Eastern Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 29 September 2016
Eat More Fowl. Abandoned roadside complex, Halloran Springs, California. Smoke from the Blue Cut Fire, full moon night.: photo by Troy Paiva, 16 August 2016
Lo-Gas Eat 1993. Halloran Springs, California, off of Interstate 15, overlooking the eastern approaches to Baker, 15 miles away. A late afternoon June monsoon, in 1993, when the gas station was freshly refurbished with a new set of islands, and the mechanic roved the steep grade with his tow trucks helping stranded motorists.: photo by Troy Paiva, 26 September 2016
Halloran Springs, California, a lonely exit off of Interstate 15, overlooking the eastern approaches to Baker. On a 108 degree night in August 2016, the gas station and restaurant long abandoned, the view of the valley obliterated by smoke from the Blue Cut fire, 100 +miles to the southwest: photo by Troy Paiva, 16 August 2016
XL5. Dry-lake fringes of Edward AFB, Califonia.: photo by Troy Paiva, 4 August 2014
Bugs [Richmond, California]: photo by efo, 29 September 2016
Desperate for his dead father, passed away while he was out, came back to see the disaster! #Aleppo endless death series
Haven't got enough!: image via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 29 September 2016
Letter from Aleppo: 'We will not be able to keep going this way for long'
'We will not be able to keep going this way for long': photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 29 September 2016
Letter from Aleppo: 'My city is not just a death toll':
A Syrian Civil Defense member and resident of Aleppo reflects on the
worst onslaught the city witnessed since 2011: Al Jazeera News, 29
September 2016
Aleppo - During the past week, Aleppo has been the target of the worst aerial onslaught since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011. More than 400 people were killed, hundreds of others wounded, and several buildings flattened since a short-lived ceasefire broke down last week. Here, Beebers Mishal, 31, one of the founders of the Syrian Civil Defense in 2013 and a resident of Aleppo, reflects on the humanitarian situation in the city and world reaction to it.
I don't remember when I woke up this morning, I don't
remember when I went to sleep. I don't sleep easily, no one here does.
The aerial bombardment is relentless all across the city. In our lives
there is no such thing as sleep.
I have three civil defence certificates, and another on the
laws of war and peace. The last one is not mandatory, they teach it to
people who want more information. I can say with full confidence that
the international community does not enforce any of the laws of war.
This same community has been watching what is happening in
Aleppo for eight days. Aleppo is burning and the world is watching
silently. Russian warplanes have not stopped bombing us, not for a
second.
They've dropped all kinds of forbidden munitions:
phosphorous bombs, cluster munitions and the powerful bunker buster.
I've seen these bombs destroy entire neighborhoods and bury people
alive.
The regime is targeting areas that were struck before, resulting in more casualties.
There is no food and we are running out of water. The only
supply road to the city was closed. No one can afford to buy a piece of
bread because the prices are too high. People are eating one meal of
rice and mint, or one packet of instant noodles a day
Journalists ask me how many people died on this day or that day, but Aleppo is not just a death toll.
Every fired missile is a story. Seconds after an explosion,
our units go straight to the area and start pulling people from under
the rubble.
Maybe the bomb destroys the entire building. Maybe there are five families inside when it does.
We saved a man from under the rubble after three hours of
searching. After one attack, an 11-day-old baby was missing. We found
her by listening to the sounds of her cries from beneath the wreckage.
Three of our headquarters were also attacked and some of our
vehicles were destroyed. So we risked heavy shelling and used our hands
to lift the pieces of the shattered homes, and rescue the people
underneath.
But even those pulled out might not be saved.
We are running out of fuel, hospitals are working under fire with limited electricity and medicine.
We will not be able to keep going this way for long.
This isn't new for us. This is our routine. Hear a bomb, go
to the site, identify people and get them out. In the last few days, we
didn't stop, not even for a moment. The use of powerful munitions mean
our work is never done. There is no "start time" for what we do. I don't
have a life outside the White Helmets.
Of course, the war has an effect on me. I am married, but my
wife is not with me. She is safer in the Aleppo countryside. But I am
stuck here, in the besieged city.
Before the war I was working as a language teacher and a public servant. I don't have children.
In four years, I have witnessed the carnage of innocent
children. I've heard the sound of people struggling to breathe their
last under the rubble.
This is not normal. No one can express what this feeling is like.
We always say, when the war ends whoever is left will need psychological help to feel what normal people feel like again.
I was one of the founders of the Syrian Civil Defense in
2013. In the past three years and a half I have witnessed thousands of
massacres, bombings, air strikes.
But the past few days in Aleppo have been unbelievable. You can see sorrow in the eyes of the people.
You can hear the crash of bombs and death everywhere. They only have memories of blood, displacement and destruction.
814 residential areas, 13 industrial areas and 236 agricultural fields have been targeted by airstrikes #HolocaustAleppo: image via Primo Ahmad @PrimoAhmad, 29 September 2016
3 volunteers were killed in Al-Bab area after an Airstrike targeted them during response to rescue operation yesterday. rest in peace guys: image via Khaled Khatib @995Khaled, 29 September 2016
3 volunteers were killed in Al-Bab area after an Airstrike targeted them during response to rescue operation yesterday. rest in peace guys: image via Khaled Khatib @995Khaled, 29 September 2016
N. Aleppo : Opposition fire Grad missiles at Regime forces gathered in #Handarat Camp: image via Christian Turner @CombatChris, 29 September 2016
Bugs
Hassan Ammar/AP A man holds a fishing rod as floating rubbish hits the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday: photo by Hassan Ammar/AP, 29 September 2016
Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images
Mercedes Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche delivers a speech on the first day
of the Paris Motor Show: photo by Miguel Medina/AFP, 29 September 2016
Mercedes Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche delivers a speech on the first day
of the Paris Motor Show: photo by Miguel Medina/AFP, 29 September 2016
Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, the Indian director general of military operations, at a news briefing in New Delhi on Thursday: photo by
Reuters, 29 September 2016
Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, the Indian director general of military operations, at a news briefing in New Delhi on Thursday: photo by
Reuters, 29 September 2016
INDIA - An Indian paramilitary trooper looks on in Srinagar. By @TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 29 September 2016
Indian soldiers as they patrol along a barbed-wire fence near Baras
Post on the Line of Control (LoC) between Pakistan and India some 174
kms north west of Srinagar. India’s military has carried out “surgical
strikes” along the de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir to thwart a
series of attacks being planned against major cities, the army said on
Thursday.: photo by AFP, 29 September 2016
Indian soldiers as they patrol along a barbed-wire fence near Baras
Post on the Line of Control (LoC) between Pakistan and India some 174
kms north west of Srinagar. India’s military has carried out “surgical
strikes” along the de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir to thwart a
series of attacks being planned against major cities, the army said on
Thursday.: photo by AFP, 29 September 2016
A police officer walks in the middle of Indonesian union workers protesting against a government tax amnesty on their way to the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday: photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters, 29 September 2016
A police officer walks in the middle of Indonesian union workers
protesting against a government tax amnesty on their way to the
presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday: photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters, 29 September 2016
U.S President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry disembark Air Force One upon landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport to attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres, in Lod, Israel: photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters, 30 September 2016
U.S President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry disembark Air Force One upon landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport to attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres, in Lod, Israel: photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters, 30 September 2016
U.S President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry disembark Air Force One upon landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport to attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres, in Lod, Israel: photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters, 30 September 2016
Technicians visit a new hybrid operating room of the IHU, Institute of Image-Guided Surgery in Strasbourg, France. The hybrid operation room of the IHU combines the most advanced minimally invasive surgery techniques and the latest medical imaging technologies, resulting in the most advanced surgery platform in the world.: photo Vincent Kessler/Reuters, 30 September 2016
Technicians visit a new hybrid operating room of the IHU, Institute of Image-Guided Surgery in Strasbourg, France. The hybrid operation room of the IHU combines the most advanced minimally invasive surgery techniques and the latest medical imaging technologies, resulting in the most advanced surgery platform in the world.: photo Vincent Kessler/Reuters, 30 September 2016
The canton of Bern is pictured from the summit “Chasseral” based in the Jura Mountains, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland: photo Anthony Anex/EPA, 30 September 2016
The canton of Bern is pictured from the summit “Chasseral” based in the Jura Mountains, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland: photo Anthony Anex/EPA, 30 September 2016
Thanks Tom for these photos and letter from Aleppo -- a timely answer to the candidate who asked "What is Aleppo?" after having had his Aleppo moment. . .
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteThe seeming boyish murican goodnaturedness, the sheer adorable aw-shucks dummy-ness, together with the overwhelming understanding that nobody else in this great nation knows nor cares what an aleppo is, either, have caused the Gary Johnson phenomenon, a kind of Alfred E. Newman update, to win over the hearts of the volk, in a most curious way.
The puppy tipped over its water dish, ha ha!
I'm trying to say, everybody else could now feel relieved. 300 million gary johnsons, one vast happy clown town.
It was a dumble too far however when under close interrogation on the same show last week he could not name the leader of any country on Earth.
On his way into the studio he had seen a bit of tv which prompted him to say, "Shimon Peres".
That answer was rejected on the technicality he had been asked to name world leaders who are ALIVE.
I also glimpsed another bit from last week in which, evidently non-sequituring his way though another interview, he stuck out his tongue at the interviewer.
In a pleasant, innocent-seeming way, of course.
And then -- laughed!
Haha!
What's really funny is the fact that 90% of Earth spends 60% of its time worrying over that the U.S. will do next.
They have cause to worry.