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Friday 2 October 2015

Civilizations

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It was agreed to the destruction of Syria: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015
 

There's little question that Russia is determined to re-establish Assad as Syria’s leader: image via The New York Times @nytimes, 1 October 2015
 

National sovereignty: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015
 

[untitled]: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 1 October 2015
 

Follow our LIVE coverage as Russian jets launch a second day of air strikes in #Syria: image via Reuters Live @ReutersLive, 1 October 2015
 

'Curious' Russian strikes in Syria not against Islamic State: France: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 30 September 2015
 

Where are the Russian bombs in Syria falling?: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 1 October 2015


White House says Russian involvement in Syria risks making conflict "indefinite": image via Reuters Live @ReutersLive, 1 October 2015
 

America . Russia   And the victim Syria: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015
 

First #photo of #Israel|i air forces inside the #Syria|n airspace a while ago: image via Rami @RamiAlLolah, 1 October 2015

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Civilizations: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 30 September 2015
 
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[Untitled]:: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 29 September 2015


A Syrian man holds his robe while walking in the partially destroyed Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo, under the control of the Syrian army. Syrian troops backed by artillery and warplanes fought rebels on multiple fronts on September 5 as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi described the death toll as "staggering" and destruction "catastrophic.": photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 3 September 2012
 

A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo: photo by  Marco Longari/AFP, 14 September 2012


Smoke rises over a battle-scarred Saif Al Dawla district in Aleppo, Syria. The U.N.'s deputy secretary-general says U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon made a strong appeal to Syria's foreign minister to stop using heavy weapons against civilians and reduce the violence that is killing 100 to 200 people every day.: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 2 October 2012 

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[Untitled]:: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015

Putin attends a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights in Moscow

An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday: photo by An Yuri Kochetkov/Reuters, 1 October 2015

A model presents a creation by Indian designer Manish Arora as part of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear fashion show in Paris, France, October 1, 2015.

A model presents a creation by Indian designer Manish Arora as part of his Spring/Summer 2016 women’s ready-to-wear fashion show in Paris, France: photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters, 1 October 2015
 

An Afghan girl cries upon her arrival to the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 29 September 2015


GREECE - A family arrives with other refugees and migrants at the island of Lesbos. By @ArisMessinis #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 1 October 2015
 

Refugees arrive at the registration camp near the town of Gevgelija after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border: image via Armend Nimani @armend_nimani, 29 September 2015 


Refugees arrive at the registration camp near the town of Gevgelija after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border: image via Armend Nimani @armend_nimani, 29 September 2015
 

Refugees arrive at the registration camp near the town of Gevgelija after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border: image via Armend Nimani @armend_nimani, 29 September 2015

  
Migrants arrive at the registration camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija: image via Stéphane Arnaud @stephanearnaud, 1 October 2015


A woman embraces her child after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 29 September 2015

A woman holds her baby and waits to board a train after crossing the Macedonian-Green border #photo by Armend Nimani: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 29 September 2015 


Night of the Migratory White Moon
 

A full moon is seen during a total lunar eclipse in Cairo, yesterday. #AFP by Khaled Desouki: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 29 September 2015

After the Father departed and the Vatican denied her
interpretation -- as though just anyone could understand
these things! -- almost any noise would awaken or impersonate Kim,
as if these things were self evident
programs in her sleep by strange ancient lunar fish enacted,
as if before an underwater window,
miming threat back at their reflected images in the glass,
driving themselves crazy
flaring in comic mimicry of a sunken combat-driven world
in which events had a real significance
in some other world not yet explored, possibly a world in space,
what other worlds are there anymore,
certainly none that held any sort of peace in store nor promised to ever be
the one Kim wished to inhabit
 
 

#SNHR The girl Raghad Alaa Khanfora, age 5, died due to gov warplanes missiles fired on Al Hbait in Idlib, Oct 1: image via Syrian Network @snhr, 1 October 2015
 

Displaced woman under pictures of #Syrian soldiers killed in the war. In #Tartous, ppl v happy abt #Russian strikes.: image via Lindsey Hulsum @lindseyhulsum, 1 October 2015
 

Yg #Syrian soldier on leave: I'm very happy #Russians are trying to get rid of terrorists. They are old friends.: image via Lindsey Hulsum @lindseyhulsum, 1 October 2015
 

In #Tartous they plaster pictures of those killed fighting for #Syrian government on 'Martyrs' Wall'.: image via Lindsey Hulsum @lindseyhulsum, 1 October 2015


By the 'martyrs' wall' in #Tartous , much enthusiasm for #Russian air strikes. #Syria: image via Lindsey Hulsum @lindseyhulsum, 1 October 2015
 

#Syria As expected, Russian Su-30M are giving air cover to Su-24/25/34 over Idlib. At least 2 R-77 AA missiles.: image via green lemon @green_lemonnn, 1 October 2015
 

Chow hall in #Lattakia, this is a fucking big operation in #Syria, don't expect it to be only a couple months: image via Abraxas Spa @AbraxasSpa, 1 October 2015
 

Chow hall in #Lattakia, this is a fucking big operation in #Syria, don't expect it to be only a couple months: image via Abraxas Spa @AbraxasSpa, 1 October 2015 

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Found a number of bodies of migrants this morning lying on the seashore in #Tajoura #Libya #migrantcrisis @mmic78: image via NASR @NarrAldbea, 1 October 2015

A refugee is helped as she climbs a hill towards the main road after arriving on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, Friday, Oct. 2 , 2015. The International Organization for Migration says a record number of people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year.

A refugee is helped as she climbs a hill towards the main road after arriving on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos on Friday: photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP, 1 October 2015
 

The moon appears behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris yesterday. #AFP @ludovic_marin: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 September 2015
 

Photos of the Day: a migrant comes ashore on Lesbos: image via NYT Photo @nytimesphoto, 1 October 2015
 

MACEDONIA - Migrants and asylum seekers cross the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija. By @armend_nimani: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 1 October 2015
 

MACEDONIA - Migrants and asylum seekers rest after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija. By @armend_nimani: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 1 October 2015


MACEDONIA - A boy enters a tent as he arrives at the registration camp near Gevgelija. By @armend_nimani: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffard, 1 October 2015
 

A family arrive at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 30 September 2015


A family arrive at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 30 September 2015
 


A Syrian man cries while holding the body of his son near Dar El Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Three suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives in a government-controlled area of the battleground Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people, leveling buildings and trapping survivors under the rubble, state TV said. More than 120 people were injured, the government said.: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 3 October 2012


Fighters with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) speak with government forces nearby, as they hide behind shutters in an apartment in the Seif al-Dawla neighborhood of Aleppo. Snipers took positions on rooftops and strategic places in Aleppo's old city, preventing government soldiers from approaching rebel-controlled areas.: photo by Zac Baillie/AFP, 11 September 2012
 

A Free Syrian Army soldier takes cover while fighting against Syrian Army troops in the Saif Al Dawle district of Aleppo: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 2 October 2012 
 

Aleppo, Syria. Rebel fighters move a homemade weapon known as a ‘hell cannon’: photo by Karam Almasri / NurPhoto/ Rex via The Guardian, 4 December 2014



A Free Syrian Army fighter takes up position as he points his weapon through a hole in a bedroom wall in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria. A reminder of ordinary daily life before the civil war: photo by Khalil Ashawi / Reuters via The Guardian, 12 November 2013



A Free Syrian Army fighter walks through a hole in the wall inside a damaged building on the frontline of Aleppo’s Al-Ezaa neighbourhood: photo by Hosam Katan/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 November 2014
 
A refugee is helped as she climbs a hill towards the main road after arriving on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, Friday, Oct. 2 , 2015. The International Organization for Migration says a record number of people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year.
 
A refugee is helped as she climbs a hill towards the main road after arriving on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos on Friday: photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP, 1 October 2015


Trump would send home Syrian refugees: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 1 October 2015
 
Putin attends a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights in Moscow
 
An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday: photo by An Yuri Kochetkov/Reuters, 1 October 2015
 
 Migrants and asylum seekers board a train  near the registration camp after crossing the Macedonian-Greek border near Gevgelija on Thursday. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers and migrants -- many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia -- entering the country every day.
 
  Refugees and asylum seekers board a train near the registration camp after crossing the Macedonian-Greek border near Gevgelija on Thursday. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU: photo by Armend Nimani/AFP, 31 September 2015


#EclipseLunar The moon is seen near to Moserrate mountain in Bogota. #AFP Photo by @lacostacastro: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 September 2015

7 comments:

tpw said...

This is all so endlessly sad. Our next door neighbor in the last apartment building we lived in in DC in the '80s was an elderly woman who spent a good part of the year in Aleppo. She was a retired archaeologist, if I remember right, who did research in the city. She stayed in a room in a Catholic convent. We received regular post cards from her from Aleppo that always evoked an ancient, wondrous, beautiful place. How impossibly lost all that now seems.

TC said...

Thanks, Terry.

It's a ruined ghost place, now.

All those lost worlds, broken lives, dead or fleeing people.

Trump wants to "send them back".

To where, or what?

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

Back to the Future?

L'Enfant de la Haute Mer said...

An Afghan girl cries upon her arrival to the Greek island of LesVos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 29 September 2015..an so on!!

TC said...

Vassilis,

Aye, is it not strange how much bleaker and scarier than any late Cold War post-Orwellian SuperBowl halftime advert-vision the Future turned out to actually be!

You may have noted that one latterday YT commenter, BadSanta84, mused that "the guy on the screen reminds me a bit of steve jobs..."

Hold on, give me a moment to check this, but wasn't Steve Jobs the Pope back then...?

This whole historical thing, it's so confusing!


L'Enfant,

Thank you once again for your entirely commendable attention to the miserable plight of those braving the Aegean in order to escape an even harsher environment where they've come from.

Your last two comments, in full:

Refugees and migrants arrive on the shore of the Greek island of LesVos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey on Monday: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP, 28 September 2015... and so on!!

An Afghan girl cries upon her arrival to the Greek island of LesVos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 29 September 2015..an so on!!

In this I begin to note a certain pattern.

In these two comments you have simply copied the photo captions, with the single amendment, or alteration, or "improvement" -- inserting "V" for "b" in the name of a Greek island group, in each case.

I have spent a bit of time in these places, once, and am aware that the English transliteration of the Greek name for the island group may leave something to be desired.

Moreover, I'm aware that the inhabitants of these isles have their own historical issues regarding naming:

Lesbos islanders dispute gay name: BBC News Athens, 1 May 2008

On the other hand, I regard all that as none of my affair, for my intent, and my responsibility, is simply to reflect as accurately and completely as possible the captioning information given by the photographer, in this case a Greek citizen, Aris Messinis, which, in fact, I have done.

If Aris Messinis could take pains to bear witness to history so faithfully and intently, over such a long summer of trial and desperation, the least we ought to be able to do, in my humble opinion, is recognize his efforts, and leave his captions alone.

L'Enfant de la Haute Mer said...

Thank you Tom,
But is Lesvos and NOT Lesbos!

TC said...

L'Enfant, OK.

I expect we'd both agree that whatever the spelling, Aris Messinis has been doing extremely valuable work, for which all conscious persons owe him thanks.

I don't think anybody here apart from you and Vassilis will be able to understand what Aris is saying in this TED talk of two years ago -- but as you and Vassilis constitute the majority here:

Battle for the News: Aris Messinis at TEDxKalamata, 3 November 2013

From the TED release for the talk:

Aris Messinis is self-taught photographer. Aris started his collaboration with The Associated Press in 1997 as a stringer photographer, after finishing high school and completing his military service. In 2003, he joined the Agence France-Presse and from 2006, he is the Chief Photographer of the photo department of AFP in Athens, Greece. He worked in Libya and Egypt during the "Arab Spring" and has won many prestigious awards such as Days Japan 2012, Fotoweek 2011, NPPA etc. On 2012 Aris won the Photography Prize at the 19th prix Bayeux-Calvados Awards for War Correspondents. He won the prize for his work on the Battle of Sirte, Libya, which took place in October 2011.