Mini book review in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald by Fiona Capp: Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War & Plea for Peace, Bana Alabed:
"For her first three years, Bana Alabed lived an ordinary, middle-class life with her family in Aleppo. Then bombs started exploding in her neighbourhood and everything changed. This child's eye view of the unfolding conflict in Syria brings home with great poignancy what it is like to have your childhood shattered by war. During the siege of Aleppo, her family's apartment is hit by a bomb and all they can do is crouch in their disintegrating basement and 'be stoned by the sky'. Bana's account is interspersed with letters from her mother, Fatemah, who writes eloquently of her guilt at being unable to shield her daughter from so much pain. Dear World is a moving antidote to compassion fatigue."
Note: Dear World: Inside the 'Bana of Aleppo' propaganda story (21stcenturywire.com, 29/9/17) is a sobering antidote to the warm and fuzzies should any of you succumb to this particular malady after reading the above.
Showing posts with label Bana Alabed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bana Alabed. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Friday, April 14, 2017
Oh Puh-lease...
"A seven-year old Syrian refugee whose tweets from war-torn Aleppo won her a global following is set to write a book. Bana al-Abed's Dear World will recount her experiences in Syria and how she and her family rebuilt their lives as refugees. Simon and Schuster plans to publish it in the US this autumn." (Bana al-Abed, seven-year-old Syrian peace campaigner, to publish memoir, Danuta Kean, theguardian.com, 13/4/17)
With a foreward by Ivanka Trump?
With a foreward by Ivanka Trump?
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Bombs Away!
Syrian kids in harm's way? No sweat. A few American cruise missiles, and they'll be right as rain.
And anyway, what could possibly go wrong?
Oh, wait:
"Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah which was bombarded by US marines in 2004 exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study." (Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah 'worse than Hiroshima', Patrick Cockburn, independent.co.uk, 23/7/10)
Damn, better ask America's favorite Syrian kid what she thinks first.
Hi, Bana, Uncle Donald here. Hope you and your mum are recovering from your war wounds over there in Turkey, and Uncle Recip's taking good care of you. Say, what do you think we should do about Syria?
"I am a Syrian child who suffered under Bashar al Asad & Putin. I welcome Donald Trump action against the killers of my people." (Bana Alabed tweet, 7/4/17)
Then bombs away it is!
And anyway, what could possibly go wrong?
Oh, wait:
"Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah which was bombarded by US marines in 2004 exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study." (Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah 'worse than Hiroshima', Patrick Cockburn, independent.co.uk, 23/7/10)
Damn, better ask America's favorite Syrian kid what she thinks first.
Hi, Bana, Uncle Donald here. Hope you and your mum are recovering from your war wounds over there in Turkey, and Uncle Recip's taking good care of you. Say, what do you think we should do about Syria?
"I am a Syrian child who suffered under Bashar al Asad & Putin. I welcome Donald Trump action against the killers of my people." (Bana Alabed tweet, 7/4/17)
Then bombs away it is!
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
The Syrian Tooth Fairy
When it comes to Syria, it seems that ms journalists can even manage a belief in the tooth fairy:
"Bana Alabed is a 7-year-old Syrian girl with outsized optimism and lustrous brown hair that tumbles past her waist. She enjoys reading about dinosaurs, practicing English with her mom, and playing with her two little brothers... She recently lost a tooth, but the tooth fairy never came, because she lives under siege in eastern Aleppo. 'The tooth fairy is afraid of the bombing here,' she said. 'It ran away to its hole. When the war finishes it will come.' Bana's thoughts are broadcast by her mother, Fatemah, on a Twitter account that she launched earlier this year. It has already amassed more than 200,000 followers. Many news organizations published stories on the earliest tweets and videos, and a Danish reporter brought up Bana's case during an in-person interview with Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, who dismisses it as 'a game of propaganda'." (Bana Alabed, Twitters child witness to the battle for Aleppo, Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 6/12/16)
Whether the following bucket of cold water was enough to sober Taub up or not is anyone's guess:
Rania Khalek @RaniaKhalek Dec 7 @bentaub91 FYI there is no tooth fairy in our culture. This is a very strange line. The tooth fairy is a western thing.
Still, here's another just in case:
"Shame on this woman. Shame on this terrible mother of Bana in Syria. I don't know the circumstances but she should be ashamed to make a statement to the camera and to hold her little child as a prop. I don't know anything about this Fatima but I know that she is one lousy mother. I also notice that her English on Twitter is far better than her spoken English on camera. Notice how Bana seems to be prodded to speak? I can't believe that the insensitive Western reporters are in fact circulating such videos which are not only exploitative of a child but even endangering her by using her as a propaganda prop. But then again, this is by the NBC correspondent [Richard Engel] who still praises the Syrian rebels who kidnapped him and who produced a false spectacle about his release. Fatima can only be forgiven if some man or men behind the cameras are forcing her to engage in this terrible behaviour." (Don't blame Bana - a little child - blame her shameless & terrible mother who exploits her child for the cameras, The Angry Arab News Service, 18/12/16)
"Bana Alabed is a 7-year-old Syrian girl with outsized optimism and lustrous brown hair that tumbles past her waist. She enjoys reading about dinosaurs, practicing English with her mom, and playing with her two little brothers... She recently lost a tooth, but the tooth fairy never came, because she lives under siege in eastern Aleppo. 'The tooth fairy is afraid of the bombing here,' she said. 'It ran away to its hole. When the war finishes it will come.' Bana's thoughts are broadcast by her mother, Fatemah, on a Twitter account that she launched earlier this year. It has already amassed more than 200,000 followers. Many news organizations published stories on the earliest tweets and videos, and a Danish reporter brought up Bana's case during an in-person interview with Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, who dismisses it as 'a game of propaganda'." (Bana Alabed, Twitters child witness to the battle for Aleppo, Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 6/12/16)
Whether the following bucket of cold water was enough to sober Taub up or not is anyone's guess:
Rania Khalek @RaniaKhalek Dec 7 @bentaub91 FYI there is no tooth fairy in our culture. This is a very strange line. The tooth fairy is a western thing.
Still, here's another just in case:
"Shame on this woman. Shame on this terrible mother of Bana in Syria. I don't know the circumstances but she should be ashamed to make a statement to the camera and to hold her little child as a prop. I don't know anything about this Fatima but I know that she is one lousy mother. I also notice that her English on Twitter is far better than her spoken English on camera. Notice how Bana seems to be prodded to speak? I can't believe that the insensitive Western reporters are in fact circulating such videos which are not only exploitative of a child but even endangering her by using her as a propaganda prop. But then again, this is by the NBC correspondent [Richard Engel] who still praises the Syrian rebels who kidnapped him and who produced a false spectacle about his release. Fatima can only be forgiven if some man or men behind the cameras are forcing her to engage in this terrible behaviour." (Don't blame Bana - a little child - blame her shameless & terrible mother who exploits her child for the cameras, The Angry Arab News Service, 18/12/16)
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