Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank goodness for photographs, or no one would believe the story of the Armenians, the "Killing fields in Cambodia, the lynchings in the USA, the Holocaust of 6 million urban Jews in concentration camps and another 2.25 million by mobile death squads in mass graves dig in thousands of villages all across occupied Eastern Europe. My perspective is from what I know most of, but each of us has experienced the same facts from a different standpoint. I was brought up in a sphere of racism and had to go to school each day under police escort. There were no cameras to record the youths who attacked us and split my brothers jaw open. Still, when, years later, I saw little Catholic girls, with tiny back packs and smart uniforms, marching hand in hand to school through a gauntlet of cursing and spitting adult protestant "Orange" women, I felt for them, It brought back what I knew so well. Race hatred is part of our Western Society and mostly religious based.
Not defending the Armenians 100 years ago, gave permission for everything that followed. We have developed a compartmentalization of outrage! We might support one group but then ignore the greater suffering of many others. With all our enlightenment and feeling of being civilized, what are the facts?
Europeans forget so easily the lessons of World War I and II. Then there was the break up of Yugoslavia and the exploding of racial animus. Who defended the helpless Muslims, hands wired behind their backs as they were shot into pre dug mass graves in the same way the Nazis cleansed villages of jews 50 years earlier? The Dutch, who were their as UN peacekeepers, withdrew and allowed the massacres to occur. Serbia was stunned that Clinton sent in bombers to stop the massacres. The killings stopped, but we are ashamed that protected unarmed civilians were murdered with impunity. The Dutch did not stand trial for criminal negligence. The French, Germans, Russians and the British didn't intervene, as who wants a Muslim state in the center of Europe?
..and now in the 21st century are we better?
We all know about Islamic terrorists. But there's another side to the story. Christian Armies plundering and raping sowed seeds of hatred centuries ago. Richard "Lion Heart", of Robin Hood romantic story time fame, was an invader and plunderer. His fortress of Bodrum on Turkeys beautiful southern coast was in reality a center for crusaders, with nothing else to do and warships, to plunder Arab trading ships plying the coast! Folk guard such memories like a Christian holds a crucifix. It's embedded in the psyche. We have not addressed this mass crime against the Arabs and that institutionalized memory does not bode well for us when we appear to be repeating the behavior!
In Indonesia and (Burma), Miyanmar, Muslims have been attacked and slaughtered by Buddhists. In Lebanon, Syrian Shia and Iranians and well as radical Isis have attacked the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk at the edge of Damascus, from all sides. The folk are starving and no one intervenes.
Even the slaughter on the beach of Egyptian Christians does not get acknowledged by the us in a truthful way. Obama's condolences were sent to Egypt for the murder of "Egyptian citizens". It's too much for Obama to admit that we are dealing with religious hatred! If we do not address it, how can we deal with it?
Of course, there's the suffering of the Palestinians wanting a State with no justice in sight. Each time the Israelis respond to rockets with overwhelming force, innocent children are killed and we do not find a solution to end the cycle of criminal violence. But politicians are not able to go beyond being elected and reelected and without a constituency, minorities suffer.
I cannot do justice to all the suffering and killings, but at least we, as photographers, should laud those who do show what happens. Then the camera is a lantern to look at ourselves and what we are responsible for by continued demeaning of others and having minorities live in fear or worse.
Also who would believe the story of Rodney King or other blacks in America beaten or shot callously by out of control police?
To me, it's a sacred duty to travel with a camera. It should be a matter of law. Then no one could deny what we do to our less important citizens!
Asher
Not defending the Armenians 100 years ago, gave permission for everything that followed. We have developed a compartmentalization of outrage! We might support one group but then ignore the greater suffering of many others. With all our enlightenment and feeling of being civilized, what are the facts?
Europeans forget so easily the lessons of World War I and II. Then there was the break up of Yugoslavia and the exploding of racial animus. Who defended the helpless Muslims, hands wired behind their backs as they were shot into pre dug mass graves in the same way the Nazis cleansed villages of jews 50 years earlier? The Dutch, who were their as UN peacekeepers, withdrew and allowed the massacres to occur. Serbia was stunned that Clinton sent in bombers to stop the massacres. The killings stopped, but we are ashamed that protected unarmed civilians were murdered with impunity. The Dutch did not stand trial for criminal negligence. The French, Germans, Russians and the British didn't intervene, as who wants a Muslim state in the center of Europe?
..and now in the 21st century are we better?
We all know about Islamic terrorists. But there's another side to the story. Christian Armies plundering and raping sowed seeds of hatred centuries ago. Richard "Lion Heart", of Robin Hood romantic story time fame, was an invader and plunderer. His fortress of Bodrum on Turkeys beautiful southern coast was in reality a center for crusaders, with nothing else to do and warships, to plunder Arab trading ships plying the coast! Folk guard such memories like a Christian holds a crucifix. It's embedded in the psyche. We have not addressed this mass crime against the Arabs and that institutionalized memory does not bode well for us when we appear to be repeating the behavior!
In Indonesia and (Burma), Miyanmar, Muslims have been attacked and slaughtered by Buddhists. In Lebanon, Syrian Shia and Iranians and well as radical Isis have attacked the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk at the edge of Damascus, from all sides. The folk are starving and no one intervenes.
Even the slaughter on the beach of Egyptian Christians does not get acknowledged by the us in a truthful way. Obama's condolences were sent to Egypt for the murder of "Egyptian citizens". It's too much for Obama to admit that we are dealing with religious hatred! If we do not address it, how can we deal with it?
Of course, there's the suffering of the Palestinians wanting a State with no justice in sight. Each time the Israelis respond to rockets with overwhelming force, innocent children are killed and we do not find a solution to end the cycle of criminal violence. But politicians are not able to go beyond being elected and reelected and without a constituency, minorities suffer.
I cannot do justice to all the suffering and killings, but at least we, as photographers, should laud those who do show what happens. Then the camera is a lantern to look at ourselves and what we are responsible for by continued demeaning of others and having minorities live in fear or worse.
Also who would believe the story of Rodney King or other blacks in America beaten or shot callously by out of control police?
To me, it's a sacred duty to travel with a camera. It should be a matter of law. Then no one could deny what we do to our less important citizens!
Asher