Lihee Avidan
this is alt textSapphira Madagascar - Mine, Ilakaka Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world - yet has vast mineral wealth. This mine is outside the town of Ilakaka, South West Madagascar. Teams of laborers look for sapphires to be exported all over the world.this is alt textthis is alt textthis is alt textThe Palestinian village of Barta'a is bisected by the Green Line, but sits 5 km on the Israeli side of the Barrier. The milkshake kiosk on the left is Palestinian, and its owners have green ID's, which prevent them from moving into Israel proper. They can however move inside the village, allowing them to buy eggs from the Israeli Arab store on the right.this is alt textSapphira Madagascar - Madagascan mining Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, with over half of the population living below the World's Bank's poverty line of one dollar a day. The country is also estimated to have one of the largest gem stone deposits on the planet. The sapphire trade links the very poor Malagasy labourers to some of the richest people in the world... Stones bought to flaunt wealth come from a country without infrastructure - roads, healthcare, and education.this is alt textthis is alt textthis is alt textThe Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City marks the beginning of Palestinian East Jerusalem. The child in the road sits on the old Jordanian front line, to his right, 100 metres of no-man's land, before Jewish West Jerusalem.this is alt textSapphira Madagascar - Girl digging for sapphires Antsioroa mine, near Tulear is days driving from the nearest telephone, school or hospital. Hope and need drives prospectors to ever more isolated deposits. Shantytowns spring up on the banks of rivers, as whole communities migrate. For these people, living outside official society, the sapphire trade offers the possibility that their children might escape the poverty they were born into.