Monday, August 27, 2012

Fast Food Invades and Overtakes Baghdad?

There is something deeply disturbing about an Associated Press report that's popping up all over online -- here, here and here to cite three places.  From its opening statement ("Baghdad's embattled residents can finally get their milkshakes, chili-cheese dogs and buckets of crispy fried chicken. Original recipe or extra spicy, of course.") to questionable descriptive phrases (" stuffing their faces with pizza"), the article's an embarrassment.


It's also xenophobic in accepting western, non-Iraqi values as the norm.  There's also something really sad about the invasion of fast food being treated as a good and humorous thing when, in the US, we've seen not only lawsuits but initiatives (including from First Lady Michelle Obama) to combat the damages of fast food.

This perspective, this reality, is no where to be found in the article. They'd claim otherwise and point to these two paragraphs in the last section of an overly long press release:


 Health experts are predictably not thrilled about the new arrivals.
“The opening of these American-style restaurants … will make Iraqis, especially children, fatter,” said Dr. Sarmad Hamid, a physician at a Baghdad government hospital. But even he acknowledged that the new eateries aren’t all bad.


 "Experts" becomes one -- Dr. Sarmad Hamid.  And that's after 26 paragraphs raving over fast food.  26 paragraphs raving, 2 opposed.  Raving attributed to no one and presented in that omniscient voice, that expert voice journalists love to wrap themselves in -- and one lone voice opposed. 

How they justify that is beyond me unless AP truly thought it was composing ad copy for McDonalds and others. 

I get that it can get old covering Iraq -- I really get that -- and I get that sometimes journalists are looking for a different twist and just want to have some fun.  Good to look for a new twist but might I suggest that they take that urge to have fun and journal with it instead of trying to work it into journalsm?  And let's not forget this AP story is only 'new' if you're just now learning of a country called Iraq.  Otherwise, you've seen four waves of this story over the last nine years.

As the waves have rolled in, Iraq has become more and more a country of orphans and widows.  Which is all the more reason for responsible journalism.  It shouldn't be AP's role to glamorize fast food in Iraq.

Depleted Uranium and White Phosphorous are the Agent Orange of the Iraq War.   Fast food may end up being the equivalent of DDT. 


Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Vouchers" went up last night.   On this week's Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) topics addressed include an update on Julian Assange, a discussion of the Cuban Five with attorney Martin Garbus, a discussion on global warming with professor Eleanor Stein  and a strong conversation on the International Criminal Court with attorney Roger Wareham.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.









Posted by at

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Vouchers."

vouchers


Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "Vouchers."  Barack tells Vinnie Voucher, "The GOP and Mitt Romeny want to bring vouchers into Medicare and we don't like vouchers, do we, Vinnie?"  Vinnie replies, "But, Brack, I'm a voucher.  And you and Arne Duncan love vouchers for schools."  As David Axelrod looks on Barack grumps, "Smile for the camera and stick to the script Vinnie."  Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.







the common ills
Posted by at

Hejira

Violence continued in Iraq.  Xinhua reports that 3 security guards were shot dead in Baghdad, 2 police officrs were shot dead in another Baghdad attack, a third Baghdad attack left Sheikh Fadil Abdul Zahraa, a Baghad sticky bombing injured one person, and two roadside bombings outside of Falluja claimed the lives of 3 Iraqi soldiers and left three more wounded.  Areeb Hasni (AFP)
adds 2 corpses (shot to death) were discovered in Kirkuk.  Through Saturday, Iraq Body Count counts 357 people killed in violence so far this month.

Violence gets undercounted all the time.  And the wounded and dead, the ones living in fear, are disappeared from the coverage.  Case in point, Reuters has a cute story where they talk about Iraq closing off a border with Syria and how it's all about the military and about the violence . . .  But somehow they 'forget' the product of the violence: Refugees.



Not one sentence refers to the refugees.  Al-Arabiya reported yesterday that "Iraq has completely sealed its border with Syria in the face of refugees who are fleeing the escalating violence in their home country.  Security forces have blocked the crossing with concrete barriers and closed all the roads leading to the border crossing from the Iraqi side."  With Turkey pursuing a similar strategy, Liz Sly (Washington Post) is able to see the key story, blocking refugees from entering the country.

Let's look at Sly's opening statement, "A surge in the number of Syrians seeking sanctuary from their country’s soaring violence prompted the Turkish government to halt the flow of refugees at two key border crossings Sunday amid an escalating humanitarian crisis that is swamping Syria’s neighbors and intensifying pressure for international intervention."  Yet somehow Reuters can't factor in the refugees or even mention them when reporting on Iraq sealing the shared border?

The refugees that were taken into Iraq (excluding the KRG)  have been treated horribly.  Nouri only took them in after he realized how cold and uncaring he came off on the world stage when he initially denied entry stating that Iraq couldn't handle an influx of refugees.  And more recently, he's attempted to push them out of the buildings they were housed in. 

So now the border's closed and Retuers can only see it in terms of fighters crossing over?  Can't see the refugees or the refugee crisis. 


I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.



New content at Third:



Isaiah's latest goes up after this.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

































Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)