive at a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton: image via Cathal McNaughton @Cathal1978, 28 September 2017

A Rohingya refugee perspires while waiting to receive aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton: image via Cathal McNaughton @Cathal1978, 27 September 2017

#Indonesia "Rumbling Bali volcano triggers memories of deadly 1963 eruption" #AFP @b4yismoyo: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 27 September 2017

I don’t know Tom Clark but his blog is gut wrenching. Images of tragedy so appalling I find myself relieved when one achieves true beauty and I think, "well, nothing more can be said. It is so eloquent, it balances suffering, chaos, empathy and order so perfectly, it must have ended suffering itself.”

Artist Eric Fischl on Beyond the Pale [to Geoffrey Young], 21 September 2017

#Norway #Auroraborealis Northern lights over Unstad's bay in the arctic circle. By AFP photographer Olivier Morin @afpolm: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 27 September 2017

TOM CLARK

Friday, 29 September 2017

abandonment and despondency of the wandering stateless (peccata mundi theatre)

Has the UN failed Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims? The UN leadership in Myanmar tried to stop the Rohingya rights issue being raised with the government, sources in the UN and aid community told the BBC: Jonah Fisher BBC News, Yangon, 28 September 2017

Where have the Rohingya fled to