After my anxiety attack in Priya’s office today I calmed down, sat down at my computer, and really searched for information on my topic. And I found some really interesting stuff, but one site really stood out to me, http://www.unembedded.net/main.php. This project that these four independent photojournalists are doing in a sense, is what my project is about. They have written a book and started an exhibit where they are trying to show the American public what is really going on in Iraq. The photos that I looked at were all really interesting, but the ones that were really moving (even though they were pretty bloody) was Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.
This exhibit is traveling around the country right now and the crazy thing is, it could come here. They have made it so accessible to the public. All they have to do is accept it.
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It's been an emotional roller coaster of a weekend, so I figured looking at pictures that would probably disturb me fit the current flow of my life. I became really calm when looking at them though, to my surprise, and took time to really try and think about what each picture really meant in terms of the persons life that it captured.
Several pictures stood out to me in their desperation and necessity in nature. One of those would be the picture under Thorne Anderson's of a child of about 2-3 years old, watching his mother and father repair a rocket launcher. There have been several moments in the past few years where I have been forced to simply say "that's insane and should not be necessary to do." This was one of those moments. It is INSANE that anyone in this world should have to think about teaching their child how to fix a rocket launcher. Think about that. You pass on information to children because you think that information is vital to life or will be of good use to them in the future. That is what this father thought as he taught his son how to work and repair an engine of death.
This is sad on many levels but it makes me feel more than just scared or upset that that child is growing up with this knowledge and mentality that war and death are normal. This makes me worry about the type of oppression we are making these people feel. When you look at any of these pictures there is no way not to feel the desperation. You can see it in their eyes. They exude an air of struggle in everything. These people are fighting for their lives, their children's lives, their entire way of life they feel is in danger because of us.
How can we sleep at night? We have destroyed a people. A nation. We have taken their dignity away from them. Yes Sadaam needed to go, but, as I'm sure you'll all agree, we haven't gone about anything in Iraq very strategically.
It's going to be very interesting to see how we handle Iraq and our departure. I hope that we take an active role in trying to restore it and try not to interfere in their business too much because we have no idea what to do for these groups.
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