Have you seen the video podcast of "Hometown Baghdad"? NYTimes described it as a bit like the Real World but I think that has to do with the age of the subjects as much as anything. There is a lot of episodes that are a bit overdone (which I would expect from any video with college students as the subjects) but it's a great glimpse of how people try to continue to live there and the perspectives that they have (which change as the episodes continue). They just finished so I think you can download all of the episodes now.
I had seen some of those, though I didn't follow it closely. Might go have another look. The Iraqi blogger, Riverbend, last posted in April, announcing that her family had decided to leave.
Like "Hometown Baghdad," it gives the day-to-day view of something we normally see only in the macro view. And I think the decision was right, because, after four years of blogging, her posts had become more and more bitter and alienated. The day-to-day situation was becoming insupportable.
Not sure what you mean, Dann. You understand I no longer have access to wire services, so there's no "cut" involved. I saw a photo, I posted it.
The good news is, anybody can have blog these days, so, if you think a particular photo ought to be posted somewhere, you can just post it and then there's no problem anymore with "cuts." Right? Right!
By the way, when you do post that photo on your blog, I hope you explain why a child stuck in the middle of a war, surrounded by death and fear, is somehow a good thing if he happens to be doing something you approve of, rather than just standing there. I purposely added nothing to the photo because I don't really think it mattered.
And, if you really want to talk about choices, I devoted about two-thirds of our front page this past Friday to the funeral of a young Guardsman who was killed in Iraq, with two photos, and one helluva lot more people saw that than saw this picture of a little frightened girl. The previous Tuesday, we put his funeral notice at the top of Page One. The Friday before that, we had a story bannered across Page One with two pictures, one of his mother with his military photo, one of his father holding the 5-month-old baby he never got to see.
So I've made a lot of choices in the past two weeks, and now maybe you should get yourself a blog so you can put down the megaphone and start to make your own choices -- there's really no reason to stand on the sidelines shouting anymore.
I don't mind Dann's comment but I wish he had used a link so that we could see the photo that he is referring to. It's probably also a powerful photo but nobody benefits if it's said to be a "better" photo and we don't see it.
Anyway, the Hometown Baghdad series does catch growing frustration as well as a growing exodus. The subjects are always talking about al lthe places their friends have moved to (US not mentioned as one of them) and the pull for everyone who can get out to get out (although with the hopes of returning when and if things settle down).
There's a difference between an open newsgroup and the comments in a personal blog, and since we cross paths both places, the slip is understandable.
I'll have more to say on the overall subject of civilians -- and particularly kids -- in a war zone, but it's going to take some sleuthing for resources I haven't seen in quite some years ... maybe I'll be able to find that picture to illustrate it ...
An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her 
11 comments:
Have you seen the video podcast of "Hometown Baghdad"? NYTimes described it as a bit like the Real World but I think that has to do with the age of the subjects as much as anything. There is a lot of episodes that are a bit overdone (which I would expect from any video with college students as the subjects) but it's a great glimpse of how people try to continue to live there and the perspectives that they have (which change as the episodes continue). They just finished so I think you can download all of the episodes now.
I had seen some of those, though I didn't follow it closely. Might go have another look. The Iraqi blogger, Riverbend, last posted in April, announcing that her family had decided to leave.
Like "Hometown Baghdad," it gives the day-to-day view of something we normally see only in the macro view. And I think the decision was right, because, after four years of blogging, her posts had become more and more bitter and alienated. The day-to-day situation was becoming insupportable.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
Yet curiously the recent photo of the young Iraqi boy hiding a US Marine following an insurgent attack didn't make the cut....
Regards,
Dann
Not sure what you mean, Dann. You understand I no longer have access to wire services, so there's no "cut" involved. I saw a photo, I posted it.
The good news is, anybody can have blog these days, so, if you think a particular photo ought to be posted somewhere, you can just post it and then there's no problem anymore with "cuts." Right? Right!
By the way, when you do post that photo on your blog, I hope you explain why a child stuck in the middle of a war, surrounded by death and fear, is somehow a good thing if he happens to be doing something you approve of, rather than just standing there. I purposely added nothing to the photo because I don't really think it mattered.
And, if you really want to talk about choices, I devoted about two-thirds of our front page this past Friday to the funeral of a young Guardsman who was killed in Iraq, with two photos, and one helluva lot more people saw that than saw this picture of a little frightened girl. The previous Tuesday, we put his funeral notice at the top of Page One. The Friday before that, we had a story bannered across Page One with two pictures, one of his mother with his military photo, one of his father holding the 5-month-old baby he never got to see.
So I've made a lot of choices in the past two weeks, and now maybe you should get yourself a blog so you can put down the megaphone and start to make your own choices -- there's really no reason to stand on the sidelines shouting anymore.
Sorry, Mike. I crossed a line that I hadn't intended to cross.
Regards,
Dann
I don't mind Dann's comment but I wish he had used a link so that we could see the photo that he is referring to. It's probably also a powerful photo but nobody benefits if it's said to be a "better" photo and we don't see it.
Anyway, the Hometown Baghdad series does catch growing frustration as well as a growing exodus. The subjects are always talking about al lthe places their friends have moved to (US not mentioned as one of them) and the pull for everyone who can get out to get out (although with the hopes of returning when and if things settle down).
There's a difference between an open newsgroup and the comments in a personal blog, and since we cross paths both places, the slip is understandable.
I'll have more to say on the overall subject of civilians -- and particularly kids -- in a war zone, but it's going to take some sleuthing for resources I haven't seen in quite some years ... maybe I'll be able to find that picture to illustrate it ...
Mike and Gabe:
Your wish is my command.
Enjoy.
Dann
Thanks for the link, I think they're both powerful and upsetting pictures.
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