By now, the ink stains should have faded but the controversy surrounding last week's elections in Afghanistan poignantly reminds us of the power of a print... symbolically alluded to by this image in the London Free Press (21 August 2009). A woman's finger, stained with the indelible blue ink used to transfer her fingerprint onto the ballot sheet, is held up as proof of the singular act of casting her vote. It was said that insurgents had threatened to decapitate people marked by voter's ink and that the "election stain" would take at least a week to fade. The print this woman left on the ballot paper demonstrates the strength of a nation's people and their refusal to be intimidated.
