Juice boxes and Persian patriots
Azadi Tower is one of my favorite architectural structures anywhere in the world. I’m still not sure if my attraction to it is for purely aesthetic reasons or because of the fascinating history behind it. It’s definitely a combination of the two. Azadi Tower was built by the Shah of Iran in 1971 to commemorate [...]
The Western media and Iran
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10616.shtml The Western media and Iran Matthew Cassel, The Electronic Intifada, 23 June 2009 Protestors, anywhere in the world, are extremely brave individuals whose reasons for demonstrating openly should be listened to and respected. Protest is democracy at work. However, too often, US and other Western-based media pick and choose which protests to cover and [...]
CNN video of nighttime invasion
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv60QkqpAIE&hl=en&fs=1&] The above frightening “amateur video” was shown on CNN International. The video reminds me of every single night that I spent living in the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, except it’s missing the gun shots, percussion grenades and sounds of Israeli bulldozers plowing into shops on the main street. The below [...]
Intersections in DC
Two different worlds: CNN: With still two days before Obama’s inauguration, CNN is showing video from cameras posted at a number of intersections in Washington, DC, to show how many people are already arriving to witness the “historical event.” About 20 people are shown crossing each intersection. Al Jazeera: Palestinians in Gaza, finally allowed to get [...]
Cycle of Conflict
Cycle of Conflict, a special CNN program about Israel/Palestine, just simplified the history of the conflict by saying that the Arab-Israeli war began six decades ago, then jumped to 1967 when Israel captured the Gaza Strip and added that some Israelis moved there, and then jumped to 2005 when Israel removed the settlers to try [...]
CNN is crap, absolute crap
They are so quick to use footage from Arabic agencies or satellite channels to show speeches by Arab leaders or other images that fit their agenda, but it is impossible to find any of the great Ramattan footage of children being treated on the floors of hospitals due to a lack of beds! This is [...]
CNN on the massacres
It is amazing watching CNN and Al Jazeera Arabic in their coverage of this conflict.I watched 20 minutes of CNN where they covered extensively Palestinian rocket strikes into southern Israel. Families were shown fleeing the rocket attacks, old women crying, medical crews were stressed from the non-stop scurrying from one place to another. They then [...]
Massacres in Gaza
In Israel they often count cases of “shock” in their injured from Palestinian homemade rocket attacks. I think I need to be treated for shock after watching footage of strikes on Gaza. CNN is talking about how Hamas infrastructures are mixed into civilian areas, and thus many civilians are among the dead. When the correspondent [...]