Thursday, 7 January 2016

Through the eyes of a child

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The cruelty of life through the eyes of a child 5-1-2016: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 7 January 2015


Dark encounter ... Is the new Star Wars movie too scary for kids?
: photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters, 11 December 015

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Residents of Madaya, about 25km northwest of Damascus, are suffering from severe malnutrition and have little access to fuel and medical supplies because of the siege by government regime forces since July. Abu Abdul Rahman, a resident in Madaya, told Al Jazeera he had not eaten for four days. Hungry and weakened, Rahman and his family have been trying to limit their movements inside their house in the Syrian town of Madaya, fearing any activity would drain the little energy left in their bodies. "There are no more cats or dogs alive in the town. Even tree leaves that we have been eating have become scarce," he told Al Jazeera over the phone. The Red Cross said people in the town are burning plastic to keep themselves warm. As days pass by, Rahman said that he had little hope he and his family can stay alive. "Describing the situation as tragic is merely airbrushing reality on the ground," he said in a subdued voice. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday said at least 23 people, including children, had died in rebel-held Madaya because of the siege. At least 300 children in Madaya are suffering from malnutrition, the UK-based monitoring group said. Local activists said an estimated 40,000 people in Madaya have little access to food and medicines [AJE News]: photo by Al Jazeera, 7 January 2015

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Shocking photos of the widespread starvation in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya: image via Reuters Pictures @ReutersPictures, 7 January 2015

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Shocking photos of the widespread starvation in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya: image via Reuters Pictures @ReutersPictures, 7 January 2015
 
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Cases of starvation resulting from bombing by Russian aircraft and aircraft of regime forces in #Zabadani and #Madaya -- price of one kilo of rice $117!!: image via Abu Mujahid @Mojahedaboaljod, 4 January 2015

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Cases of starvation resulting from bombing by Russian aircraft and aircraft of regime forces in #Zabadani and #Madaya -- price of one kilo of rice $117!!: image via Abu Mujahid @Mojahedaboaljod, 4 January 2015

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Cases of starvation resulting from bombing by Russian aircraft and aircraft of regime forces in #Zabadani and #Madaya -- price of one kilo of rice $117!!: image via Abu Mujahid @Mojahedaboaljod, 4 January 2015

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Cases of starvation resulting from bombing by Russian aircraft and aircraft of regime forces in #Zabadani and #Madaya -- price of one kilo of rice $117!!: image via Abu Mujahid @Mojahedaboaljod, 4 January 2015


Serbian Orthodox worshipers wait to receive bread as they celebrate Christmas in Belgrade, Serbia: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 7 January 2015


An Eritrean migrant enters a church in Calais, France, to attend an Orthodox Christmas service: photo by  Carl Court via The New York Times, 7 January 2015



An Eritrean migrant enters a church in Calais, France, to attend an Orthodox Christmas service: photo by  Carl Court via The New York Times, 7 January 2015
 

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, in the West Bank, examine guns for sale: photo by Gil Cohen-Magen/Agence France-Presse, 7 January 2015
 

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, in the West Bank, examine guns for sale: photo by Gil Cohen-Magen/Agence France-Presse, 7 January 2015


A tear rolls down President Obama’s cheek at the White House as he discusses recent mass killings in the United States and his plans to expand background checks: photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times, 5 January 2016

Armed French police patrol near the Boulevard de Barbes in the north of Paris on Thursday in Paris, France. French police have shot dead a man as he attempted to gain access to a Paris police station whilst brandishing a knife. It is believed that the man was wearing a fake suicide vest and bomb disposal experts were brought in to investigate. The incident comes on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks

Armed French police patrol near the Boulevard de Barbes in the north of Paris on Thursday in Paris, France. French police have shot dead a man as he attempted to gain access to a Paris police station whilst brandishing a knife. The incident comes on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks: photo by Thierry Chesnot via FT Photo Diary, 7 January 2015

Armed French police patrol near the Boulevard de Barbes in the north of Paris on Thursday in Paris, France. French police have shot dead a man as he attempted to gain access to a Paris police station whilst brandishing a knife. It is believed that the man was wearing a fake suicide vest and bomb disposal experts were brought in to investigate. The incident comes on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks

Armed French police patrol near the Boulevard de Barbes in the north of Paris on Thursday in Paris, France. French police have shot dead a man as he attempted to gain access to a Paris police station whilst brandishing a knife. The incident comes on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks: photo by Thierry Chesnot via FT Photo Diary, 7 January 2015

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Paris police shoot dead knife-wielding man on #CharlieHebdo anniversary
: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 7 January 2015



A homeless girl in Mumbai, India, sits on old furniture as she eats a meal. A recent newspaper report found that 9,000 children go hungry in Mumbai every day.: photo by Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency, 7 January 2015



A homeless girl in Mumbai, India, sits on old furniture as she eats a meal. A recent newspaper report found that 9,000 children go hungry in Mumbai every day.: photo by Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency, 7 January 2015

Holdouts Remain In Autodromo Favela Outside Rio Olympic Park...RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JANUARY 06:  Longtime resident Sandra Maria de Sousa poses near her home in front of anti-demolition grafitti in the mostly demolished Vila Autodromo favela community, a former fishing colony, on January 6, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Most residents of the favela community have moved out and had their properties demolished after receiving compensation for their homes which are located directly adjacent to the Olympic Park under construction for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A small fraction of remaining families from an original 700 or so in Vila Autodromo are resisting the controversial evictions and remain in the community. The favela sprang from an old fishing community and was considered one of the city's safest.  Removals and demolitions have occurred in other Rio communities with tangential links to the games.  (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Longtime resident Sandra Maria de Sousa poses near her home in front of anti-demolition grafitti in the mostly demolished Vila Autodromo favela community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Most residents of the favela community have moved out and had their properties demolished after receiving compensation for their homes which are located directly adjacent to the Olympic Park. A small fraction of remaining families are resisting the controversial evictions and remain in the community.: photo by Mario Tama via FT Photo Diary, 7 January 2015

Holdouts Remain In Autodromo Favela Outside Rio Olympic Park...RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JANUARY 06:  Longtime resident Sandra Maria de Sousa poses near her home in front of anti-demolition grafitti in the mostly demolished Vila Autodromo favela community, a former fishing colony, on January 6, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Most residents of the favela community have moved out and had their properties demolished after receiving compensation for their homes which are located directly adjacent to the Olympic Park under construction for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A small fraction of remaining families from an original 700 or so in Vila Autodromo are resisting the controversial evictions and remain in the community. The favela sprang from an old fishing community and was considered one of the city's safest.  Removals and demolitions have occurred in other Rio communities with tangential links to the games.  (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Longtime resident Sandra Maria de Sousa poses near her home in front of anti-demolition grafitti in the mostly demolished Vila Autodromo favela community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Most residents of the favela community have moved out and had their properties demolished after receiving compensation for their homes which are located directly adjacent to the Olympic Park. A small fraction of remaining families are resisting the controversial evictions and remain in the community.: photo by Mario Tama via FT Photo Diary, 7 January 2015


Refugees at a train station in Presevo, Serbia. The International Organization for Migration said this week that 1,004,356 migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015: photo by Armend Nimani/Agence France-Presse, 6 January 2015


 
Refugees at a train station in Presevo, Serbia. The International Organization for Migration said this week that 1,004,356 migrants and refugees reached Europe in 2015: photo by Armend Nimani/Agence France-Presse, 6 January 2015
 

A man mourns a dead comrade at a temporary hospital in rebel-held Zamalka, a suburb of Damascus. The man was killed in a clash with Syrian government forces: photo by Abdulmonam Eassa/Agence France-Presse, 6 January 2015


A man mourns a dead comrade at a temporary hospital in rebel-held Zamalka, a suburb of Damascus. The man was killed in a clash with Syrian government forces: photo by Abdulmonam Eassa/Agence France-Presse, 6 January 2015
 

A man carries an injured child in Douma, Syria, after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad: photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters, 30 December 2015


A man carries an injured child in Douma, Syria, after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad: photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters, 30 December 2015

Devotees raise their hands next to a replica of the Black Nazarene in Manila ahead of the annual religious procession, during which hundreds of thousands of barefoot Catholic devotees will honour an ebony statue of Jesus Christ, which they believe has miraculous powers

Devotees raise their hands next to a replica of the Black Nazarene in Manila ahead of the annual religious procession, during which hundreds of thousands of barefoot Catholic devotees will honour an ebony statue of Jesus Christ, which they believe has miraculous powers: photo byTed Aljibe/AFP, 7 January 2015

Devotees raise their hands next to a replica of the Black Nazarene in Manila ahead of the annual religious procession, during which hundreds of thousands of barefoot Catholic devotees will honour an ebony statue of Jesus Christ, which they believe has miraculous powers
 
Devotees raise their hands next to a replica of the Black Nazarene in Manila ahead of the annual religious procession, during which hundreds of thousands of barefoot Catholic devotees will honour an ebony statue of Jesus Christ, which they believe has miraculous powers: photo byTed Aljibe/AFP, 7 January 2015

 
Maarat al-Noaman, in northern Syria, after snow fell in the rebel-controlled territory: photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters, 5 January 2015

 
Maarat al-Noaman, in northern Syria, after snow fell in the rebel-controlled territory: photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters, 5 January 2015



3 comments:

  1. The rainy streets through which the enterprising young seller of drinks is plying his trade in the top photo are those of Aleppo, home of the photographer Baraa Al-Halabi, who is indeed himself not all that much older than the enterprising drinks seller, and who has been witnessing streets like these all through the horrors of the past few years, in his remarkable pictures.

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  2. Tom,
    Thanks for these photos, would that more people could see them -- more "scary" by far than the new Star Wars movie . . .

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  3. Steve,

    Yes, though possibly it may contain an anxious-making moment or two for the wee bairns, tender, vigilantly-protected creative genius darlings and treasures of the future that they are, certainly the film proposes nothing so dangerous as (say) the sight of a woman wearing a head-scarf... and that absence of danger must have a lot to do with the popularity of the franchise, a grand interstellar escapist techno-fairytale with a subtle yet perceptible moral fable sewn into it, the details not quite clear but the general message easily extractable and ultimately unmistakable: once the all too many presents have been opened and put aside for another year (how many variations on playstation and xbox and tablet can be stuffed under the lid of junior humanoid unit before it implodes?), it's time for everyone in this land to pause and remember again the important things, the big invisible ideological investments that make America great, the five-star religious tenets our cultural stories reinforce in us, the principles that bind us together as a people, for example the unquestioning belief that money and the many bright shiny objects it purchases constitute the one and only God ...

    All those other places with their awkward confusions of gods, their particular and persistent sufferings and sorrows, their tiresome squalid famines and curious abiding distaste for being bombed back into the dust from which they came, all of it appears so backward from the Olympian contemplative heights of hollywood stardust...

    Because we've got Princess Leia, and helpful weapons training, so that the newly arriving settlers from Brooklyn can get that Glock to feel as comfortable in the hand as... what was it again? Money, you say?

    But no no no you can't say that!! And no no no you can't have our Super Bowl!!!

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