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View all search resultsA portrait in courage
Bruce EmondEditor WEEKENDER magazine, 2007-2012For the November 2010 edition of WEEKENDER, we had an exclusive profile â the love child of singer Frank Sinatra and actress Eva Bartok, now back in her childhood home of Jakarta
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Bruce Emond
Editor WEEKENDER magazine, 2007-2012
For the November 2010 edition of WEEKENDER, we had an exclusive profile ' the love child of singer Frank Sinatra and actress Eva Bartok, now back in her childhood home of Jakarta. A scoop, for sure, but it was not cover story material.
And then a pitch came in for a photo essay about a woman photographer in Central Java. The difference was she used a specially modified camera; her arms had been amputated. 'That's your cover,' chief editor Meidyatama Suryodiningrat said, peering at the shot by Adi NW of Ibu Rusidah deftly cleaning her lens.
Disabled people are rarely seen in the media here, unless it's a tear-jerking exercise. The fact we chose this grainy cover testifies to the Post's support of pluralism in every form. Nobody ' well, not within earshot ' griped it was not 'pretty' enough. The cover got attention: a bank donated a camera to Rusidah and she appeared on a major talk show.
It's not right to use the word 'disabled' to describe Rusidah; to borrow a phrase, she has a bold and independent spirit. That, I think, is always reason for pride.
