let me say something about that pictures.
Before the big professional cameras start to roll, a process called white balancing is performed in which some one holds a white sheet infront of the camera, so that the cameraman could balance the intensity of light. What happened in the picture was that the crew wanted to start the interview, but all the sudden the dude holding the camera remembers that he hasn't white balanced. The crew where actually white balancing, not holding a sheet for the interviewee to read from.
Hi Haji-
Thanks a lot for clearing this up.
My feeling about the Arche de Zoe is quite different : I think they were very genuine people who wanted to save children from the Darfour conflict because they didn't feel that solutions were coming fast enough , but they have been caught up by "higher" politics and they have messed it up for themselves .
It was not done in the spirit of child trafficking but more as a heart felt humanitarian (and probably miscalculated) impulse . No arrogance there Niki , just inexperience ...
Now the french government has trully let them down and washed its hands of their fate ...
Oh Anonymous, how nice you are, and how nice those poor French "aid workers" were! God forbid, how a Westerner could not be nice and not doing everything in good faith? It's only these people from the 3rd world who are bad! Very bad! Specially if they are Muslim! Oh may the good christian god save us from these "Islamofascists"! God bless America!
Irrespective of one's feeling and the innocense or guilt of these French citizens, the fact remains that they were involved in an illegal act according to both, the international law and the laws of the Chad.
Even with the best intentions, no one has the right to unilaterally transport 100 foreign children across borders and deliever them to individulas who have paid money to get these children. Even if these individuals were merely naive, how did they know that the ones who were eceiving the children were trustworthy good doers?
In these times when Americans and Europeans travel to Asia to have sex with young girls and boys, with the sex tourism, with the recent arrest of a pedophil from england, in thailand, how can anyone support the actions of these French citizens.
Let's reverse the senatrio. How would the world react if citizens of some African country went to a european coutnry and tried to transport children across borders illegaly?
At a time when the powerful nations are disregarding international law such as the Geneva convention against torture, it is extremely important for humanists to insist on the implementation of international law.
I need your help. I am an American woman. I am an artist and a writer. Most importantly I am a mother.
Several days ago my seven year old daughter was playing a game with her little brother. They had been playing nicely together for several hours and I had ceased to focus on what they were playing. I was working on a painting and was distracted. Then a word grabbed my attention. My seven year old was talking about a bomb.
I am opposed to guns and bombs and any device that makes the taking of human life impersonal. I am not a pacifist, I believe in kicking @$$ when and where it is called for, but face-to-face with reason and purpose, not anonymously because sombody told you to do it. So the word bomb caught my attention. My mind did an instant replay of the context and I tipped over my chair in my hurry to get to my children and call a halt to what I was hearing. I yelled out "Stop! Wait just a minute!"
She's a nice kid, smart and funny, usually good natured and thoughtful. She knows how I feel about war, particularly this war, and about our current administration. She knows that I reacted to our last presidential election with tears and rage. I try to share with her my views, without inflicting them. But I have failed her somehow.
What she said, in the midst of her game with her little brother, was "Here's Iraq, and all those bad people in Iraq, and here's the bomb. . . BOOM!" I am horrified. I am heartbroken. I am really, really angry. Not at my child, she was repeating something she heard. But at myself, at my country, at the parents of whatever schoolmate she heard that from, at all of us who have failed her, I am angry.
She and I talked. I talked to her brother. Now I need to talk to as many children as I can reach. I cannot rant and rave about the horror of what our government has done to your country, your people. No one would publish that. I cannot bully my way into their homes and force them to believe as I do, or to act as I think they should, because not only would that get me arrested, it would make me just like the president.
But perhaps I can reach the children. Perhaps I can introduce them, through stories, to the children of Iraq. Not just to the victims (casualties) of this wretched war, but to children who live, love, and play just as our children live, love, and play. To do that I need to know Iraqi life through the eyes of a child. I need to know the toys, games, and family life of the children of your country. I have found numerous beautiful pictures of children in and from Iraq, but nothing about the life they lead.
Can you help?
Hi Anonymous 1- Sorry but I've heard about and personally witnessed the work of too many ostensibly "good hearted" people who at bottom are at bottom motivated by an arrogance that makes them think they can "rescue" people in other countries. I think the facts in this case speak for themselves, and I hope that they get the punishment they deserve.
Saeed- Yep, it always seems to be the presented like that, doesn't it?
Anonymous #2- I agree with you completely. It is always useful to give the example the other way around, as you have, to show the double standards and the assumptions that are at work here.
Dear Shalane- Sorry to hear that the violence of the world at large seems to have impacted your children. However, I am from Iran, not Iraq, so perhaps some Iraqi bloggers would be better positioned to help you with your project.
Hi Anonymous 1- Sorry but I've heard about and personally witnessed the work of too many ostensibly "good hearted" people who at bottom are at bottom motivated by an arrogance that makes them think they can "rescue" people in other countries. I think the facts in this case speak for themselves, and I hope that they get the punishment they deserve.
Saeed- Yep, it always seems to be the presented like that, doesn't it?
Anonymous #2- I agree with you completely. It is always useful to give the example the other way around, as you have, to show the double standards and the assumptions that are at work here.
Dear Shalane- Sorry to hear that the violence of the world at large seems to have impacted your children. However, I am from Iran, not Iraq, so perhaps some Iraqi bloggers would be better positioned to help you with your project.
This is anonymous 1 again ...
Have you followed how this thing is developing , facts are indeed speaking for themselves ? . I agree and know what you mean about the arrogance , but my point was : why or how has it got this far ,the french government has washed its hands of the fate these idealists . Though Sarkozy has now flown the 3 french journalists back home , he has also dropped off the spanish crew in Madrid and let the french team in Tchad , because they will serve for a further purpose of negociation .
This team was arrogant yes, and stupid but sincere . Why are they being used this way ? They could have been stopped from the beginning (by the french governement)for they never hid their intentions .
One can certainly reverse the example (100 kids picked up in France) but don't forget the team believed they were rescueing children from the war zone in Darfour . The families waiting with balloons and teddy bears at the airport also . Of course Arche de Zoe isn't as big as Unicef but it doesn't make them kidnapers .
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