Thursday, April 16, 2015

199.6 - Everything You Need to Know: what's wrong with the world in just one photograph

Everything You Need to Know: what's wrong with the world in just one photograph

We wrap up the week with one of our occasional features, called Everything You Need to Know. It's where you can learn a great deal about something in a very short time or space.

In this case, it's Everything You Need to Know about just how screwed up the world really is in just one photograph.

The picture is that of a four-year-old girl named Adi Hudea, taken at the Atmeh refugee camp in Syria in December 2014. The photo was taken by Osman Sagirli, who is a Turkish photojournalist.

The caption in the Turkish newspaper where it was first published told the story:
Her face suddenly drops. She squeezes her bottom lip between her teeth and gently lifts up her hands. Where she remains like that without a word.
Adi Hudea
Sagirli was using a telephoto lens, and he realized afterward that Adi thought it was a weapon.

What kind of world is it where 4-year-old children are more familiar with how to respond to having guns pointed at them than they are with a camera?

I don't know how to stop the madness. I don't have an answer. But I will be damned if I will agree that creating more blood, more death, more refugees, more terrified children, is the way out.

And I do know that this one picture is Everything You Need to Know.

By the way, if you want to do something, Doctors Without Borders, a remarkable group of people, is providing direct medical aid in hospitals and health centers inside Syria and the staff is sending medical supplies and equipment to medical networks in Syria that they cannot access themselves. There is a link below where you can make a donation.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/31/1374712/-Stirring-photo-little-girl-surrenders-when-she-mistakes-camera-for-gun
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/home

Information on donating to Doctors Without Borders:
https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime.cfm

That page also contains information on what to do if  you want to specify the donation is for work in Syria.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I also need to know how to stop it, or at least keep the lions share of the medical supplies from helping the wrong people.

Lotus said...

If you have any ideas on how to stop it without producing more Adis, the world would love to know.

And bearing in mind the number of competing militias and forces in Syria with their shifting alliances and often conflicting (even sometimes self-conflicting) goals, who among the wounded and suffering are the "wrong people" and how many of the "right" people are you prepared to see go without medical care to prevent the "wrong" people from getting any of it?

And as you answer, bear in mind that we have no idea if it was the "wrong" people or the "right" people (or maybe both) who taught to be Adi so afraid.

 
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