THE VISUAL CONSCIENCE

The Surge: "Democracy" in Action....

2008-09-09T17:52:00.006+02:00

The “Surge” - “Kitchen Warrior”: A US soldier from Gator Company 2-12 Infantry Battalion stands guard in the kitchen of an Iraqi home while fellow soldiers search the premises during a joint patrol with the Iraqi Army in the predominantly Sunni al-Dora neighborhood of southern Baghdad, March 26, 2007.

On January 10, 2007 US President George W. Bush announced he was sending 28,500 additional troops to Iraq in a plan he dubbed the “Surge” to quell the daily bloodshed that had left tens of thousands of people killed across the country. The plan called for U.S. forces to establish combat outposts in some of the most violent neighborhoods of Iraq and especially in Baghdad, the epicenter of violence. Widely considered a last ditch effort for US policy in Iraq, American and Iraqi forces confronted insurgents with a frequency and intensity not seen in months, with Iraqi civilians often caught in the middle. Thousands of Iraqis have been detained since the surge began, most of them Sunni Muslims. Still ongoing, the success or failure of the “surge” is widely debated even as it has helped curb the daily killings across the violence-wracked country.

The “Surge” - “Dangerous Tactics”: An Iraqi Sunni “volunteer”, former insurgents who have joined forces with US and Iraqi troops against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, holds a knife to the neck of an Iraqi man detained by his fighters for links to Al-Qaeda and threatens to cut his throat, in the Hawra Haajab village on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, September 06, 2007.

The “Surge” - “Shadow Prisoners”: A US soldier from 3-509 Para-Infantry Regiment stands guard over temporarily detained Iraqi men during Operation Marne Husky, south of Baghdad, August 31, 2007.

The “Surge” - “A Mother Pleads”: An Iraqi woman pleads with Iraqi National Police as they detain her son during a joint patrol with US soldiers from Baker Company 2-12 Infantry Battalion in the Dora neighborhood of southern Baghdad, March 17, 2007.

The “Surge” - “Huddled Together”: An Iraqi family huddles together as US soldiers from 3-509 Para-Infantry Regiment search their house as part of Operation Marne Husky, along the Tigris river south of Baghdad, August 23, 2007.

Hurricanes lash the poor yet again...

2008-09-08T22:50:00.003+02:00

U.N. peacekeepers help Haitian children cross a river after floods near Port-au-Prince September 7, 2008. Officials said at least 61 people had died in floods in impoverished Haiti on top of 500 killed last week by Tropical Storm Hanna. REUTERS/Evens Felix

Benazir - Another vicitm of Anglo American Ambitions

2008-09-06T01:57:00.005+02:00

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto sits on stage at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan December 27, 2007, just minutes before she was assassinated. The opposition leader had returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile and had survived a suicide bomb blast during her arrival procession in Karachi only months before. Following almost 6 weeks of emergency rule when large gatherings were banned, her campaign rally in Rawalpindi was her largest event yet, drawing thousands of supporters. Departing the event, she came out into the open road waving from the sun roof of her armored vehicle, her adoring supporters pushing to get close and slowing the vehicle’s movement. Gunshots sounded, and as she dropped down through the roof into the car, a suicide bomber set off his charge. Within seconds, her damaged vehicle sped away, leaving a scene of chaos and carnage, as the dead and injured waited to be taken away and her supporters screamed in anguish. The assassination left the country in a state of shock and cast serious doubts on the prospects of democracy in Pakistan.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto addresses thousands of supporters at a campaign rally minutes before she was assassinated December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

A suicide bomber sets off his charge during an assassination attack on former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

A supporter of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is overcome with grief after a suicide bomber set off his charge in an assassination attack that killed Bhutto and many of her supporters. The opposition leader’s death sparked days of nationwide rioting, left the country in a state of shock and cast serious doubts on the possibility of democracy in Pakistan."

.....Which of course, was the desired effect..See: Anglo-American Ambitions behind the Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the Destabilization of Pakistan

________________

Photos and text from NPPA Photojournalism 2008

“No Mercy: Acid Violence in Pakistan”

2008-09-03T23:28:00.003+02:00

Random Winner:

3rd Place, Serial Portrait Package: “No Mercy: Acid Violence in Pakistan”Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

BASTI DOOLAY WALI-PAKISTAN-JUNE 18: Mumtaz Mai ,38, was burned 5 years ago, she holds her 8th child, 9 day old Fatimaon June 18,2007 in Basti Dollay Wali village, Punjab, Pakistan. Mumtaz is being helped by Acid Survivor’s Foundation (ASF) a non-governmental organization based in Islamabad. Mumtaz was attacked in the middle of the night with acid by an unknown criminal. ” I have my family but lost my beauty” she says. Like many women living in the villages Mumtaz was a farmer ,working in the fields.

The UN and other human rights organizations have issued reports for years on many forms of violence against women in Pakistan which involve domestic violence, rape, and honor killings. Acid is thrown at women to avenge the shame that the woman is accused of bringing, as revenge. Typically it is over marriage refusals, which are often arranged, arguments in the home and sexual advances that are rejected.

Acid burns rarely kill but result in serious disfigurement and suffering which confine women to their homes leading to social isolation and depression. Allegations are made and the crime is committed easily. Acid is used commonly for cleaning and in agriculture for the cotton seeds in the rural areas. It is cheap and readily available to all. Although women have protested the open sale of acid, it is still easily available. Women in Pakistan face biases in the criminal justice system and police are reluctant to deal with the so called ” family matters”.

Only a small percentage of the cases go to trial bringing the criminals to justice while the majority are settled out of court after a substantial bribe is paid. Bribes are commonplace in the culture of the southern Punjab and Sindh areas where a feudal society allows the rich to pay off officials. Illiteracy is commonplace amongst women in the poor rural areas of the country, poverty and a conservative Islamic culture play a strong role in the subordinate position of the female.

PANTOMIME

2008-08-29T19:29:00.002+02:00

Senator Hillary Clinton, seen on monitors, asks delegates to suspend a roll call vote of states and approve the nomination of Senator Barack Obama by acclamation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, August 27, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Sudan's 'un-noticed' crisis

2008-08-28T11:35:00.003+02:00

Photo: Brian Steidle

Photo: Ron Haviv/VII

Sudan's 21 year civil war left more than two million people dead and drove more than four million from their homes.

In 2005, the mainly Muslim north signed a peace agreement with the mostly Christian south. But since then, tensions have returned along the border - which straddles the country's huge oil reserves.

Today reporter Mike Thomson has been to southern Sudan - to see how decades of conflict have left people in need of food and medicine: SLIDE SHOW

Facing the Future

2008-08-24T23:07:00.004+02:00

Peter, 14. Spend nearly 2 years with the LRA. Peter was hit in the leg by shrapnel form a governemnent helicopter gunship and the rebels abandoned him. But he returned to bad news, and an uncertain future. 'My father has died while I was away, my family wont tell me how, he used to pay for my schooling and to teach me how to care for the land. Now there is only my stepmother, but she is old she cant care for me, I will have to care for her'.

Anna kari - Former Ugandan child soldiers from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) / child_soldier_001

Julia, 28. More than 10 years with LRA. Julia and her friend both left as children and have escaped as adults and mothers. For women like them it is more difficult to reintegrate back into the community. Its too late to go back to school, its difficult to remarry. But a lot has been done to make the community more understanding, and traditional cleansing ceremonies make things easier for those who return.

Anna kari - Former Ugandan child soldiers from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) / child_soldier_002

Visit the superb website of photojournalist ANNA KARI

Ramallah Moments

2008-08-20T18:19:00.002+02:00

Ammari

We’re in H.’s beat up car, driving through Ammari, one of the refugee camps of the West Bank. Anna’s in the front with her camcorder, while I’m in the backseat. According to the UNRWA, the United Nations agency dedicated to helping the Palestinian refugees, some 9000 people are registered as refugees in Ammari, including about 300 families classified as being in a “special hardship” situation.

H. Points to some of the institutions ran by the UN as we pass them: a boys’ school, then, a bit further, one for girls, both behind tall concrete walls augmented by razor wire, and with guards at the gates. We pass some other walled and guarded compounds, but those belong to the Palestinian Authority’s security services. Other buildings on both sides of the street are even more unsightly than in Ramallah itself: two to three stories tall, made of mostly naked concrete blocks, the urgency and, as it was then perceived, temporary nature of the constructions is unmistakable. The road itself seems to have been cemented only recently, and indeed, some dirt pathways remain.

The car comes to a stop in a narrow street. H. gets out and we follow him as he walks into a house, brushing the curtain that serves as a door out of the way. The room is dimly lit by white fluorescent lights; tables with computers on them line the wall, kids sit at those computers, and of course the whole thing sounds like a war zone: we’re in an internet café, and the game played is Counter Strike, a terrorist vs. counter-terrorist affair. A short, corpulent man comes to meet us and, unlike H. he speaks some english. He hollers and the kids, strangely enough, quiet down, but are still glued to their screens, paying no particular attention to us dumbfounded westerners, standing there in the doorway. Anna asks if she can recharge her camcorder before we go out to walk through the refugee camp, but there seems to be no power outlet available, so we’re rushed outside and let, do another house, which H. introduces as belonging to his family. The man from the internet café comes with us.

We step into the house. In a small, cold, dimly lit room, a dozen people, three generations are gathered. The house’s patriarch, an old man in his sixties or seventies, smokes a cigarette sitting on a pillow against a wall, next to the bed on which his wife props herself up on her elbow. Men and women of H.’s age are present as well, each with his or her own little corner of the bed, or a chair to sit. Small kids run around, but stop to shyly peek at us from behind their mothers’ skirts, as we unwittingly intrude upon the domestic peace. The walls are covered with various decorations, among them photographic portraits of H. and his family members. Three seats are immediately made available for us; H., as the host, stays standing. Anna plugs her camcorder in, tea is served, and the usual conversation starts.

“Where are you from?”
“What do you think of Palestine?”

I’m dying to take a picture of this family, of their living conditions, but H. would rather that I didn’t. So I don’t.

“Do you know what it’s like, to live in a tent?”

I don’t understand a word of Arabic, and most of the time the conversation isn’t translated for me word for word, but this one last question is, and it brings about an implacable realization of the realities of Ammari, and, in a broader sense of the lives of the millions of Palestinian refugees.

This camp has been a temporary home since 1949. It has also been the only home two of the three generations that live in this house have ever known. The living conditions are a far cry from what they have been in the tent towns of the wars’ aftermaths, but, according to the UNRWA, Ammari still suffers from overcrowding and poor sewage and water networks. It is also under constant threat of Israeli army incursions. The IDF rolls in at night, we’re told, and arrest whoever they want, for whatever reason. Sometimes there are shootings, and men are killed. Most of the families in the camp, our hosts say, have had run-ins with the IDF, with one son, husband, brother detained or worse.

Later, as we walk the streets of Ammari with H. and the man from the internet café as our guides, after passing an empty space H. tells us used to be a house that became “victim of the Intifada”, we come across a young girl looking up at a poster of the Palestinian Presidential Guard, announcing the death of one of its “martyrs”, young man born in 1985 and killed in an incident involving the IDF special forces last december. The girl’s friends show up, and the whole bunch of them surround us, playful and spunky, as Palestinian kids usually are. We take pictures and shoot video as they parade in front of us doing their best supermodel impressions. The young dead soldier is quickly forgotten.

flickr.com/photos/spacelion/2242345719/

Geo-political Chessboard = Dead civilians

2008-08-19T16:53:00.006+02:00

An elderly Georgian couple escapes from a house set on fire by South Ossetian militia in the Georgian village of Kvemo-Achebeti outside the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, August 18, 2008. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

http://uk.reuters.com/

Just what NATO and the US want.

War in the Caucasus: Towards a Broader Russia-US Military Confrontation?

Protest and Pain

2008-08-19T01:08:00.002+02:00

Apologies for the gap in posting... Been super-busy. This from the excellent photojournalist blog:
vervephoto.wordpress.com/

Cyclone Nargis , Burma, 2008

Tibetan Monks. Kathmandu, Nepal

Brian Sokol was born in the late 1970’s in the American Midwest where he grew-up pouring over back issues of National Geographic. At university he studied writing and education before heading overseas. After being awarded a small grant from the University of Wisconsin, Brian purchased his first camera and 100 rolls of slide film a few days before heading to Nepal for a year that elapsed into a decade. In July 2008 Brian moved from Kathmandu to New Delhi, India in to better cover South and Southeast Asia. He work appears regularly in publications including The New York Times, Time, Stern, l’Espresso and Der Spiegel. He is the recipient of National Geographic Magazine’s 2007 Eddie Adams grant and was recognized as one of PDN’s 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2008.

About the Photograph:

A Tibetan monk, rosary beads hanging from his hand, covers his face while sitting in solidarity during a hunger strike at a Tibetan refugee camp in Kathmandu, Nepal on 18 March 2008. Eleven hunger strikers have been fasting in the Nepalese capital since 11 p.m. on 16 March in protest against conditions in Tibet."

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vervephoto.wordpress.com/

Protests

2008-07-23T21:24:00.002+02:00

Policemen chase after demonstrators during a protest in Rabat, Morocco, July 22, 2008. REUTERS/Rafael Marchan

A pro-Karadzic demonstrator throws a stone sculpture at Serbian riot police in Belgrade July 22, 2008. War crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic was arrested on Monday near Belgrade posing as a doctor of alternative medicine, sporting long hair, a beard and glasses to hide his face, officials said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Cam-Thai

2008-07-19T11:51:00.005+02:00

Cambodian soldiers guard Preah Vihear temple, 245 km (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, July 18, 2008. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday a border row with Thailand was "worsening" and urged the immediate withdrawal of Thai troops from a disputed ancient temple. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

A villager's face is covered in blood after skirmishes with nationalist protesters whom were marching to a disputed Hindu temple on the Cambodian border July 17, 2008. Thai police and angry villagers blocked nationalist protesters on Thursday from rallying at an ancient temple at the centre of a diplomatic row with neighbouring Cambodia. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

Thai villagers and Thai nationalist protesters fight as the protesters try to break through a police blockade on a highway to the disputed Hindu temple on the Cambodian border July 17, 2008. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

Vote...

2008-07-16T22:27:00.000+02:00

Shell Game

2008-07-15T21:31:00.005+02:00

A protestor throws blue paint at the building of Shell Oil company during a protest against another round of oil price increases, in the financial district of Makati city, metro Manila July 14, 2008. Protesters on Monday appealed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government to scrap the 12 percent value added tax on oil and petroleum products as well as abolish the oil deregulation law. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

http://www.corporatewatch.org/

Photojournalist kicked out of Iraq

2008-07-14T13:10:00.006+02:00

The following post is related to Zoriah's earlier photographic story dealing with a suicide bombing that he witnessed. Those images resulted in his forced removal from Iraq by American military authorities.

Zoriah: Iraq War Diary -- public commentary

The following is a bit of the commentary that came in through Lightstalkers following the news that Zoriah's photographs of the suicide bombing had resulted in him being removed from Iraq by the military. I am posting it here to keep everyone informed. Zoriah is now on his way back to the United States, where several news organizations plan on interviewing him about his experiences in Iraq and the events that transpired after his photographs were published. I will post updates as he passes them along.

Zoriah: Iraq War Diary -- public commentary

http://www.warshooter.com/

Hire Me

2008-07-12T11:51:00.003+02:00

Joshua Persky stands with his sandwich board advertisement in New York, July 10, 2008. Out of work for six months and desperate to find a job, one innovative New Yorker donned his new power suit -- a sandwich board -- and hit the streets of Manhattan to lure potential employers.

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Changes

2008-07-08T21:09:00.003+02:00

Old and New Shanghai. China 2007

"Boris Svartzman is a French-Argentinian freelance photographer based in Shanghai. He has lived in China for seven years, including two years studying at the university in Chengdu and Shanghai. He graduated in France with a degree in philosophy and sociology. Photography and social studies are two complementary ways for him to describe the world. His series on China’s demolition has been selected in the Paris Match Students Photojournalism Competition (2005), in Visa pour l’Image Photojournalism Festival (2006), and published in Foto 8. He is represented by Prospekt Photo Agency in Italy.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph is part of a series about the demolition of old neighborhoods in Shanghai which I considered the first chapter in the urbanisation of China. It took time to gain access and trust to photograph the living conditions of the underpaid workers.. They weren’t used to having human relations in a city where they are forced to hide from the public. They are recycling materials of the demolished traditional houses in this photograph. After talking and showing an interest in their work some of them opened their doors and invited me to dinner.”

Displaced children. Congo, 2007

Cédric Gerbehaye (Belgian b.1977) has been working as a photojournalist since graduating in 2003 from l’Institut des Hautes Etudes des Communications Sociales in Brussels. He began photographing in Indonesia, and made his first story on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in 2002. He later covered Kurdish issues in Turkey and Iraq. In 2007, he was selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass and began documenting the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The same year he received the second prize in the young reporter category at the Bayeux award for war correspondents. His work has appeared in publications such as Le Vif/l’Express, Internazionale, Colors, TIME.com, Newsweek and Le Monde 2. Gerbehaye is represented with Agency VU in Paris.

About the Photograph:

After nearly a decade of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of children are left displaced. In this photograph, they wait for the distribution of flour in the nutrition centre of Awilo in the district of Ituri. Democratic Republic of Congo, 2007."

From www.vervephoto.wordpress.com/

Victims of Torture

2008-07-07T22:40:00.000+02:00

An actor painted in blue simulates a scene of torture in front of a mock European flag during a protest to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture in Brussels, Belgium, June 26, 2008.

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

The BORG

2008-07-02T22:16:00.002+02:00

MONSANTO CONTINUES IS REIGN OF DESTRUCTION

Into the Mouth of Madness

2008-06-26T22:23:00.002+02:00

"It’s mid afternoon and the sun is struggling to find its way through millions of tiny particles kicked up in today’s sand storm, casting a yellow haze and ominous glow across Baghdad. I am with a platoon of US Army soldiers. We are gathering our flak vests, helmets and protective gear and heading out to a group of armored vehicles.

After a short briefing about the mission -- threats we might face and procedures to undertake should we be hit by rockets, IED’s, snipers, ambush’s etc, -- we are loaded into a four vehicle convoy and are heading into the heart of Sadr City. The mission is simply to visit several checkpoints along the recently completed Sadr City wall. This is reason I am in Iraq.

We go along the Sadr City Wall, a highly controversial project which has effectively walled two to four million Iraqis inside the planets most dangerous neighborhood. The US Military sees it as a show of strength to the insurgents who call Sadr City home, as well as a way to control who enters and exits the city. The locals see it as another hostile move by the occupying forces, a major inconvenience for working and moving from place to place, as well as a potential danger since peaceful residents may not be able to escape when more rounds of the fierce fighting erupt.

Approaching the wall gives me an eerie feeling, a reminder of the wall separating Israel and Palestine, what I have seen of the Berlin wall and, of course, other areas of Baghdad which are now also similarly enclosed. The wall project is nearly complete now, and the local Iraqis seem stunned and disconcerted by the new addition to their neighborhood. I see an elderly woman carrying what must be an extremely heavy package of vegetables on her head, and wonder how much longer her journey to the market is now with this massive new concrete impediment in her way.

My first impression of the wall assures me that I made the right decision in coming here to document this."

Zoriah: War Photographer Diaries – Into the Mouth of Madness

Politics...

2008-06-26T22:20:00.002+02:00

There is Always Hope...

2008-06-21T20:38:00.000+02:00

Cambodia in Black and White

2008-06-20T14:09:00.009+02:00

street children sheltar,Phnom Penh, Cambodia

street child

Children in squatter areas, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Young girl, Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Bassac squatter area after fire, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Boy in Bassac after fire, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

cambodia.humans.ch/

American Empire: Full Spectrum Dominance

2008-06-19T22:28:00.005+02:00

bildungblog.blogspot.com/

The Biggest Disaster of All

2008-06-19T22:11:00.000+02:00

NO BUSH

2008-06-17T22:29:00.001+02:00

An anti-Bush message is seen written on a hillside overlooking Belfast ahead of the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush June 16, 2008. Reuters / Andrew Winning

Education of the Bullet

2008-06-12T20:56:00.000+02:00

A young boy looks through a bullet hole in the window of a school in the Shia area of Sadr city in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. (BBC.)

The Lost Nation

2008-06-09T20:34:00.006+02:00

"War Photographer Diaries – Entering Iraq After three days in Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, it is finally time to leave for Baghdad. It is 5:45 in the morning and I am sitting in a large hanger waiting for news on the flight. I sneak off now and then to shoot a bit more of the latrine graffiti, as people found it suspicious when I would just stand in the bathroom with my cameras out waiting for stalls to open up."

"After several minutes they are able to stabilize the boy enough to transfer him upstairs to surgery. We follow along and spend the next hour in the surgery ward as surgeons remove the boy’s organs, setting them aside as they dig large chunks of shrapnel out of the boy’s body. For the time being they must ignore that fact that one of his hands is also missing and focus on the more pressing injuries."

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From www.zoriah.net/
An extraordinary photojournalist.

Four Hawks of the Apocalypse?

2008-06-06T19:57:00.003+02:00

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (2nd R) is joined by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (L), former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (2nd L) and former Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci as they listen to President George W. Bush speak during the ceremonial groundbreaking of the U.S. Institute of Peace on Navy Hill in Washington June 5, 2008. REUTERS/Larry Downing

SEE ALSO:

HENRY KISSINGER

CONDOLEEZZA RICE

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

FRANK CARLUCCI

Returning to normality

2008-06-03T00:40:00.002+02:00

Life is struggling to return to normality in China after last month's devastating earthquake laid waste to towns and cities across the country's south-west.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Iraq Detainees

2008-06-01T10:30:00.007+02:00

An Iraqi man sits in a chair in small wood shack with no windows and little ventilation. A torn shirt blindfolds his eyes and his wrists are tightly bound with plastic, military handcuffs. He sits perfectly still even as he hears the door open.

An American soldier sits in front of the man and pulls off his blindfold as his eyes struggle to adapt to the light. “What were you doing walking along the highway? Don’t you know that is
a restricted area?” After a masked Iraqi translator speaks to the man in Arabic he replies “my car was broken down, I had to walk.”“We found nearly four thousand US dollars in your pocket, why do you have so much money” asks the interrogator. “I own a computer shop. I had to
go and pick up a shipment in another city, there are receipts for my order along with the money” the man responds. The soldier is getting frustrated and obviously does not believe the man. “That’s bullshit, no one carries that much cash…what were you doing with that money? Is
it for weapons, are you buying weapons.”

As the man shakes his head, the translator begins to explain to the interrogator that most Iraqis do not have bank accounts or credit cards and actually do most of their business in cash. That,

and the fact that with only one hour a day of electricity, few banks are even open. The story does not seem to sink in and the interrogator continues on the same path for quite a while, before finally realizing that the mans story will not change.

Another soldier uses a biometric device to scan the man’s retina, fingerprint and enter his personal data on the small screen. I walk outside with the interrogator. I ask him what will happen next and he replies “we don’t have anything on him, we will probably just release him tomorrow if we cant get anything else out of him.”The next day the man is driven back to where he was picked up and given back his money and personal belongings. I ask the interrogator how many detainees they bring in each day and what percentage, in his personal opinion, are actually guilty. “Sometimes we only bring in a few guys a day, sometimes we can take in a couple hundred. In my opinion, less than 1% of them have done something wrong.”A couple of weeks later while stationed at another base with a different platoon, I find out that a group of detainees are about to be released. Although formally forbidden to ta ke photos of ANY detainees under ANY circumstances, I am close with the unit and they invite me along.The detainees, still blindfolded and cuffed are led into a convoy of armored vehicles. We set out to drop the men
off in the area that they had been taken into custody the day before. It is about a fifteen minute drive and the sun is beginning to set.

“This is it, this is where we picked them up” says one of the soldiers as the convoy pulls off to the side of the road in a residential neighborhood. The detainees are led out of the vehicles and lined up against a wall. Their blindfolds are taken off and when the men realize that they are being released they begin to cry with relief. They look absolutely exhausted, their clothes filthy and torn with a look of fear and confusion on their eyes.

As the soldiers escort the detainees back to their homes, a crowd of friends and relatives begins to gather on the streets. There is screaming, crying and hugging as the community sees the missing men are alive. Two women faint and are held up by their husbands and sons.

One man starts screaming in English “why did you do this? Why did you take them? They are graduate students at the University. These are not terrorists they are students! Why did you
take them? What did you do to them?

In Iraq, if someone does not come home by nightfall, the family fears the worst. When they have not returned by the next morning, they assume that their loved ones are dead. When finally
reunited, it is a truly emotional experience. When detainees are held indefinitely, the family often never knows they were taken into custody and assumes they have been killed and that they will not see them again. Under the US Patriot Act, detainees can be held indefinitely without any trial or any opportunity to speak with or notify their families.

Zoriah - Iraq Detainees

Political Science...

2008-05-23T12:23:00.001+02:00

China's grief

2008-05-19T15:00:00.002+02:00

A student cries during a ceremony paying respect to the earthquake victims as China begins three days of national mourning. - telegraph.co.uk

Burmese children 'facing death'

2008-05-18T11:51:00.002+02:00

Children survivors of Cyclone Nargis cover their heads from the rain with empty aluminum plates, as they wait for a plate of rice, a spoonful of curry and a potato, in front of a private donation center, in Laputta town, Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar, Thursday, May 15, 2008. (AP Photo)

FROM the BBC:

Aid agencies are warning supplies are not getting to the areas worst hit

Thousands of children in cyclone-hit Burma will starve to death within weeks unless food reaches them soon, UK charity Save the Children has warned.

The charity said 30,000 under-fives in the Irrawaddy Delta were malnourished before Cyclone Nargis hit on 2 May.

It says energy-rich food now needs to reach them "before it is too late".

UK Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown, in Burma to press the junta to do more, says that the aid operation "is now starting to move".

Speaking to the BBC from Rangoon, Lord Malloch-Brown said that there had been "bottlenecks in the relief operation, many of them man-made" but that now aid was starting to be delivered.

He said that though the relief effort had not been what many Western nations considered sufficient, thanks to support from the governments of the region and the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) a compromise had been struck that the "Burmese can work with".

When people reach this stage they can die in a matter of days

Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children UK's chief executive

He said that aid workers are insisting that the needs of the cyclone victims are not being met, and the Burmese junta has a much more optimistic view of the situation on the ground.

Therefore, Lord Malloch-Brown says, the vital thing now is for a comprehensive assessment of exactly what is help is needed.

Burma says some 78,000 people have died and 56,000 are missing since Cyclone Nargis hit.

'Running out of time'

A UN humanitarian envoy is due in Burma to try to persuade the ruling junta to grant more access to UN relief workers.

John Holmes will carry a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Burma's leader, Than Shwe, who has refused to answer Mr Ban's calls.

His visit comes as Save the Children UK's chief executive, Jasmine Whitbread, expressed concern that children in the worst-affected areas were suffering from "acute malnourishment" - the most serious level of hunger.

The cyclone has filled rice fields with sea water, destroying vital crops

UK aid 'reaching cyclone victims'

Burma: How you can help

Waiting to deliver aid

"When people reach this stage they can die in a matter of days," she said.

"Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food. They urgently need nutrient and energy-rich food, and food containing all the elements of a balanced diet.

"We need to reach more before it is too late."

Medical charity worker Jonathan Pearce, who returned from the Irrawaddy delta area on Saturday, says the situation is "desperate".

"A lot of people are on the move, people are looking for shelter; people are looking for food," Mr Pearce, who works for the charity Merlin, said.

"We're seeing people that are injured, body injuries from when the storm hit, these injuries have now become infected and those people need urgent treatment."

'Show visit'

A team of 50 Indian medical personnel has been given permission to fly into Burma, equipped with medical supplies.

But Burma has been refusing most offers of international aid, sparking international outcry.

On Saturday, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned Burma's government for not allowing international aid to reach the cyclone victims.

Mr Brown told the BBC that a natural disaster had been turned into a "man-made catastrophe" because of the negligence of the ruling generals. He said their actions since the cyclone amounted to inhuman treatment.

France has said Burma is on the verge of committing a crime against humanity.

Burma has refused to allow in French and US aid ships which are waiting off the coast.

On Saturday, Burma took foreign diplomats on a helicopter tour of the Irrawaddy Delta.

But Shari Villarosa, the top US diplomat in Burma, dismissed the visit as a "show".

However, Bernard Delpuech, head of the European Commission Humanitarian Office in Rangoon, said the trip had at least shown "the magnitude of the devastation".

China and Burma in the line of Fire

2008-05-16T19:30:00.007+02:00

A rescue worker carries a survivor from a collapsed building in the old city district near a mountain in earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, China, May 15, 2008. Reuters/ Jason Lee

An orphan and a nursemaid stay at a shelter as a foreign nongovernmental organization medical team arrive to treat them at a village outside Yangon, Myanmar, May 15, 2008. Reuters/Stringer

You help those affected by donating to the following:

Oxfam GB :: Donate now - DEC Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Appeal

Oxfam GB :: Donate now - China Earthquake Emergency Appeal

How to Donate for the China Earthquake Relief

China Earthquake Donation Guide: 24+ ways to give - UPDATED

You are Being Watched...

2008-05-02T20:56:00.000+02:00

Product: Human

2008-04-30T21:24:00.004+02:00

http://www.usdesignstudio.co.uk/freerange.html

A Haven....

2008-04-29T00:29:00.003+02:00

The Ephemerist:

Austin Kleon is a cartoonist and poet from Austin, Texas who has a quite original and intriguing way of working. He takes a page from an existing book and blacks out words until he finds a new and hidden meaning in the text, using the block of text as a visual and poetic element, on a par with the actual words….Some of the results are hilarious, some are profound and even unsettling, but they are never bland or boring.

Settlers and Securities

2008-04-27T14:20:00.006+02:00

Israeli settlers clashes with Israeli security forces in the evacuation of the west bank settlement of Amona . more then 200 policmen and settlers were imjured in the clashes .

Yonathan Weitzman, REUTERS

Project Zimbabwe

2008-04-22T10:11:00.009+02:00

http://www.robertobazzoni-onlus.com/

Zimbabwe's Children Urgently Need an End to this Ongoing Crisis

Save the Children's statement in advance of African leaders meeting about Zimbabwe elections in Zambia.

Friday 11 April 2008

The plight of Zimbabwe's children:

Half the remaining population in Zimbabwe is now under 18.
More than one in four of those under 18 are orphans.
Chronic malnutrition is rising among children due to poor harvests caused by drought, flooding and poor agricultural policies.

Rachel Pounds, Save the Children's country director in Zimbabwe says:

"The people of Zimbabwe desperately need a resolution to this crisis. While the country is at a political standstill, the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe continues to deepen.

"Over a third of children in rural areas are now chronically malnourished.

"The harvest this year has again been bad, and while people are not yet starving to death, in the poorest areas the food they've collected is unlikely to last more than four months.

"Children we are working with are trying to survive on bitter wild fruit that they mix with ash to soften the taste.

"Many have been forced to drop out of school because they have no clothes, are too weak to travel the long distances or have to try to find work in an attempt to get food or money for their families."

Children are also bearing the brunt of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe.

Pounds continued: "Save the Children is working with children, some as young as 13 and HIV+ themselves, who are caring alone for their sick parents or grandparents, clearing up vomit and blood, while still being responsible for finding food, cleaning the house and looking after their younger siblings."

"The appalling statistics speak for themselves. More than one in ten children in Zimbabwe now die before their fifth birthday, and the average life expectancy rate for women is now at 34, the lowest in the world.

"Coping with the trauma of losing parents or siblings has become normality for many children here. The country has the highest number of orphans per capita in the world."

The political impasse is also hampering the humanitarian aid effort, with aid organizations such as Save the Children unable to deliver aid to communities in both rural and urban areas.

Pounds said: "We have stocks of mosquito nets and kits to help children look after relatives with AIDS and not get infected themselves - none of which can be delivered until there is a resolution to this crisis. The chronic shortages in the country are also impeding what we can do. We can't even buy seed to distribute in preparation for next year's harvest.

"The stress on children and their families here is enormous. With the health system in tatters and hyper-inflation plunging more and more families into poverty, children urgently need the stability and support to start rebuilding their lives."

More information

Learn more about our work in Zimbabwe.

$2 £1

2008-04-19T00:29:00.002+02:00

A woman begs at the roadside in Jakarta, Indonesia, where about 50% of the country's population lives on less than $2 (£1) a day, according to the World Bank.

BBC News

IRAQ INVASION MEANS A WAR ON CHILDREN

2008-04-18T19:28:00.005+02:00

These are photos from a site that has some very gruesome photos of Iraqi civillians who have been murdered by US and Allied forces. The Real cost of the Iraq war is the terrible destruction wrought on innocent children.

Please be warned, the photos are horrific but as the author mentions only the tip of the iceberg:

"The pentagon has been shutting down websites that show pictures and assassinating the newspeople that create them. I would advise collecting them and passing them around by email, since that is harder for the Pentagon to stop. The Daily Mirror in Britain bravely left one of their stories in place all XXed out instead of just removing it in to Orwellian oblivioun when censored.

There are suprisingly few pictures of the damage or the casualties of Gulf War I or the sanction bombings. Bush Sr. exercised strict censorship. Please pass on URLs of any photos that speak to the heart.

My opponents argue that I can’t prove precisely who was responsible for the carnage in any individual photo. My intent is not a criminal investigation of each incident but to show you just how horrible war in general is. It is no secret the USA has spent $300 billion on waging its war in Iraq, that it attacked unprovoked under false pretences and that it used weapons banned by the U.N., including napalm, cluster bombs, depleted uranium and white phosphorus. It also uses torture, rape, and attack dogs on children. The pictures on and linked to by my website don’t come even close to depicting the true hell president Bush has created in his bid to takeover Iraq’s oil.

You might wonder why there are not more pictures of American casualties. There are four reason for this:

The US military heavily censors photos of US casualties.
US soldiers like to photograph dead Iraqis much as they photograph hunting trophies. Iraqis are not as well supplied with cameras.
I don’t really give a fig personally about US soldiers who die. Those US soldiers voluntarily chose the profession of hired killers. They kill for thrills and money, not because they are defending their country. I care about civilians, especially children, of any nationality or religion. I realise, however, that most Americans are infected with racism and nationalism and care only about American deaths and then only white ones, so I will gladly post any photos you can find of US casualties to pound home the cost of this war in suffering to Americans too.

Denial

Americans are as deeply in denial to their wrongdoing as Nazis were. They kid themselves they spend two trillion dollars ($80,000 per Iraqi man, woman and child in a country with an average monthly wage of $5) to create grief for Iraqis without killing non-combatants. Sgt. Frank Wuterich (accused of murdering 24 civilians) explained in a 60 Minutes interview that the policy is to kill anyone who shows “hostile intent” That would include a child throwing rocks or old women screaming obscenities. That would include anyone who did not lie on the ground in submission — something the non-English speaking Iraqis are supposed to automatically understand. He said that he and his men threw grenades into houses, without doing any checks first to see if there was anynone there who was a combatant. Their belief is the only good Iraqis is a dead Iraqi, that Iraqi civilians are worthless scum, so it is perfectly acceptable to kill children on the off chance they might kill a resistance fighter in the process. The American soliders have lower morality than the Nazis in this regard."

Tank Boy

2008-04-14T09:51:00.001+02:00

A boy standing on a destroyed Iraqi army armoured vehicle pours water on a fire after clashes and an airstrike on Baghdad's Sadr City April 12, 2008. U.S. and Iraqi forces killed at least 13 gunmen in heavy battles overnight around Baghdad's Sadr City, the U.S. military said on Saturday, but authorities went ahead and eased a two-week-old blockade of the slum. By Khareem Raheem /Reuters

Torn Apart by Modern Day Imperialism

2008-04-11T22:34:00.006+02:00

zoriah.com

Visit http://iraq.reuters.com/ - A powerful journey through the hell that Iraq has become courtesy of the US and Allied forces.

NATION TORN APART BY VIOLENCE

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the country's leader Saddam Hussein in 2003. Some have died in a sectarian conflict, others in an insurgency aimed at ousting foreign troops and overthrowing the government. More than 4 million Iraqis are displaced - around half of them have fled abroad, mostly to Syria and Jordan. Kidnappings and suicide bombings have also driven out many international organisations and aid workers have been abducted and killed. Before the invasion, Iraqis had suffered decades of dictatorship, wars and international sanctions, all of which crippled its economy and shattered its infrastructure. The invasion brought an end to sanctions and paved the way for elections and a new constitution. Billions of aid dollars have poured in to rebuild the country but the dire security situation and corruption have hampered reconstruction.

KEY FACTS

Deaths since invasion
Civilians killed by military intervention (estimates vary)	See Iraq Body Count*, a running tally based on media reports and morgue data
	600,000 estimate for violent deaths 2003-2006, according to U.S. researchers from Johns Hopkins University
	151,000 estimate for violent deaths 2003-2006, according to a U.N. World Health Organisation survey
	1.03 million estimated killed as a result of conflict, according to a survey by British polling agency Opinion Research Business
Displaced
Internally displaced	2.2 million (UNHCR estimate, September 2007)
Displaced outside Iraq	2.2 million (UNHCR estimate, September 2007)
Child mortality
Under five mortality rate 1990	50 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF)
Under five mortality rate 2005	125 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF State of the World's Children report)
Infant mortality rate 1990	40 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF)
Infant mortality rate 2005	102 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF State of the World's Children)

http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/571273.htm

Rising Control

2008-04-10T00:56:00.004+02:00

Residents protest by throwing stones on the streets in front of U.N. peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince April 8, 2008. Haitians erected flaming barricades and tried to storm the National Palace on Tuesday as protests against rising food prices, which have killed five people, paralyzed the impoverished nation's capital. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

How convenient...This will give the powers that be more excuses for tighter controls and more losses of liberty.

Olympian Denial

2008-04-07T19:44:00.005+02:00

pro-Tibet demonstrator stands in the snow as he takes part in an anti-China protest in London April 6, 2008. Thousands of anti-China protesters draped in Tibetan flags disrupted the Olympic torch relay on Sunday through London, billed as a journey of harmony and peace.

REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

Police scuffle with a protester outside Downing Street as the Olympic torch is carried through London April 6, 2008. Thousands of anti-China protesters draped in Tibetan flags disrupted the Olympic torch relay on Sunday through London, billed as a journey of harmony and peace.

REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

Anti-Bush Across the World

2008-04-05T12:50:00.020+02:00

Indonesian Muslim protester shout slogans during a rally against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, Sunday, Nov. 19,2006, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Thousands wound through the streets of Indonesia’s capital and gathered at mosques Sunday to protest U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit to the world’s most populous Muslim nation, some chanting ‘War criminal’ and ‘You are a terrorist!’AP: Thousands in Indonesia protest Bush trip

Massive protests against Bush’s visit to Brazil

Some models join students in an anti-Bush demonstration in Sydney, 05 September 2007, where the world leaders have started arriving for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Australian police warned Wednesday that during a huge security blitz they would hunt down a special kind of threat -- truants skipping school to protest a visit by US President George W. Bush. [Getty Images]

A demonstrator carries an anti-Bush placard in Tokyo, during a protest against the war in Iraq Saturday, March 22, 2008. Some 1,400 protesters took part in the anti-war rally, marking the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq. [AP Photo by Shuji Kajiyama]

New York - September 25: An elderly anti-Bush protester waits to be taken away after being arrested September 25, 2007 near the United Nations in New York City. Several protestors were arrested during the demonstrating coinciding with President Bush's address to the United Nations. [APF/Getty Images]

An elderly woman cries in front of protestors holding an anti-NATO and anti-Bush placard during rally in the center of KIev on March 31, 2008. The rally was organized by leftist parties against US President George W. Bush's visit and against NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on March 31, 2008 that Georgia and Ukraine were "shamelessly" being pushed toward joining NATO and accused the United States of "infiltrating" ex-Soviet states. [AFP/Getty images]

Students march and shout slogan during an anti-Bush demonstration in Sydney, 05 September 2007, where the world leaders have started arriving for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Australian police warned Wednesday that during a huge security blitz they would hunt down a special kind of threat -- truants skipping school to protest a visit by US President George W. Bush [AFP/Getty Images]

A girl holds a poster reading 'Seriously damages human rights' during an anti-Bush demonstration in front of the US Embassy in Brussels. [image by Jacques Colett for Agence France Presse Belgium]

Protesters burn an effigy of US President George W Bush during a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, hours before his arrival on a two-day state visit. [BBC News]

People take part in a anti-Bush demonstration in Dar es Salaam, eastern Tanzania, on February 16, 2008. US President George W. Bush arrived 16 February in Benin, the first stop on a five-country African tour to highlight US aid to battle malaria and HIV/AIDS and efforts to resolve regional conflicts. Bush unveiled a new plan on February 18, 2008, to hand out millions of bed-nets to defend every Tanzanian child aged one to five from the mosquitoes that spread deadly malaria. [AFP/Getty]

New York- September 25: Police lead off an arrested anti-Bush protester September 25, 2007 near the United Nations in New York City. Several protestors were arrested during the demonstrating coinciding with President Bush's address to the United Nations. [Getty Images]

Iranians hold up anti-Bush placards, accusing him of being a Zionist and comparing him with Adolf Hitler, during a rally held in Tehran to mark the 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution on February 11, 2008. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America" and pledged their loyalty to the Islamic republic as they celebrated the revolution's anniversary while President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on the occasion that the West was only "playing with pieces of paper" in its pressure over Iran's nuclear programme and launched a bitter tirade against his domestic opponents. [Getty Images]

At 8:30 am on November 20th at Admiralty Arch, Oxford activists unfurled a banner reading 'Bush Free Zone' and decorated with a (Bush choking) pretzel, and handed out leaflets which quoted the memoirs of George Bush Senior where he said occupying Iraq would be "unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate," and "Had we gone the invasion [of Iraq] route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." (src: sociétélibre, Indymedia)

A 65 year old grandmother, Lindis Percy, started the protest off by climbing the gates of Buckingham Palace and pinning a inverted US flag with a message for the Queen :- "Elizabeth Windsor& co. - He is not welcome."

Mother of the Disappeared

2008-04-04T18:49:00.003+02:00

Rosa Roisinblit, 88, vice-president of the Argentine human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, sits on her bed during an interview at her Buenos Aires apartment, Argentina, February 19, 2008. Roisinblit spoke of her daughter Patricia who was kidnapped by the ruling military junta when she was eight months pregnant in October, 1978, and never seen or heard of again.

Her grandson, Guillermo, was born to Patricia in captivity and forcibly adopted by a family with ties to the Dirty War dictatorship, remaining unknown to Rosa until an anonymous tip-off led her to him after 22 years of searching. The Grandmothers have recovered about 88 grandchildren in their 30 years of activity and continue to search for some 500 others believed to have been born in captivity to their daughters. Rosa continues to search for her daughter Patricia. - Reuters/Carolina Camps

East Timor's Displaced

2008-03-29T11:59:00.010+01:00

Ceonal camp

A tenth of East Timor's people are internally displaced (IDPs), nearly two years after violence erupted in the country.

A third of them - around 30,000 people - live in camps in the capital Dili, the rest with friends or family.

The continued threat of instability has meant many are afraid to return home. But with rebel soldiers now in talks, the government is trying to empty the camps before they themselves become a security issue.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from Ceonal camp

Squeezing in

Many camps are very overcrowded. This one, Ceonal camp, is home to nearly 3,000 people.

Most of them are originally from the east of the country, but were living in the capital, in its west, when the violence broke out in 2006.

Some refugees on both sides of the conflict are still unable to go home because their houses have been burned down or damaged. For now, they squeeze tents in wherever they can.

Still frightened

The conflict was sparked by the dismissal of half of East Timor's army.

Those soldiers have now returned to the capital to negotiate with the government. But some refugees, like Joanna, say they do not feel safe enough to go home.

Joanna's father and brother were killed when the family fled during the chaos, and she says she will only go back to her home district when the army is there to guarantee her safety.

Jobless

Unemployment rates in East Timor are thought to be around 50%. Dili is really the only place to find a job. Some people who arrived in IDP camps here want to stay on because they have found some kind of work in the capital. But many more have nothing to do.

Government concern

Large numbers of young men hanging around all day with nothing to do are a worry for the government.

The camps are seen as a potential security threat, as well as a humanitarian crisis - a key reason why the government would like to see them emptied.

Turning political

Political influence in the camps is growing. Posters and T-shirts bearing the insignia of political parties are dotted around Ceonal.

At some camps, flags belonging to the main opposition party, Fretilin, fly above the entrances.

The UN deputy head of mission in Dili has admitted there has been politicisation of IDP camps, and described it as a source of instability that needs to be resolved.

Out fishing

Ceonal camp is on the country's north coast. Men supplement food aid with fish caught from the sea.

The government has asked that food aid be cut by 50% during February and March, and plans to phase it out for most people after that.

There have been some reports that numbers in the camps are being kept artificially high by the promise of hand-outs.

Making a home

Most people live in plastic tents, donated by aid agencies in the early days of the crisis.

But after two years, some people have attempted something a little more permanent.

The government has promised to provide housing for those people who cannot return to their former homes. But it has yet to find the money for the scheme.

Language classes

Many people in the camps say they are keen to learn English.

Oker is taking classes run by a church mission.

He says he wants to speak English well because it is important for Timor to have good relations with other countries.

Population pressure

Dili's IDP camps are full of children. Women bear on average between three and four children each.

For every one Timorese who dies, four more are born.

Re-housing families is the first step for the government to safeguard stability now, but it also needs to improve the employment prospects for the next generation to defuse the time-bomb waiting around the corner.

From BBC News,Lucy Williamson.

Bombing Those in the Pay

2008-03-18T18:10:00.005+01:00

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Joseph Aton clears a B-1B Lancer to drop six GBU-38 munitions onto a suspected al-Qaeda location in northern Zambraniyah, Iraq, March 10, 2008. You Witness News/Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway

"suspected" being the key word here. This usually translates as bombing those not already in the pay of the shadow government and acting as boogy-men-agents. Or,alternatively taking out "insurgents" trying to defend what's left of their country from an invading force.

Then there is always the possibility that the US has just bombed another family trying to survive....Take your pick.

Afghan Women

2008-03-10T19:31:00.004+01:00

Lana Slezic

"A series on Afghan women and girls - part of a larger body of work. Afghan women and girls are still among the most oppressed people in the world."

http://photoawards.com/

State of Play

2008-03-09T22:21:00.004+01:00

(click on posters for larger view)

Posters of Scorsone and Drueding at www.SDposters.com

Gaza I

2008-03-05T13:50:00.003+01:00

Gaza Conflict - Ceasefire Now!

2008-03-04T18:56:00.004+01:00

"Israel and Gaza are on the brink of war. A ground assault has left many dead, and the rain of rockets only spreads. Israel is now considering a full-scale invasion of Gaza, which has never worked before. The only answer is a ceasefire deal, already suggested by Hamas and supported by 64% of Israelis and some senior cabinet ministers. With international help, this could make civilians on both sides safer.

Peace itself is at stake in the coming days, as are thousands of lives. But both sides know they are in a battle for global legitimacy, and international opinion matters. We need to raise a massive worldwide outcry for a Gaza ceasefire now - sign the emergency petition below, we will deliver it to senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders and in a billboard campaign:

We call for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to stop the bloodshed and agree to an immediate ceasefire, and for the international community to engage constructively and help broker a fair deal for the safety of civilians on both sides.

The Gaza-Israel crisis is out of control. It's come to this:

bloody full-scale invasion, or a cease-fire.¹ With rockets raining down on both sides, Israel launched a ground assault into the Gaza Strip this weekend. Over a hundred combatants and civilians from both sides lie dead.² The next 48 hours are crucial -- Israel's cabinet will discuss a larger invasion Wednesday. But Hamas floated a Gaza ceasefire months ago, and 64% of Israelis support the idea.³

Both sides know they are in a battle for global legitimacy, and international opinion counts. We need a massive global outcry for a cease-fire now -- sign the emergency petition below, then forward this message to friends and family. We will deliver our petition to senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, as well as in a major billboard campaign:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_ceasefire_now/4.php

Citizens on both sides are desperate for safety. Many experts believe that without a ceasefire to stabilize Gaza, there is no chance for achieving a comprehensive peace and a fair two-state deal. While the US still maintains no-one must talk to Hamas, Israel itself has begun to break that taboo. Public reports and our own contacts indicate that European and Arab officials now support a Gaza ceasefire, as does Palestinian President Abbas.

Like the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, this conflict is spinning out of control. Just as it did then, international pressure can help achieve a ceasefire today. The combatants take public opinion very seriously. So let's send a united global message to the warring parties to stop the violence -- sign the petition and spread the word today:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_ceasefire_now/4.php

With hope and determination,

Paul, Galit, Esra'a, Ricken, Ben, Graziela, Pascal and the whole Avaaz team

PS The UN has already called for both sides to cease all acts of violence⁴ -- the European Union, Turkey, Russia, the UK, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and many other states have joined the global chorus. This is not just a war but a growing humanitarian crisis. Last month we met with EU Middle East envoy Marc Otte and senior advisers in European member states to deliver a call for a ceasefire and an internationally-overseen opening of the Gaza crossings, and we have seen progress since from the international community.⁵ There is much more to do. We've campaigned hard for real Middle East talks, but unless Gaza is stabilised, no lasting peace is possible.

Sources:

1. Invasion or ceasefire â€“ Guardian news report on the Israeli debate:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/03/israel.gaza

2. The Times of London news report - both sides claiming success, 110 dead:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3473788.ece

Missiles now reaching the Israeli city of Ashkelon:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iDwNccgnikUMFy7O6LWaLsmaFUqwD8V5I2I00

3. 64% of Israelis support ceasefire talks with Hamas:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/958473.html

President Abbas wants to help broker such a ceasefire:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3514385,00.html

4. UN and EU call for an end to the violence:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSN0127116720080302

5. European and international policy shifting:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956434.html
and http://www..haaretz.com/hasen/spages/951934.html

SIGN THE PETITION

Rape of a Nation

2008-03-02T11:42:00.005+01:00

mediastorm.org/

Rape of a Nation
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998, the largest death toll since the Second World War, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

IRC reports that as many as 45,000 people die each month in the Congo. Most deaths are due to easily preventable and curable conditions, such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, and neonatal problems and are byproducts of a collapsed healthcare system and a devastated economy.

The people living in the mining towns of eastern Congo are among the worst off. Militia groups and government forces battle on a daily basis for control of the mineral-rich areas where they can exploit gold, coltan, cassiterite and diamonds.

After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West's desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure. Watch it now.

Another Prayer, Another Little Girl

2008-02-27T20:52:00.003+01:00

An IDP infant girl died from sickness at the camp in Mornei, West Darfur. The men from her family and her community prayed over her shrouded body before burial.
James Nachtwey VII / TIME Magazine -"Genocide in Darfur"

Blood and Protest

2008-02-24T19:16:00.005+01:00

Shanbo Heinemann, a pro-Palestinian activist from San Francisco, California, sits on the ground after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet fired by Israeli troops during a violent protest against Israel's security fence in the West Bank village of Bilin, February 22, 2008.

REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Collateral Damage - CHILDREN

2008-02-20T23:35:00.007+01:00

nomorevictims.org

The invasion and occupation of Iraq by the British and Americans and other allies will go down in history as one of the most disgusting war crimes ever inflicted on humanity: the use of cluster bombs; chemical weapons; microwave weapons; torture; abuse; dentention; black operations by the CIA and MI6 intent on creating a lasting civil war and social fragmentation; ( a long known geo-political ruse for greater control of a country's resources) social and cultural rape that will rip out the heart of this nation and a corporate invasion via private security firms; oil oligarchs and construction projects. The US military bases are being built to last for decades such is the seduction of oil.

It is hard to believe how much pain and suffering has been inflicted on this country. It is hard to believe how how may have died and how many have been wounded. Over a million and counting but it is likely more.

The above poster comes from an excellent website that is not afraid of talking about the reality of the situation: orphaned children; mothers who have lost their children, children who have been maimed and traumatized, children who have been cut down for nothing more than the sickness of greed and power. Medical sponsorships are provided for war-injured Iraqi children - so go see what you can do to help.

There's another site where you can sponsor Iraqi children which is Child Victims of War.
For only £20 a month you can give the chance for a child to receive the support s/he needs.

Curiosity and Trauma

2008-02-17T19:54:00.003+01:00

Thank you Tony Bliar and George W. Bush the destroyers of generations of Iraqi children
for nothing more than money and power. A taste of their lies:

Iraq Dossier

Blair’s Serious And Current Lies

Blair’s Lies

Diplomat’s suppressed document lays bare

The Figures Speak for themselves...

2008-02-15T12:57:00.004+01:00

For detailed numbers, click
THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH'S PRESIDENCY

The Country He Inherited, The Country He Leaves Behind

Collective torture

2008-02-13T10:34:00.003+01:00

Three years into a war in the Darfur region of western Sudan, thousands of villagers have been victimized by government troops and proxy militiamen who killed, raped and looted. Now the government is intensifying an air war featuring Soviet-era Antonov planes jury-rigged into bombers and Mi-24 helicopter gunships turned against mud-and-thatch huts. New waves of shellshocked villagers have left their homes and trekked for days to bulging relief camps. For Mustafa, whose eyes are set deeply into a face the color of aged teak, the air attack did what years of sporadic raids by government-backed Janjaweed militiamen had failed to do. They made him leave his home in Bellala Gorf, about 45 miles northwest of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. "They came very low," Mustafa said, his voice low and rumbly from decades of breathing hot desert dust. "I was afraid. I just hid." - Craig Timberg - Sep. 2006

In Darfur, Terror From the Air

- nothing has changed...

For more background go here

To help the crisis relief in the Sudan write to your MP, your congressman and donate to charities helping to alleviate suffering on the ground:

Save the Children

Darfur is Dying (excellent for kids an d raising awareness of the situation)

Save Darfur

Raids

2008-02-12T23:25:00.000+01:00

An adult and child are seen in the grounds of their home through a bullet hole following an overnight raid conducted by U.S. forces in the Sadr City District of Baghdad February 11, 2008. U.S. forces said they detained 25 suspected Shi'ite militiamen during the raids which local residents described as indiscriminately heavy handed. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem

Children are seen in the grounds of their home following an overnight raid conducted by U.S. Forces in the Sadr City District of Baghdad February 11, 2008. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem

Star

2008-02-06T01:31:00.000+01:00

People carrying their belongings are seen through a star-shaped cut as they cross Ngueli bridge over the Logone-Chari river into Cameroon fleeing fighting in N'Djamena, Chad, February 4, 2008. REUTERS/Emmanuel Braun

6 billion others

2008-01-27T18:17:00.000+01:00

http://6billionothers.com/

"a future online repository of thousands of video & audio testimonies as a portrait of contemporary mankind. the people are recorded in a full frame shot so that the closeness of the interviewee's face generates an intimacy encouraging attentive listening.

the aim of the "6 billion others" project is to create a sensitive & human portrait of the planet's inhabitants, by revealing each person's universality & individuality. 6 different directors travel across the world to interview about 6,000 people from 65 different countries. the questions chosen deal with diverse topics, such as family, experiences, what makes us laugh or cry, what gives life meaning, & the like." - http://infosthetics.com

_______________

A beautiful project - take a look.

Boarders

2008-01-23T22:35:00.001+01:00

At Dulles airport, in Virginia, Shackles are lined up systematically to restrain illegal immigrants as they are deported back to their home country by U.S. Air Marshals.

A group of Cuban immigrants line up to look out the window in their cell at a detention center in Mexico. Some of them have been detained for more than 100 days.

In the poor neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez, Carlos Carnizale, 9, points a toy gun at a border patrol truck parked right on the other side of the fence in New Mexico, United States. His brother, Victor, 11 is using binoculars to get a closer look at the agent. The sight of the border patrol is so common for these children that they amuse themselves by imitating them.

Three people walk along the train tracks on the southern side of the Rio Grande River in Reynosa, Mexico. Most immigrants wait for the cover of darkness before trying to sneak past the border patrol agents.

Sarah L. Voisin, The Washington Post
From NPPA

Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? Is Anybody Looking At Condi?

2008-01-21T19:41:00.000+01:00

"Looking at this photo, which was included in TIME's 2007 Images Of The Year, you immediately think of Iraq, don't you?

The photo was taken just before Condi Rice testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee last October.” As she prepares to sit down, she is confronted -- in a stark act of protest theatre -- by a member of the group Code Pink.” I thought Iraq, too, at least up till December 27th, when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

If you read through a series of investigatory articles published in late December by Newsweek and its sister publication, The Washington Post, the context surrounding Bhutto's assassination takes on a disturbing political light -- one which the media has failed to draw conclusions from.

At this point, Benazir Bhutto's death has been consigned as a fateful tragedy or a kind of cruel inevitability for "that part of the world." It's as if Bhutto survived to the age of fifty-four simply out of sheer luck.” The reality, however, is that Bhutto was nothing if not shrewdly tactical in her decisions and highly circumspect when it involved her safety.

Of course, there is no question she was terrifically interested in returning to Pakistan, and resuming power.” What has somehow escaped attention as a central factor in her death, however, is the pressure applied by Condi Rice for Bhutto to return to Pakistan, and, particularly, the representation Rice made to Bhutto -- against Bhutto's own intuition -- that President Musharraf was in support."

READ MORE at BAGnewsNotes

________________________

The Pakistani ISI has long been known to be the primary support in sustaining the myth of Al-qaeda as global bogeyman and as the "problem-reaction-solution" tool for the "War on Terror."

Musharraf hated Bhutto and with US help had her assassinated. Now we have the pantomime performance of a hapless 15 year old being paraded as the one of the brains behind the killing.

Transparent.

Graffiti Guy

2008-01-20T21:24:00.000+01:00

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

Another day in India

2008-01-17T22:37:00.001+01:00

A homeless Indian man sits on a pavement in the eastern
city of Kolkata September 8, 2005.

REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw

A homeless child of an Indian woman selling brooms plays
with dust along the roadside, at a busy market in
Srinagar September 7, 2007.

REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli

A homeless Indian woman holds her son inside her
makeshift house under a bridge in New Delhi,
India, July 30, 2005.

REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Diyala

2008-01-16T13:41:00.000+01:00

"For about two weeks, I've been collecting different variants of this same image.

Typical of the home raid photos that were so prevalent in 2004-5, the hostilities north of Baghdad offer 'more of the same' for a country experiencing basically the same rate of chaos as the year before last. (As WAPO Pentagon reporter Thomas Ricks described the other day, the surge was successful because 'Iraq is no longer on the front pages every day.')

Why this pic trumps the others is because of how intensely it captures the other-wordly ferocity of our 'big boot' wack-a-mole campaign to forestall an all-out civil war. With occupation forces tearing through Sunni homes in Diyala (some of which, yes, are rigged, earning the new designation of 'house bombs'), what is tragic is how much the Iraqi's come off here as the bigger aliens."

Ricks: Baghdad Only Seems ‘Peaceful’ Because 2006 Was ‘Pure Hell’ (Think Progress)
image from: In Diyala, A New Offensive (Newsweek)
9 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Sunni Strongholds (NYT)

______________________________

From BAGNewsNotes

Flags

2008-01-14T22:06:00.000+01:00

"Grande Reportagem is a premiere Portuguese news magazine renowned for its investigative reporting and stunning photo-journalism."

From presscue.com/

Sisters of Rwanda

2008-01-12T01:10:00.000+01:00

www.sistersofrwanda.org/

Advertising Truth

2008-01-12T01:03:00.001+01:00

Sometimes...

2008-01-10T23:35:00.000+01:00

Peace, Love Justice, Goodness, Truth,
Knowledge and Freedom Anyone?

Photo From Ditos Absurdos

Crazy World, Crazy Ocean

2008-01-10T00:53:00.000+01:00

"This was in Sydney, Australia and scientists say it is caused by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed."

from gamefish

Round-the-Clock

2008-01-08T19:31:00.001+01:00

JOY

2008-01-07T21:58:00.000+01:00

middlepath.stumbleupon.com/

Lost

2008-01-06T21:53:00.000+01:00

Have you seen this country?

If you have any information on its whereabouts,
please let us know as soon as possible.

nogw.com

For the Love of Empire

2008-01-04T22:58:00.000+01:00

A people burn in a minibus shortly after a bomb attack in Baghdad, January 21, 2007. REUTERS/Namir Noor-eldeen

A child watches as U.S. soldiers of 4th Platoon, G Company, 3rd Squadron 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment search a house during a patrol in the neighbourhood of Muhalla 834 in Baghdad November 13, 2007.REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

Iraqi police stand over a detained al Qaeda suspect following a raid in the eastern Iraqi town of Baquba July 8, 2007. REUTERS/Helmiy Al Azawi

We the People

2008-01-03T23:20:00.001+01:00

One of the many demonstrations in New York against the the eroison of civil liberties in the US. Protestors held up a banner depiciting the US constitution - most of which is now history under the Bush /Cheney administration.

From One Generation to the Next...

2008-01-02T20:30:00.001+01:00

Palestinian children play with toy guns on the outskirts of Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon city, southern Lebanon, October 4, 2007. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

"The Big Blue Marble" 2008

2008-01-01T01:20:00.000+01:00

The beginning of the end of a Dark Cycle?

Lest we Forget III

2007-12-31T12:20:00.000+01:00

Demonstrator Maboud Ebrahimzadeh lies on the pavement after his ordeal in a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Department in Washington November 5, 2007. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

“There are few things as odd as the calm, superior indifference with which I and those like me watched the beginnings of the Nazi revolution in Germany, as if from a box at the theater. ... Perhaps the only comparably odd thing is the way that now, years later....”

"These are the words of Sebastian Haffner (pen name for Raimund Pretzel), who as a young lawyer in Berlin during the 1930s experienced the Nazi takeover and wrote a first-hand account. His children found the manuscript when he died in 1999 and published it the following year as “Geschichte eines Deutschen” (The Story of a German).

The book became an immediate bestseller and has been translated into 20 languages—in English as “Defying Hitler.”

I recently learned from his daughter Sarah, an artist in Berlin, that today is the 100th anniversary of Haffner’s birth. She had seen an earlier article in which I quoted her father and e-mailed to ask me to “write some more about the book and the comparison to Bush’s America. ... This is almost unbelievable.”

More about Haffner below. Let’s set the stage first by recapping some of what has been going on that may have resonance for readers familiar with the Nazi ascendancy, noting how “odd” it is that the frontal attack on our Constitutional rights is met with such “calm, superior indifference.” - Ray McGovern

Christmas 2007 III

2007-12-30T01:41:00.000+01:00

Afghans walk down a hill in Kabul April 23, 2007. Reuters/Ahmad Masood

A Haitian boy plays in front of coffins in the neighborhood of Cite-Militaire in Port-au-Prince March 27, 2007. Reuters/Eduardo Manoz

A Sadhu, or holy man, holds a poster of Indian cricketers and shouts slogans for their good luck at Sangam, the confluence of three rivers, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati, in the northern Indian city of Allahabad March 12, 2007. Reuters/Jitendra Prakash.

A boy plays at a garbage dump where hundreds of people stay and make a living out of recycling waste and making charcoal in Tondo, Manila December 28, 2007.Reuters/Darren Whiteside

A visitor walks through the Church of Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, December 22, 2007 . Reuters/Nayef Hashlamou

A British soldier from the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) gives sweets to children during a patrol in Kabul, December 24, 2007. Reuters/Omar Sobhani

A man dressed as Father Christmas waits for his turn at a casting session in Berlin, November 20, 2007. Reuters/Tobias Schwartz

A child labourer carries bricks in Bihar-e-Sharif town, about 60 km (37 miles) from Patna, India, April 9, 2007. Reuters/Adeel Halim

Palestinian and peace activist demonstrators are hosed by a water cannon during a protest against Israel's controversial barrier near the West Bank village of Bilin April 27, 2007. Reuters/Gil Cohen Maegan

http://www.reuters.co.uk/

Hey...

2007-12-29T00:22:00.000+01:00

San Francisco sidewalk

And lest we forget II

2007-12-28T13:45:00.001+01:00

This is actually a very crude propaganda attempt by Republican Party Hacks who decided to replace an American medic's attempt to show some humanity to yet another Iraqi child caught in the crossfire. The medic's actual quote is said to have been: 'If anything good comes from this nonsense, I haven't seen it yet.' This was replaced with 'She's glad he's there. Are You?' (http://www.iowapresidentialwatch.com) To top it all, the artist said, by way of defence for her "art": 'By the way, I have an entirely different child and entirely different face on the man holding the child.'

Who ARE these people and what planet do they inhabit??

Original Photo

US Republican Agit-Prop

Found info at
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/155442/365

Propaganda outed at
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/showthread.php?p=12485#post12485

Full sized photoshopped agit-prop at
http://www.iowapresidentialwatch.com/FreedomMatters/AreYou.htm

The above is small fry.

It does make you wonder what the intelligence services and PsyOps operations are up to with CGI technology and all kinds of hi-tec capabilities at their fingertips. The Lincoln grp. for one, has been doing the Pentagon's bidding in this respect for years. Consider this piece which illustrates just how easy it is to seamlessly blur the line between what is truth and what is fiction...

Lest we forget...

2007-12-28T13:24:00.001+01:00

"a week ago the respected British polling firm ORB released the results of
a poll estimating that 22% of households had lost a member to violence
during the occupation of Iraq, equating to 1.2 million deaths."

Yeah...Happy Christmas y'all.

Christmas 2007 II

2007-12-27T19:15:00.000+01:00

Former [and recently assassinated] Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto comforts her supporters in a pray in Karachi, Oct. 21, 2007. A suicide attack took place when Bhutto was returning there. [Once again, WHO BENEFITS? State-sponsored terror. It seems she was in danger of ushering some democratic principles in Pakistan and that could never be tolerated. Musharaff no doubt had his finger in a very corrupt pie to get rid of her.

A Muslim woman wawls on a coffin, July 11, 2007, at a funeral held for 465 Bosnian Muslims.

Activist

An Iranian man waves final good-bye to his relatives before being hanged, in Teheran, Aug. 2, 2007. Two men were hanged for murdering a judge in 2005. This was the first time Iran had implemented hanging in public since 2002.

Monks in Burma protest against military rule.

An Iraqi girl looks at a US soldier on a patrol in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad in March.

Iraq woman cries in disbelief as her son is killed by a stray bullet during a fire fight between US forces and "insurgents."

Ma'ale Adumin, West Bank: A worker on a new Israeli settlement Photograph: Nati Shohat/EPA

Activists protesting against the Iraq War take a coffee break.

Sydney, Australia: Australian share prices dropped sharply in early trading in reaction to the plunge in US and European markets after renewed concerns over US sub-prime mortgage defaults Photograph: Greg Wood/AFP

Hong Kong, China: A 'cage home' resident in Kowloon. At a time when the Hong Kong economy is roaring ahead, and the majority of the city's population are enjoying increasing prosperity, there are still some estimated 1.2 million people living below the poverty line. The monthly rent for a bed cage in this 300 sq ft room with 11 cages, no kitchen facilities, a shared bathroom and toilet is HK$1,000 (93.27 euros) per month Photograph: Alex Hofford/EPA

Cold Street

2007-12-27T13:22:00.000+01:00

Armenia: A beggar and her child in the cold street.

by Edmund Terakopi

Christmas 2007

2007-12-27T00:46:00.000+01:00

Two veiled Saudi women enjoy Red Sea in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2007. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

Christian pilgrims are seen in the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed by many to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem, Monday, Dec. 24, 2007. Gloom was banished from Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for the first time in years on Monday as Christian pilgrims from all over the world flocked here to celebrate Jesus' birth in an atmosphere of renewed tranquility. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

British tourists Louise Norden and Roz Taylor wear Santa masks and hats as they celebrate Christmas at Sydney's Bondi Beach Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A Palestinian security force officer stands guard as Christians gather outside the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed by many to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in Manger Square during Christmas festivities in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Monday, Dec. 24, 2007. Gloom was banished from Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for the first time in years on Monday as Christian pilgrims from all over the world flocked here to celebrate Jesus' birth in an atmosphere of renewed tranquility. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Dog day afternoon

2007-12-26T04:00:00.001+01:00

Still make time to laugh...

Happy Christmas /Joyeux Noel

Numbers

2007-12-24T19:00:00.000+01:00

Alicia Casilio, dressed as an Iraqi civilian, stands silently at an anti-Iraq war protest in Boston, Massachusetts January 11, 2007. The numbers on Casilio's face represent the estimated number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Rada's new family

2007-12-23T11:24:00.000+01:00

Seven-year-old Rada is from Moldova - the poorest nation in Europe with 75% living beneath the poverty line. Poor housing and high unemployment fuels family breakdowns, leaving many children neglected. Rada, whose parents were alcoholics, is one of the few children taken into foster care. The alternative was an outdated orphanage.

Instead, she has a whole new family. Her two new brothers and sister, as well as mum and dad, are thrilled to have Rada.Fostering is new to Moldova but the government has recently decided to encourage the practice, rather than put children in care institutions.There are just 45 foster homes in the country providing homes for 55 children.

Moldova has one of the highest rates of children in institutions in the former Soviet Union. There are 11,500 children in 67 residential children's homes.

Most aren't actually orphans -they have been abandoned by parents or taken into care because of neglect. Rada's foster family have modest means but are willing to foster another child and will get a small government stipend.

Rada will experience a different kind of family life growing up as a foster child. Care in a foster family is far less likely to result in the physical and emotional damage that can result from growing up in an institution.Children who grow up in institutions are more likely to be unemployed or homeless and to take drugs or turn to crime.

Foster families need support too. UK-based charity, EveryChild, is helping train social workers who can provide important back-up to families facing the new challenge of fostering a child. Children from troubled or violent backgrounds may need special care and may have trouble communicating with or integrating with members of their new family.

Fostered children have often had traumatic experiences and need support and counselling. The Moldovan government is developing a system to identify children suitable for fostering and families suitable to take them. All images copyright Mark Writtle/EveryChild

Visit EveryChild.co.uk

STATE TERROR III: Creative Dissent

2007-12-22T20:38:00.000+01:00

I, Psychopath

2007-12-21T23:18:00.000+01:00

By Jonathan Yeo

From The Register:

"The work was unveiled yesterday [August 2007] at London's Lazarides gallery, which explains the motivation behind the thought-provoking piece: "Yeo was commissioned to undertake a portrait of US President George W Bush, but was later told his services were not required. He decided to continue the commission on his own..."

According to the Sun, Republicans have reacted with predictable indignation. A spokesman for Republicans Abroad International said: "This will cause outrage in America. Some people will think it’s funny - but personally I think it is a cheap stunt."

A spokesman for the Texas tentacle of the Republican Party chipped in with: "This picture is very distasteful. Why would anyone want to make a picture of our President from pornographic material?"

The answer is, as Yeo explained at the meisterwork's launch: "I did it for fun, not to offend, but I'm pleased with it. I did it to amuse."

_____________________

Hmm. I'm not quite so sure about that...I rather think he did it to make a point. "Why would anyone want to make a picture of our President from pornographic material?" Such a question can only have come from a myopic bush supporter. Bush is prostituting truth in a myriad of ways. Using pornography as the substance of his portrait is entirely fitting I think.

"Gaza's Children" by Zoriah

2007-12-21T10:51:00.000+01:00

Superb photography - a world class photojournalist. Visit zoriah.com
If you'd like to help financially the Children in Gaza then have a look at these two websites:

www.mecaforpeace.org/

SOS Children

STATE TERROR II: "Dirty Marks Can't be Erased..."

2007-12-19T18:42:00.001+01:00

We cannot fight terrorism using state terror
Jing Zhou
USA

Gavel of terror
Vesa Kuula
Finland

Excuses

Gabriel Martinez & Sonia Diáz
Spain

Dirty marks
Alice Beniero Italy

War will never be the seed of peace
Angela Morelli
Italy

_______________________________________________

good50x70.org

Trouble is... Psychopaths know that...Which is exactly why they want to promote conflict which is very, very lucrative and which is a natural dynamic for those whose nature is predatory. It is their world after all... At least it is, for as long as we make the choice to be their prey....

STATE TERROR I: "When lying on paper human rights can hurt"

2007-12-18T13:42:00.000+01:00

The co-winning and shortlisted posters in the Human rights violation brief

A Reason to Travel: Children

2007-12-16T00:04:00.000+01:00

A great blog post and worth reproducing here in it's entirety - well done Joel.

****

A REASON TO TRAVEL: CHILDREN

by Joel Carillet

December 11, 2006

On the road, it is often a loving stranger who illustrates that, at our best, we are all brothers and sisters and friends, even if we have never met before. This is one reason I have offered the following plea to many of my fellow Americans: if your health and financial means allow, travel abroad at least once in your life. Then, once you are away from your familiar surroundings, look thoughtfully into the eyes of a stranger -- even perhaps into the eyes of your enemy, if you happen to be in such a place -- and then listen attentatively to the words he or she may speak.

There are many good reasons to travel, and I wish I had the time to list them all now. But this post is dedicated to only one: meeting the world's children. I'm speaking of kids like the young novice above, whom I met at a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar in 2004. Of course, I'm speaking of a few billion other kids too...

...like these Palestinian girls in the West Bank town of Jericho

...and this infant in the West Bank village of Zababdeh.

I'm also speaking of children in places like India (above) and Laos (below). Travel reminds us that love is universal, that it is something of a mystery, and that it is often strongest between a parent a child.

Travel does other things too. Late one night in August 2004, while visiting Kathmandu, Nepal, I was the victim of theft. I lost the next four months of traveling money, a notebook full of interviews I had done in Tibet and Laos, a camera, and more. The experience was like being punched in the solarplexis, for I was on a tight budget and had plans to use the notes for a book I would write.

Less than 15 hours after being robbed, however, I was taken into the home of the family above. They were what we in the West would call "poor" (though there are forms of poverty other than financial, and many of us with money in the bank are poor in our own ways). This family was rich in the heart, and they insisted I spend the night in their home "since one needs family in times like these." That evening, the girls suggested we play tag in a nearby plot of trees. Pushpa, pictured on the left, insisted on holding my hand as we walked, and it was not clear to me which of us was the child. Perhaps we both were. Or perhaps neither of us was. But I knew I was learning something about life through both the trauma of losing my "stuff" and the incredible kindness toward a stranger that these girls and their mother were showing me.

Travel may also introduce us to the difficult situations in which some children grow up. Travel allows us to experience something of their world with our own flesh and blood. And perhaps, in some modest way, travel may even allow us to bring an element of beauty into their troubled lives. The girl above is a Palestinian living in Jenin refugee camp. Most weeks of her life she has gone to bed to the sound of gunfire, and she has probably smelled death and spent explosives. And yet she smiles.

And this girl lives in the the Nepalese town of Pokhara. That is, she calls home a place that has some of the world's grandest scenery (the Himalayas) but also, during my visit in 2004, was in the midst of Asia's bloodiest civil war.

And this kid lives in Cambodia, a country that lost an estimated 21% of its population to the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970, and, earlier in that same decade, lost at least 100,000 civilians to U.S. bombing. Today the country struggles with back-breaking poverty, has thousands of children working in brothels, and is full of corruption. That is to say, this too is a place worth visiting, just like Jenin and Pokhara are worth visiting, because in all these places we can look into the children's eyes. Then, perhaps, we will find ourselves compelled to grab a mirror so that we can look into our own eyes. Perhaps we will even be compelled to examine how we live our lives, and why.

I could write more, but I'll close with my plea: if you are able, at some point in your life (the earlier the better), travel. And if you do indeed decide to travel, don't just see the monuments and don't just do what is comfortable. Go deeper than that. Be a pilgrim perhaps, a seeker, and let your journey take you to one of our world's most important sights: the children.

Hue, Vietnam

_______________

From gather.com

Believe in Yourself

2007-12-10T14:40:00.000+01:00

Fifty-year-old heroine addict, Suzan Parker, listens as volunteer Dr. Karen Maloney tells her that she’s got to believe in herself. Parker is homeless in Chicago and recently had all of her medications stolen. By Amelia Phillips at rccphotocafe.com/

The Separation Wall

2007-12-09T15:24:00.000+01:00

zoriah.com - Diaries of a shooter