Nine dead in Cage Home Fire

Nine people died early this morning in a fire in the Mong Kok area of Hong Kong. Old buildings divided up in so called cage homes have been a fire trap for years.

17 years ago I made this picture of Mrs Yeung living in her cage home in the same area as where the fire was today. The government has been promising for years to look into the problem but nothing much has changed. Ultra high property prices push the old and poor into cage homes like this.

Window Cleaning Bangkok Style

Not enough excitement in your life? Become a window cleaner in Bangkok. Abseiling with a sponge.

© Kees Metselaar 2011

Beauty of Syria

The news from Syria is bloody and disconcerting. The country is slowly inching towards civil war says the BBC. I went there years ago and remember mostly the diversity and beauty of the place. Here a boy in Damascus with a poster of the former dictator Assad, father of the present one and above the remains of the ancient city of Palmyra.

© Kees Metselaar 1989

Bayram Hotel Down

Very sad news. The Bayram Hotel in the thriving city of Van in East Turkey has collapsed after a very strong new earthquake last night. It is unclear at this moment how many people were staying in the hotel.
I stayed there a few months ago before the first earthquake which apparently weakened the building. On the photos a very proud Resat Bayram showing the history of the hotel in photographs, the original building opened in 1969 and the hotel in its latest modernised incarnation when I stayed there last July.

© Kees Metselaar 2011