Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • This fake gun is a sign of authority held by a security guard at a gold mining operation in the Ituri Forest.
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  • Pople walk by modest homes that line the unpaved road in a small gold mining town in northeastern Congo.
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  • Mbuti boys endure whippings during a puberty ritual ending the manhood ceremony.<br />
Women carry whips to meet the men halfway through the village, and a melee ensures where they beat each other. Women try to control the destiny the child but the men traditionally win, and each boy is paraded through the village for the scarification ritual.
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  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River where the landscape is destroyed by crowds digging for precious metal.
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  • Some of the 70 couples in the Rose Wedding Festival, a mass marriage.
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  • A mass wedding at the Great Wall of China.
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  • Some of the 70 couples in the Rose Wedding Festival, a mass marriage.
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  • Some of the 70 couples in the Rose Wedding Festival, a mass marriage.
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  • A mass wedding at the Great Wall of China.
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  • People on a pedestrian escalator and walkway.
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  • People on a pedestrian escalator and walkway.
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  • People near the statue of Deng Xiao Ping in Shenzhen park.
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  • A crowd of photographers shooting.
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  • People at an upscale shopping mall.
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  • People at an upscale shopping mall.
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  • Pilgrims and local people bathe in the sacred Ganges River.
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  • People bathing in the sacred Ganges River in Varanasi.
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  • Tourists walk through the ruins of Monte Alban, a Zapotec capital in the Valley of Oaxaca. Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years by a succession of peoples – Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs – the terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and artificial mounds of Monte Albán were literally carved out of the mountain and are the symbols of a sacred topography. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with unique architecture.
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  • The Dharavi slum area of Mumbai.
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  • Bathing in a sidewalk trough on the streets of Kolkata.
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  • People ice-fishing on the Ural River in front of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant.
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  • People run on the Great Lawn under the canopy framework of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
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  • Costumed revelers march on the Pan American highway in San Pedro Totolapán, Mexico, on Day of the Dead. They stop traffic to solicit handouts from drivers; if no pesos appear, the driver is generally treated to verbal abuse.
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  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River. The ruined landscape causes environmental damage that is not repaired.
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  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River outside of Prestea, Ghana, Africa.
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  • People scavenging Guayaquil's trash dump to find food, clothing and treasures to take home.
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  • Indian Muslims at the call to prayer on the roof of a Kolkata mosque.
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  • The Kara tribe prepares for a coming of age bull jumping ceremony.
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  • The Kara tribe prepares for a coming of age bull jumping ceremony.
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  • Men and women of the Kara tribe gather for an evening dance.
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  • Men and women of the Kara tribe dance at a bull jumping initiation.
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  • Men and women of the Kara tribe dance at a bull jumping initiation.
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  • The Kara tribe come racing over the hill from their village when they hear engine noise to greet one of the few boats on the Omo.
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  • Ruler of Alain arrives at the suq area of the camel beauty contest.
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  • An Ecuadorian family grieves at the grave site of a man who was tragically electrocuted when fixing an antenna on the roof of his home to better watch a world soccer match.
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  • People living in Kakuma Refugee Camp.
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  • People living in Kakuma Refugee Camp.
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  • People living in Kakuma Refugee Camp.
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  • People living in Kakuma Refugee Camp.
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  • People living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp near Lake Turkana.
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  • Kids play in a tributary of the Omo River as their mothers do laundry.
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  • Easter Procession in the town of Orosei on the island of Sardinia.
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  • A Ratha Yatra religious festival in temple town of Puri.
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  • Workers shovel and dig in an illegal gold mine on the riverbanks of the Pra River. The landscape is devastated in the process of obtaining the precious metal.
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  • Streets crowded with rickshaws in the pilgrimage city of Varanasi.
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  • A Ratha Yatra religious festival in temple town of Puri.
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  • Mexican schoolchildren walk in pairs holding hands through the ruins of Teotihuacan. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is the most visited site in Mexico. <br />
Teotihuacan is known for having the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas.
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  • During October Festival of Bullfighting for the Lord of the Miracles, hundreds of spectators gather to critique the finesse of both red-caped matadors and bovine competitors. Plaza de Acho is Peru's oldest bull ring is located in a Lima suburb under the towering Cerro San Cristóbal mountain.
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  • A bird's-eye view of summertime sunbathers dotting Central Park's Sheep's Meadow. More than thirty-five million visitors to Manhattan come to the park annually.
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  • Men gather in the shade of a tent to socialize at a camel competition.
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  • Men gather in the shade of a tent to socialize at a camel competition.
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  • Men gather in the shade of a tent to socialize at a camel competition.
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  • The Camel festival outside of Harappa.
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  • Skyline of Bund area in Shanghai.
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  • Children in a parade commemorating the opening of Parliament in 1920.
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  • Swordfish is haplessly thrown into a corner of a market in the town of Zhapo China. These fish are often used for celebratory meals in Hong Kong.
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  • The family that supplied the bulls for the Nyicheriesee ceremony have the stomach contents of the bulls smeared onto them as a sign of respect.
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  • The ritual killing, roasting and sharing of a bull that will feed dozens of the Daasanach tribe.
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  • The family that supplied the bulls for the Nyicheriesee ceremony have the stomach contents of the bulls smeared onto them as a sign of respect.
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  • Fevered by hopes of striking it rich, illegal miners claw sacks of “money stone” –gold ore- from the Pra River in Ghana. Their toll feeds the world’s hunger for gold, and leaves a ruined landscape in its wake.
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  • Over 5,000 meals of bluefin tuna are prepared at the Bonita Fesitiva in Spain.
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  • Trainers gather at the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame the night before a wild horse competition, Extreme Mustang Makeover. All dressed in white hats and shirts, they met for opening ceremonies and instructions for the next day.
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  • Burning trash on the bank of the Buriganga River.
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  • Children of market workers at a Quito day care center burst into laughter with joyous faces as they watch a magician, a clown, and ethnic dancers.
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  • Waving whips, clubs, and traditional stools, Daasanach men dance their way into a crowd of potential wives at a pairing off ceremony in Ileret.
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  • The police and politicians have gathered Gabra and Daasanach representatives to try to solve the problem of water rights.
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  • The police and politicians have gathered Gabra and Daasanach representatives to try to solve the problem of water rights.
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  • Waving whips, clubs, and traditional stools, Daasanach men dance their way into a crowd of potential wives at a pairing off ceremony in Ileret.
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  • Parade of children carry lanterns in an Easter passion play.
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  • Ski lessons in town of Maloja near St. Moritz.
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  • Kids play in a fountain in Washington Park in the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati.
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  • Summer rain does not dampen spirits of loyal Cincinnati Reds baseball fans.
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  • Xujiahui shopping area of Shanghai.
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  • Children play on the shore of Manila Bay which is polluted by household waste, plastics, and other trash.
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  • Hindus worship a golden deity during the nine day Tirupati Temple Festival. The diety is taken out on colourful processions around the city with hundreds of people following it. People perform Sevas, meaning they offer flowers, fruits, and food to the diety in order to make their lord happy and seek blessings.
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  • Hindus worship a golden deity during the nine day Tirupati Temple Festival. The diety is taken out on colourful processions around the city with hundreds of people following it. People perform Sevas, meaning they offer flowers, fruits, and food to the diety in order to make their lord happy and seek blessings.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223044.JPG
  • Wearing her fortune, from gold threads in her sari to a priceless heirloom headpiece, she waits to marry. The arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owning families involves a dowry of gold. Indians have more gold than USA reserve system.
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  • Hindus worship a golden deity during the nine day Tirupati Temple Festival. The diety is taken out on colourful processions around the city with hundreds of people following it. People perform Sevas, meaning they offer flowers, fruits, and food to the diety in order to make their lord happy and seek blessings.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223043.JPG
  • A Ghanian chief protected by guards with gold handled swords at a festival. He is surrounded by the people of his community.
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  • Wearing her fortune, from gold threads in her sari to a priceless heirloom headpiece, she waits to marry. The arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owning families involves a dowry of gold. Indians have more gold than USA reserve system.
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  • A scarf and safety best are worn by an Islamic woman truck driver at a copper and gold mine. She drives a truck that has 240 tons of rock that will yield about nine ounces of gold.
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  • The first Camel Beauty contest was in March of 2007 and this area was just a dusty piece of desert on the edge of the empty quarter.  About an hour outside of Abu Dhabi the Al Dhafra Festival put on by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage is under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
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  • Women from the rural countryside learn to be maids for the newly wealthy class. They learn to cook and iron at the Fuping Vocational Skills Training School. Li responds to flying grease in one of the cooking classes.<br />
<br />
Since opening up its economy in 1978 and moving toward a market economy, China has lifted about 400 million people out of poverty, according to the World Bank. But this has led to wide income inequalities that the Communist Party is trying to address through its notion of a “harmonious society” that has a more even distribution of the benefits of recent decades of speedy economic growth. Migrant workers in China are mostly people from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories. Men often get construction jobs while women work in cheap-labor factories. So many migrants leave their homes looking for work they overburden the rail system. In the Hunan province, 52 people were trampled to death in the late 1990s when 10,000 migrants were herded onto a freight train. To stem the flow of migrants, officials in Hunan and Sichuan have placed restrictions on the use of trains and buses by rural people. In some cities, the migrants almost outnumber the residents. One young girl told National Geographic, “All the young people leave our village. I’m not going back. Many can’t even afford a bus ticket and hitchhike to Beijing.” Overall, the Chinese government has tacitly supported migration as means of transforming China from a rural-based economy to an urban-based one.
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  • This mass wedding took place at the Great Wall outside Beijing. After reading many surveys about how money was more important than love, I watched and photographed this woman all day. She never smiled.  Marriage can be a great social and financial leap forward.
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  • Brides numbered 32 through 43 line up in their queue at the Rose Wedding Festival. Seventy couples in this mass marriage ceremony started at a shopping mall, then traveled to Century Park for the ceremony. The marriage-age consumer is a prime target for first-world companies. The middle class’s under-30-consumer market alone will be the size of the entire EU market in the next decade.
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  • Women from the rural countryside learn skills at the Fuping Vocational Skills Training School to be maids for the newly wealthy comfort class. Since opening up its economy in 1978 and moving toward a market economy, China has lifted about 400 million people out of poverty, but this has led to wide income inequalities. The Communist Party is trying to address this through its notion of a “harmonious society” that has a more even distribution of the benefits of recent decades of speedy economic growth. Migrant workers in China are mostly people from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. According to Chinese government statistics, the current number of migrant workers in China is estimated at 120 million (approximately 9% of the population). China is now experiencing the largest mass migration of people from the countryside to the city in history. An estimated 230 million Chinese (2010), roughly equivalent to two-thirds the population of the U.S., have left the countryside and migrated to the cities in recent years. About 13 million more join them every year—an expected 250 million by 2012, and 300 to perhaps 400 million by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories. Overall, the Chinese government has tacitly supported migration as means of transforming China from a rural-based economy to an urban-based one.
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  • There is a reason Guangzhou was the first city in China to reach first world status (2008). Everyone in Guangzhou, aside from the migrant population, is making an average of $830 a month. Money has approximately four times more buying power in China than the U.S., so that $830 equals $3320 a month in our economy. That is the same buying power of average citizens in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
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  • This is a meeting of the “farmer” capitalist millionaires in Huaxi Village (Farmers Village), a model farm for the last 45 years. Even though they are the collective ideal of the capitalist model, they still dress in Mao-ish style outfits and make decisions for the 80 businesses in a socialist forum.<br />
<br />
These “model farmers” were capitalists before it was allowed in China. They started factories, but worked in them secretly (no windows). When government officials came around, all the workers ran out into the fields and pretended to be peasants. They became the first and most successful capitalist exploitation of the collective. Huaxi Village eventually went bankrupt.
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  • Dried shark fins sold at the Guangzhou Fish Market.<br />
Shark fins are used to make shark fin soup, a delicacy once prepared exclusively for the Chinese emperors and nobility. The cartilage from the fin is carefully dried and prepared, and used as an ingredient in a soup flavored with seafood or chicken broth and herbs.<br />
<br />
The demand for shark-fin soup has rocketed. It is still associated with privilege and social rank - a bowl of soup can cost up to US$100 - but the explosive growth in the Chinese economy means that hundreds of millions of people can now afford this luxury. Many consider it de rigueur at important events such as weddings, birthdays, business banquets and during Chinese New Year celebrations.
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  • Live reef fish in a tank at a Chinese seafood restaurant. Indonesian reefs are dynamited and cyanide is used to kill entire reefs of fish so a Chinese customer can point to a fish in an aquarium and say “I’d like that one for dinner.” <br />
<br />
Although believed to be the freshest available, fish are transported on a long journey in antibiotic soup to reach the restaurant. Black tip grouper, not threatened, swim in tanks in a Guangzhou restaurant near waiters and diners.
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  • This scene is a mix of young folks, mistresses, and male and female prostitutes. Bars are a little crazier in the south of China where there is new wealth.  Young people demand nice places to eat and drink. By 2015, the number of Chinese adults under 30 is expected to swell 61%, to 500 million, equivalent to the entire population of the European Union.
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  • Rapa Nui dancers perform on stage for a group of tourists. Dressed in native costumes, the music and dance group entertains engaging the audience to join them on stage.
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  • The Armani Club is in the Liu lin Road area attract a scene of young people.
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  • A Zapotec Indian woman in traditional clothing serves food to wedding guests while others dance into the night. Weekends are full of wedding celebrations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico, the narrow and flat part of the country where the Zapotec culture is still strong. <br />
Women are noticeably open and confident, taking a leading role in business and government. <br />
The Isthmus never became part of the Aztec Empire and resistance to the Spanish was strong in the mid-1500s.  This party was complete with traditional food and dancing. After the church wedding, the couple walked through the streets of town following musicians. They collect family and carry food to where the street is blocked off for the party.
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  • Overview of Kampala Uganda.
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  • School children explore a worn pyramid on an archeological site. The Huaca Rajada, of Sipán, Peru, is a Moche Pyramid near Chiclayo, Peru in the Lambayeque Valley, famous for the tomb of the Lord of Sipán, Peru excavated in 1987. The ruins of Sipán are dated from 50–700 AD, during the Moche culture.
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  • Workers at the Senevisa shrimp processing factory wear uniforms and hairnets.<br />
<br />
The plant in Dakar processes 4.5 tons of shrimp a day brought in from artisanal fishermen. The local market consumes only three percent of the production of this plant.
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  • Boatloads of Senegalese fishermen return from setting nets all night.The nation’s fleet of small boats, unregulated until recently, hauls in 80 percent of the catch and supplies about 60 percent of the export market. Senegal’s commercial vessels, foreign fleets from Europe and Asia, and pirate fishing boats add to the pressure; the country’s annual harvest declined.
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  • Rain did not stop the celebrations of dancing and singing that followed a historic totem raising ceremony on Prince of Wales Island.<br />
Generations of Tlingit and Haida Native Alaskans retain strong cultural ties with the natural world reflected in their totem art depicting whales and bears.
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  • Rain did not stop the celebrations of dancing and singing that followed a historic totem raising ceremony on Prince of Wales Island.<br />
Generations of Tlingit and Haida Native Alaskans retain strong cultural ties with the natural world reflected in their storytelling totem art depicting whales and bears.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075034.jpg
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