Choices For Syrian Kids

[sp1814]

What are your thoughts about this cartoon?

http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/this-heartbreaking-cartoon-sums-up-the-choices-for-syrian-children--W1eaEz8y5wW

[anneasquith]

Daily life in Aleppo. :-(

[Jackdaw33]

Nothing new there. Seen it all before. After the fall of Ceaucescu we saw the appalling conditions in which Romanian orphans lived. Many, including myself, donated to funds to help them. In retrospect we sowed the wind and now we are reaping the whirlwind.

[douglas9401]

It's not big and it's not clever. Just lazy.

[1rovert]

I think that had this child been just dug out of a bombed building, they would have at least given him something to drink, and wiped the dust from his face. Yet he is still covered with dust, makes me wonder.

Now you say, 'how would he know'? Ans: I was 'bombed out' four times during the war. The one where our men didn't run away.

[dieseldick]

bless them children and all the innocence caught up in the war. i dont know what else to say.

[TWR]

Disgusting, to say man can cause this, the evil basds want's shooting.

[Old_Geezer]

My thought is that, like many cartoonists with an erroneous political opinion to push, honesty goes out of the window in order to appeal directly to the emotions and try to bypass the intellect. For sure violence and armed conflict is terrible on all, including civilians and children. But there is more than two choices. One can choose to move to safety and not disregard international agreements on refugees and push one's luck trying to convert a misfortune into an opportunity to become economic migrants and an improved standard of living. No one needs to leave safety and risk their life in a flimsy craft on the waters. It is unacceptable to imply this is unavoidable.

[TWR]

The answer to this conflict AOG is to get the MEN that can not agree with each other, put them in a field and shoot the evil basds.

[mikey4444]

Children are being killed in their 10,000's in Aleppo. These death in Hospitals and are not accidental "collateral damage".....Assad and the Russians are deliberately targeting Hospitals.

There is now mounting evidence that they are using Napalm and Chlorine.
It was said just now on the News, that Aleppo is many times worse than Sarajevo, and its been going on for years, and the free world just looks on and does nothing.

Jack...I too gave money to help the children in Romanian orphanages, but unlike you, I don't regret a single penny.

[naomi24]

The cartoon is designed to be emotive and it is misrepresentative. The child had lived safely in Turkey before his father decided the family should make the perilous crossing to Europe. The war can’t be blamed for that little boy’s death.

[Khandro]

//What are your thoughts about this cartoon?//

Firstly, it's not very good, the photo from which it is taken is on the front page of my morning paper and is an infinitely more powerful image, the poor quality of the drawing acts as a filter to the reality.
Secondly, regarding the subject, I've seen much worse; I've seen children with limbs torn off and blinded by war and natural and man-made disasters.

Bombs have exploded near me while I have sat with my mother cowered in an air-raid shelter in Manchester, while at the same time my future wife sat frightened with her mother in a cellar in Hamburg.

But what ya gonna do? I'll tell you; nothing, zilch, nada!

[sp1814]

TWR

That's Old_Geezer on this thread, not AOG.

I feel the same as dieseldick here. Children of conflict have no choice in the matter and in many ways are the worst affected.

The look of helplessness and confusion in this latest picture...it really reflects on what we as adults are willing to accept.

[sp1814]

To clarify - I'm talking about the original picture cf. what khandro said.

[ichkeria]

"bless them children and all the innocence caught up in the war. i dont know what else to say. "

I don't often think much of your posts diesel if I'm honest, but I think you sum it up.
And sadly, I suspect nothing will come of this picture. The perpetrators of these bombings don't give a damn. We had a chance to stop this conflict years before it came to this, and those same people saw to it deliberately that Assad was allowed to carry on his genocide regardless. So the resulting chaos can be laid at their door.

[Khandro]

ichkeria; Before the uprising which attempted to overthrow Assad and his government, life in Syria was not bad, the different branches of Islam and Christians all managed to tolerate one another. Some pics of life before the uprising and its "resulting chaos", here;
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syria-before-war-pictures-photogallery.html

[Gromit]

As a cartoon, I don't think it quite works.

They are two iconic images of this war, butthe fate of the children in them is not the norm.

If they leave they are not going to drown. The majority won't, most will reach some sort of safety. Likewise, those that stay, not all children are going to be bombed. Obviously both thing could happen and has happened, but it is not an either/or fate.

If is like saying 'The choice for London Commuters' and then showing the bombed bus from 7/7 or the bombed Tube Train. It is a comparison, but not a fair one, and there are other options.

So for me, the cartoon is a fail.

[anotheoldgit]

Avatar Image
naomi24

/// The cartoon is designed to be emotive and it is misrepresentative. ///

Almost what I was going to put Naomi, then some have the nerve to criticise Ukip for their Brexit poster showing thousands of male refugees flooding into Europe.

[Gromit]

AOG,
A cartoon is just one persons opinion, a bit of editorial.

A political campaign poster is entirely different. That represents the organisation and projects its ideals.

It is fine for one person to draw something that isn't a balanced view, but it is not fine for a political organisation to base its campaign around a lie, which is what the Breaking Point poster was.

[naomi24]

Gromit, that poster depicted migrants flooding into Europe. How was it a lie? They are flooding into Europe.

[ichkeria]

"ichkeria; Before the uprising which attempted to overthrow Assad and his government, life in Syria was not bad, "

I know: I didn't say it wasn't. I don't wish yet again to go over the way the civil war developed, but actually at the start there was no real attempt to overthrow Assad, People wanted reforms, and were gunned down and blown up. That would test anyone's patience.