Syrian Refugee Rally

 
Prompted by the photo of a dead 3 year old boy washed up on a Turkish beach, a small group of protesters met at the steps of City Hall on Friday (September 4th) to rally support for Syrian refugees.

The situation in Syria has been coming to a head for the past 5 years and the Canadian government has done very little to help thousands of people caught in a war between Syria's dictator leader and ISIS.  With an election coming in October, Harper is feeling pressure to do something to help bring more refugees into Canada now.

News reports are becoming increasingly insane. Hungary is putting up fences to try to keep refugees out of Europe, as if they were doing Europe a favor.  A Hungarian news videographer was caught on camera tripping and kicking people as they ran past her.  Meanwhile, like an atonement for WWII, Germany is welcoming refugees with open arms.  Then there is Greece, swamped by people trying to get to Europe in flimsy rubber rafts.

Many have died trying, including Alan Kurdi, his older brother, and mother. Alan Kurdi was the little boy in the photo.  The YouTube news video of the police officer carefully picking him off the beach wrenched my heart. Later the world learned that they had family living in Vancouver that were trying to get them into Canada.  The family even had their MP hand deliver a letter to Chris Alexander, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, months ago.
 
Alan's photo, taken by Turkish photojournalist Nilüfer Demir, has sparked world wide demands for governments in Europe and Canada and the Middle East to do more to help people fleeing conflict situations. It was a powerful photo.  NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair compared it to iconic photos like Nick Ut's crying Vietnam War girl running naked in the middle of a road or Kevin Carter's photo of a vulture sitting next to the emaciated body of a small child.

Links:

• Aylan Kurdi: - Drowned Syrian Boy Kid Show Tragic Plight of Refugees
  - video. Warning - if the images don't make you cry, the music and commentaries will.  

• Alan Kurdi - Wikipedia

• Troubling image of drowned boy captivates, horrifies - Reuters

• Photographer of the world-shaking picture of drowned Syrian toddler: 'I was petrified at that moment' - Hurriyet Daily News

• Photographer describes 'scream' of migrant boy's 'silent body' - CNN

• Woman in iconic Vietnam War photo honoured - CBC  
  
  
• How Photojournalism Killed Kevin Carter

• Iconic Photos : Vulture Stalking a Child  

• Nick Ut - World Press Photo biography  
• Chris Alexander Just Got Put In His Place By CBC's Rosemary Barton - Huffington Post. Included only because it is an awesome slap-down of Christ Alexander, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  

 

Forest fire haze

Cough, cough, sneeze, cough, whe-e-e-ze.

Towards the end of August, southern Alberta was hit with smoke from massive forest fires in British Columbia and northern Washington.  

Air quality warnings were issued, suggesting people not do anything active outside.  Even though a spider caught in the measuring device shot the reading off the chart -- we still had air quality worse than in places in India and China.  

On the way to work I saw an Asian lady dress in pink taking photos of the haze with her tablet.  I imagined she was posting to Instagram and sending notes to people in China - "Your air is better than here."

A fire ban was issued, as well, the purpose was to not make the air any worse than it was.  It didn't stop my neighbor down the street from firing up their bar-b-que and using it like a paper shredder, though. 

Still recovering from the multi-plague that hit me in May, breathing was an adventure. Still, silly me, went out on one of the worst air quality days to take photos.