Politics
Afghanistan, January, 2010
Jan 31st
An Afghan man buys plastic jugs in a market in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Jan. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Farzana Wahidy)
Another collection of photographs posted by the Big Picture, depicting the complex issue of Afghanistan. My hope is that we’ll find a way other than violence to deal with the problems facing this nation. To help them help themselves without resorting to try and kill the problem away. I don’t think we can just pull out and leave them fend for themselves. We bare a historical responsibility to provide aid, but not through the barrel of a gun.
Afghanistan, January, 2010 (The Big Picture)
Three days in Iran
Jan 5th
The Big Picture has posted a great photo essay depicting the recent protest in Iran. Taken by anonymous photographers they show both the opposition and pro-government demonstrations, their massive scale and the sad consequences of demonstrating against a totalitarian regime.
Three days in Iran (The Big Picture)
The Daily Show takes a closer look at Glenn Beck and his gold connection
Dec 11th
John Stewart takes a good look at Glenn Beck’s fascination with gold. Surprise surprise, Beck’s a spokesperson for a company that sells gold.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Beck – Not So Mellow Gold | ||||
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Some perspective – Shining a light on dark places
Dec 6th
This edition of the NYT blog is about shining a light on dark places, places people never hear about. Where wars are waged that most people don’t know of. Steven Alvares is a photographer for National Geographic. But he has one project that keeps him coming back to the same place. A borer region between Sudan and Uganda that’s torn apart because of natural resources, descending in a spiral of violence.
Here’s the quote that struck me the most, besides his gripping images;
It’s really the luck of the draw. I visited a child in one of the hospitals who was 11; who’d been shot by the U.P.D.F., the Ugandan army, because he had a machine gun. Here’s a child who’s my son’s age. The horror this kid has gone through. And the life that my son has. It’s just hard to get my head around. Just the difference in the circumstances. My kids have almost a ‘Leave It to Beaver’ life. And this other child has killed people.
Showcase: Shining a Light (NYT Lens Blog)
Daily Show Gets Journalist Jailed
Dec 1st
One of the shows that I miss and try to watch online when I get the chance is the Daily Show, a satirical news show on Comedy Central in the US. This is a great interview with a Newsweek journalist, Maziar Bahari, who was jailed for 118 days after being interviewed by a Daily Show correspondent in Iran. Aside from having a great sense of humor and being able to put everything in perspective, he draws some great parallels between the regime of the Shah and the current one.