Friday, January 31, 2014

I anx over wrong response to Syria pictures


The Umayyad mosque in Aleppo dates from 11th to 14th centuries.
The minaret, disappeared on the second picture, was built in 1090.
Martin Chulov’s recent article in The Guardian “Syria's heritage in ruins: before-and-after pictures” is a must-read. The pictures reveal how the seemingly unstoppable war in Syria is laying waste to a world heritage built over 5,000 years.

But stop! The war has claimed more than 130,000 lives. Which is more important?

And here's what makes me queasy: that the pictures that impact me most are those of the Umayyad mosque in Aleppo. The same Guardian article has a before and after of a hospital, even more comprehensively destroyed than the mosque; and then what of the pictures of the dead and refugees that we have seen so many of?

So what's wrong with me, that out of all this, when I seem to most mourn is the loss of the historic buildings???

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