This is Samar Hassan, now 12 years old. She was the screaming 5-year old girl in the striking photo taken by the late Chris Hondros, a photo that has become emblematic of the Iraq war. She had never seen the famous photo of her, blood-spattered, the night her parents were killed by American soldiers in Tal Afar in 2005. She now lives in Mosul, with her older sister and her sister’s husband.
The photograph of Samar is frozen in history, but her life moved on, across a trajectory that is emblematic of what so many Iraqis have endured. In a country whose health care system has almost no ability to treat the psychological aspects of trauma, thousands of Iraqis are left alone with their torment.
Read more at the New York Times.
(Photo Credit: Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times)
On today’s Fresh Air, reporter Tim Arango talks about tracking down Samar Hassan
I Love My Boo campaign features real young men of color loving each other passionately. Rather than sexualizing gay relationships, this campaign models caring, and highlights the importance of us taking care of each other. Featured throughout New York City, I Love My Boo directly challenges homophobia and encourages all who come across it to critically rethink our notion of love.
GMHC is the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy. Building on decades of dedication and expertise, we understand the reality of HIV/AIDS and empower a healthy life for all. GMHC fights to end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected.
On London: Rioting in Media Context
- ITV Reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
- Young Londoner: You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?
- ITV Reporter: ...
- Young Londoner: Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you.
It’s about time we held our journalists responsible for their part in this climate of misinformation and suspicion. No longer should the general public be content with news networks and publications too busy trying to win ratings and readers rather than performing their actual job of informing the public. And just informing, not shaping their opinion. No editorials, no opinion pieces, just the facts.
Until then, I’ll keep looking to foreign news agencies who take their responsibility a lot more seriously as a source of information than their US counterparts for my news fix.
(Source: livingbetweenworlds.wordpress.com)
Bill Keller, Executive Editor of the New York Times, on the decision to run the front page photo of a starving child in Somalia in Tuesday’s print edition:
We realize, of course, that the story du jour is the debt vote — to which we devoted the lead story and upwards of four pages this morning — but there’s no reason that has to eclipse a human catastrophe in Africa. Readers can follow more than one important story at a time.
Jeffrey and Tyler went to great trouble and some risk to get as close as they could to the calamity in Somalia. They sent us a harrowing story and vivid, arresting photographs. We put them before the attention of our readers. That’s our job.
Via the Huffington Post
Original story: Somalis Waste Away as Insurgents Block Escape From Famine
(Source: futurejournalismproject)
