Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Revo Blog. Part 16a

Previous posts in this series:

The time has come - how I came to the decision to blog the Revo
The Revo Blog. Part 1 - background to Grenada
The Revo Blog. Part 2 - background to me
The Revo Blog. Part 3 - Feb-March 1982 (1 of 2)
The Revo Blog. Part 3a - why 'Revo'?
The Revo Blog. Part 4 - Feb-March 1982 (continued)
The Revo Blog. Part 5 - April 1982 - June 1983. London
The Revo Blog. Part 6 - June-Sept 1983. Sickness and signs
The Revo Blog. Part 7 - relationships
The Revo Blog. Part 7a - Faye's film
The Revo Blog. Part 8 - Sept - Oct 1983. Rumours
The Revo Blog. Part 9 - Oct 1983. The Last Days of the Revo
The Revo Blog. Part 10 - 19th October 1983. Coup
The Revo Blog. Part 11 - 20th October 1983. Curfew. Day 1
The Revo Blog. Part 12 - early morning 21st October 1983. Breaking curfew
The Revo Blog. Part 13 - curfew continues
The Revo Blog. Part 14 - 24th October 1983. 'Back to normal' day
The Revo Blog. Part 15 - 25th October 1983. Invasion - the first 2 hours
The Revo Blog. Part 15a - Faye's journey continues
The Revo Blog. Part 16 - 25th October 1983. War - the next 4 hours

Photos

If you've been following these posts from the beginning, you'll be aware that I took photos during the invasion and the period immediately after. These photos were widely exhibited during the 1980s, but have sat gathering dust in a portfolio since then.

With each post that I have published in this series, I have spent a substantial amount of time hunting out appropriate images to use. Once I arrived at the point where I was recording the events depicted in my own photos, it made sense to scan the images and include them here.

But I had serious reservations. In the first post, I mentioned that I had been contacted some time ago by an ex US marine who wondered if I had any photos other than this one - the only one available online at that time.

I'm also very aware that there is an abundance of forums etc where ex and current soldiers swap memories and anecdotes of the 'good old days'.I was very concerned that any photos I published on my blog could be copied elsewhere for people to share with the prime purpose of identifying fellow combatants, taking the events they depict out of context. Once an image is published online, it's impossible to prevent this happening.

After long and careful thought (and the advice of many online supporters and friends who have kept me going and whose support has been invaluable) I came up with the answer. As is so often the case, once I worked out the solution it was glaringly obvious. I will only use photos with content that will not enable non-Grenadians to identify themselves and each other. Although this means I won't publish some of the best images, this seems a small price to pay.

On an unrelated personal note, I want to apologise for the delay in producing the next post in the series. This is due to a combination of other work needing to take priority and a septic thumb, resulting in all typing being done with one hand.

I'm sorry if you're waiting for the next episode and promise to get round to it ASAP.

3 comments:

Sue Guiney said...

A septic thumb? Ouch! Sounds terrible. Hope that gets better soon. And I think your decision about the photos is spot on.

Jannie Funster said...

Maybe you could just put a black bar across heir eyes?

This is FASCINATING STUFF!! I want to red more tonight.

Jannie Funster said...

"their" eyes,

the Grenadians I mean.