SOURCEBy Jenny ZhangNovember 23, 2015Thanks to Bamboo-Water
Of the 4 million Syrian refugees who have fled their war-torn country since 2011, roughly half are children.
Since January, award-winning Swedish photojournalist Magnus Wennman has journeyed across the Middle East and Europe to document the sobering reality of these children’s lives as they lay their heads down to sleep in strange lands far from home. Leaving behind their beds, friends, and everything they’ve ever known, young refugees snatch quiet moments of rest after long days filled with hunger and exhaustion, unfamiliar camps, and a never-ending march forward in search of a better future.
Wennman’s powerful photos, which show small, slumbering figures curled up on cardboard and grass, were published on Aftonbladet in collaboration with Fotografiska to support the UN’s Refugee Agency UNHCR.
We had the opportunity to ask Wennman a few questions about his eye-opening series, which can be seen below with captions courtesy of the photographer. Scroll down to read that exclusive interview and head over toAftonbladet for more images.
Above: Lamar, 5 years old
HORGOS, SERBIA. Back home in Baghdad, the dolls, the toy train, and the ball are left; Lamar often talks about these items when home is mentioned. The bomb changed everything. The family was on its way to buy food when it was dropped close to their house. It was not possible to live there anymore, says Lamar’s grandmother, Sara. After two attempts to cross the sea from Turkey in a small, rubber boat, they succeeded in coming here to Hungary’s closed border. Now Lamar sleeps on a blanket in the forest, scared, frozen, and sad.
Ralia, 7, and Rahaf, 13 years old
BEIRUT. Ralia, 7, and Rahaf, 13, live on the streets of Beirut. They are from Damascus, where a grenade killed their mother and brother. Along with their father, they have been sleeping rough for a year. They huddle close together on their cardboard boxes. Rahaf says she is scared of “bad boys,” at which Ralia starts crying.
Fara, 2 years old
AZRAQ. Fara, 2, loves soccer. Her dad tries to make balls for her by crumpling up anything he can find, but they don’t last long. Every night, he says goodnight to Fara and her big sister Tisam, 9, in the hope that tomorrow will bring them a proper ball to play with. All other dreams seem to be beyond his reach, but he is not giving up on this one.
See more photos and the full story on Aftonbladet.
My Modern Met: When and how did you come up with the idea for this series?
Magnus Wennman: The project started in January. We were discussing at my newspaper how to get more people to care about the conflict in Syria. At that time, we had not yet seen the massive influx of refugees who are now coming to Europe. I came up with this idea. I think it is something everybody can relate to. I believe it can be difficult for outsiders to care about a conflict that has been going on for years and may be hard to understand, but there is nothing hard to understand about how children need a safe place to sleep.
Over the year, I have traveled to seven countries. I have met refugees in countless refugee camps and on their journeys through Europe.
MMM: Seeing all of the refugees—and children, in particular—what struck you the most about their plight?
MW: It takes very much for a child to stop being a child and to stop playing and having fun, even in really bad places. But in some cases you could se they lost some hope. You could see it in their eyes.
MMM: How do you hope viewers will react to the photos?
MW: I hope that people feel something, and that people understand it’s not just a big group of refugees—it’s hundreds of thousands of individuals with different backgrounds who all deserve to feel safe.
Magnus Wennman: InstagramWhere the children sleep: Aftonbladet
"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
Early on Tuesday morning, Turkey shot down a Russian military plane near the Turkey-Syria border. Afterward, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the downing of his aircraft during a public appearance with Jordan's King Abdullah in Sochi. Here are the comments, translated by Russia's English-language propaganda outlet Russia Today (starts at 5:40):Early on Tuesday morning, Turkey shot down a Russian military plane near the Turkey-Syria border. Afterward, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the downing of his aircraft during a public appearance with Jordan's King Abdullah in Sochi. Here are the comments, translated by Russia's English-language propaganda outlet Russia Today (starts at 5:40):Early on Tuesday morning, Turkey shot down a Russian military plane near the Turkey-Syria border. Afterward, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the downing of his aircraft during a public appearance with Jordan's King Abdullah in Sochi. Here are the comments, translated by Russia's English-language propaganda outlet Russia Today (starts at 5:40):
We have long identified that there are a lot of oil and petro products coming to Turkey from [ISIS] territory. And some of these military groups get their financing from there. And now they stab us in the back; they hit our planes that are fighting terrorism. Together with the US partners, we signed an agreement to prevent incidents in the air.And they announce that they are fighting terrorism as part of the US-led coalition. If ISIS has these amounts of money — and could it be even billions of dollars — due to the sales of oil and plus they have protection of the armed forces of the big state, then now it's clear why they're so blatant, why they kill people in the most barbarous, heinous ways. Why they conduct terrorist attacks in many places, including in the heart of Europe.Certainly, we will analyze what's happening very seriously, and today's tragic event will have serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations. We have always treated Turkey as not just a close neighbor, but as a friendly state. I don't know in whose interests today's incident is, but it's not in our interest. And instead of immediately establishing the necessary contacting us, the Turkish authorities immediately their NATO partners, as if we downed a Turkish jet.
We have long identified that there are a lot of oil and petro products coming to Turkey from [ISIS] territory. And some of these military groups get their financing from there. And now they stab us in the back; they hit our planes that are fighting terrorism. Together with the US partners, we signed an agreement to prevent incidents in the air.
And they announce that they are fighting terrorism as part of the US-led coalition. If ISIS has these amounts of money — and could it be even billions of dollars — due to the sales of oil and plus they have protection of the armed forces of the big state, then now it's clear why they're so blatant, why they kill people in the most barbarous, heinous ways. Why they conduct terrorist attacks in many places, including in the heart of Europe.
Certainly, we will analyze what's happening very seriously, and today's tragic event will have serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations. We have always treated Turkey as not just a close neighbor, but as a friendly state. I don't know in whose interests today's incident is, but it's not in our interest. And instead of immediately establishing the necessary contacting us, the Turkish authorities immediately their NATO partners, as if we downed a Turkish jet.
Putin has something of a point. For a long time, even Western analysts agreed that Turkey did very little to shut down ISIS supply lines that ran across its border into Syria, seemingly because it and ISIS had shared enemies (Bashar al-Assad and the Kurdish fighters in northern Syria). But that hardly amounts to active support for ISIS, let alone the kind of active support that would cause Turkey to shoot down a Russian plane.
As for Putin's bellicose rhetoric, it's worth taking it with a grain of salt: Some of it is for domestic consumption, to make Russia look strong in the face of the death of at least one of its own.
Numerous news sources are reporting that following the downing of a Russian plane today, Moscow intends to suspend all military cooperation with NATO-member Turkey indefinitely. Sergey Rudskoy, a top official with the Russian General Staff, in a strongly worded statement today called the attack on the bomber in Syrian airspace (Turkey insists it was shot down after entering Turkish airspace) “a severe violation of international law. While the plane did come down in Syria, Turkey maintains that two Russian planes violated its airspace.
In addition to the suspension of cooperation, Russia is sending its Moskva missile cruiser closer to both the Turkish and Syrian coasts.
The Moskva began its commissioned life in 1983 as the Slava, it’s construction began in 1976 and was first put into service in 1979.
Following years of service, the Slava returned to Shipyard 445 of the 61 Kommunara Shipbuilding Plant in Nikolayev (where it was built) for a refitting in 1990.
She was recommissioned as Moskva in April 2000, when she became the flagship of the Black Sea fleet. In late August of 2013, the Moskva was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in response to a buildup of American warships joining the fight against ISIS. Just last week, the cruiser was given the task of assisting the French following the ISIS attacks in Paris.
Now, however, assisting the French has seemed to take a back seat to its new job, a simply worded job really, “destroy any threats to Russian planes.”
A letter today from Turkey’s U.N. Ambassador Halit Cevik said, “two SU-24 planes, the nationality of which are unknown,” and moved into Turkish airspace in the Yayladagi-Hatay region.
The letter, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, said the two planes were flying at 19,000 feet, disregarded warnings and violated Turkish airspace “to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds” just after 9:24 a.m.
“Following the violation, plane one left Turkish national airspace,” the letter said. “Plane two was fired at while in Turkish national airspace by Turkish F-16s performing air combat patrolling in that area in accordance with the rules of engagement.”
Russia continues to dispute these claims claiming that the Turkish Air Force shot the planes down in Syrian airspace.Putin’s earlier statements about the incident
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the downing of the Russian plane would have “serious consequences for Russia’s relationship with Turkey.”
He then took it a step further saying the downing “represents a stab in the back by the terrorists‘ accomplices. I can’t describe what has happened today in any other way. Our plane was downed over Syrian territory by an air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16 jet.”
Putin then gave details refuting Turkish claims, “The plane fell on Syrian territory 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away from the Turkish border. It was flying 1 kilometer away from the Turkish border when it was attacked. In any case, neither our pilots nor our jet posed any threat to Turkey. That is obvious. They were carrying out an operation fighting against ISIL in Northern Latakia,” continued Putin.
“Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace,” Obama said during a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande at the White House. The two were meeting to discuss how the two countries would escalate their fight with ISIS and how best to accomplish their goals in tandem. Hollande has, since the attacks in Paris, repeatedly told France and the world that his country is at war.
Obama then went on to suggest that Russia continues to attack the rebels that oppose the regime of Syrian leader Assad rather than ISIL.
“If Russia is directing its energies towards Daesh and ISIL, some of those conflicts or potentials for mistakes or escalation are less likely to occur,” said Obama. The president continued his use of Daesh, an alternation name for ISIS and a name that ISIS clearly can’t stand. The use of the word Daesh in ISIS controlled territories is punishable by the removal of the offender’s tongue.
“Our view from the start has been that Russia is welcome to be part of this broad-based coalition that we’ve set up. … The challenge has been Russia’s focus on propping up Assad rather than focusing on ISIL,” Obama said presumably with Hollande’s permission.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the beginning of his statement called for “calm and de-escalation” in today’s Turkey-Russia situation.
“I have previously expressed my concern about the implications of the military actions of the Russian Federation close to NATO’s borders,” the NATO leader said. “This highlights the importance of having and respecting arrangements to avoid such incidents in the future.
“As we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally, Turkey,” added the Secretary General.
(valuewalk.com)
The Obama administration has been plagued for weeks over news U.S. weapons supplied to Syrian rebels were inadvertently winding up in the hands of terror groups. The media giant’s tweet on Tuesday alludes to something far more sinister.
Major media outlets covered the ineptitude of Obama’s U.S.-trained rebels in early November, but there was no evidence he purposefully sent weapons to terror networks determined to attack America.
“Moderate rebels who had been armed and trained by the United States either surrendered or defected to the extremists as the Jabhat al-Nusra group, affiliated with al-Qaida, swept through the towns and villages the moderates controlled in the northern province of Idlib, in what appeared to be a concerted push to vanquish the moderate Free Syrian Army, according to rebel commanders, activists and analysts,” the Washington Post reported Nov. 2.
Similar military debacles have occurred in Iraq, where security forces in Ramadi retreated in May when confronted by ISIS attackers.
Dozens of U.S. military vehicles, including tanks, were taken into the terror group’s possession after the Iraqis’ defeat.
“We will see episodic, temporary successes, but again these typically don’t materialize into long-term gains,” Brig. Gen. Thomas Weidley, chief of staff of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said May 15, Agence France-Presse reported.
Drudge’s tweet coincides with recurring charges that U.S. Central Command analysts were pressured to supply intelligence reports on ISIS that matched Obama’s rhetoric.
Media mogul Matt Drudge accused the Obama administration of arming ISIS on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015
Gregory Hooker, a former senior intelligence officer at Centcom, accused senior commanders last month of doctoring terror risk assessments to look unrealistically optimistic, the New York Times reported Sept. 23. Hooker previously accused the Bush administration of doing the exact opposite in 2005.
“This core group of Iraq analysts have been doing this for a long time,” said Stephen Robb, a retired Marine colonel and a former head of the Centcom Joint Intelligence Center, the newspaper reported. “If they say there’s smoke, start looking for a firehouse.”
President Obama denied the charges once again on Sunday prior to flying back to Washington from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“I don’t want intelligence shaded by politics. I don’t want it shaded by the desire to tell a feel-good story. We can’t make good policy unless we’ve got good, accurate, hard-headed, clear-eyed intelligence,” Obama said as his nine-day trip to the Turkish Riviera and Southeast Asia ended.
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency during President Obama’s tenure, told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on Monday that Obama’s investigation into faulty intelligence assessments should begin with a look in the mirror.
“The president sets the priorities and he’s the number one customer. So if he’s not getting the intelligence he needs and if he’s not paying attention to what else is going on, then something else is wrong there between them and the advisers he has,” Flynn said, the Weekly Standard reported.
President Obama
LONDON: Britain’s Prince Charles has pointed to the world’s failure to tackle climate change as a root cause of the civil war in Syria, terrorism and the consequent refugee crisis engulfing Europe.
The heir to the British throne is due to give a keynote speech at the opening of a global climate summit in Paris next week where 118 leaders will gather to try to nail down a deal to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions. The prince said in an interview with Sky News that such symptoms were a “classic case of not dealing with the problem.”
“Some of us were saying 20 something years ago that if we didn’t tackle these issues, you would see ever greater conflict over scarce resources and ever greater difficulties over drought, and the accumulating effect of climate change which means that people have to move,” he said.
“And in fact there’s very good evidence indeed that one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria, funnily enough, was a drought that lasted for about five or six years, which meant that huge numbers of people in the end had to leave the land but increasingly they came into the cities.”
Britain’s royal family is expected to stay out of politics, and the 67-year-old prince has faced accusations of meddling in the past when he has spoken out about climate change and sustainability.