STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS!
Aug. 10th, 2006 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootHave some opinions instead!
HEAR the evidence! SEE the truth! BE disgusted! HATE who we tell you to HATE! (Don't worry, we'll point them out to you) And above all, BELIEVE WHATEVER WE TELL YOU!
This link below is about the alleged fakery of footage from the massacre at Qana. It shows Mr 'Green Helmet' directing it to get better images. But you don't need me to explain it, because at the base of the video it has short pithy sentences, telling you what you are seeing and what you should feel about it. 'The cynical filming can begin' says one caption. 'The abuse of a dead child' says another. THANK GOD those captions are there, because if they weren't we would be in DANGER of DRAWING OUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! No FEAR of that, thankfully - no fear of trusting your own eyes and ears, and most of all, no chance of any non-aligned, neutral analysis because it is made totally clear in big easy tabloid speak JUST WHOSE SIDE YOU SHOULD BE ON!
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22029_Directed_By_Green_Helmet_Guy&only
It could be that some footage coming out of Qana is a fake. It could just as easily be that this 'discovery' is a fake too, staged to take the heat out of Israel's detractors. I know a silly tiny amount about television now and I can tell you that this would not be hard to stage either as a pitch for'Lookit-the-nasty-murderin-jews' or for 'Lookit-the-cheatin-lyin-ayrabs'. It cannot be treated as evidence because it has no outside reference point beyond the immediate environment around the ambulance, and it is not being allocated emotionless scrutiny; the decision has been made for you and all you must decide is whether you are for this atrocity - whoops, sorry, FOR this ATROCITY or AGAINST it. The very lack of neutrality in its presentation makes it suspect.
By contrast, the Wiki entry seems to be trying hard to stay neutral, charting where the conspiracy theories began. It makes for very interesting reading and provides a clear, useful backdrop to the current Qana fakery theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Qana_airstrike_conspiracy_theories
My own stance? I have a sentimental love of Israel, formed from early bible stories, my own desires to see Canaan and Sinai, friends from that land, and something very trivial, the way my real name sounds when spoken with the right accent; Devorah. While I have real issues with that grand and horrible book, the Bible, I want to see Jerusalem one day (pray that I don't see it in ashes and dust) and wander out to the scented fig trees in the hills my friends have told me about.
But that doesn't mean Israel is right, and Hezbollah is wrong, any more than my preference for Egyptian broad bean falafel to Israeli chickpea falafel means the Muslims are right and the Hebrews are wrong. This has nothing to do with my preferences, my loves, my hates, my kneejerk reactions. So give me the evidence, let me hear what is going on and trust me to make a decision for myself. Don't give me judgement ready-made and emotive words and wait for my judiciously pulled strings to swing me round to the conclusion so desperately angled for.
This video is shocking and painful to watch. But, one way or the other, as it stands at the time of writing, it is not evidence.
HEAR the evidence! SEE the truth! BE disgusted! HATE who we tell you to HATE! (Don't worry, we'll point them out to you) And above all, BELIEVE WHATEVER WE TELL YOU!
This link below is about the alleged fakery of footage from the massacre at Qana. It shows Mr 'Green Helmet' directing it to get better images. But you don't need me to explain it, because at the base of the video it has short pithy sentences, telling you what you are seeing and what you should feel about it. 'The cynical filming can begin' says one caption. 'The abuse of a dead child' says another. THANK GOD those captions are there, because if they weren't we would be in DANGER of DRAWING OUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! No FEAR of that, thankfully - no fear of trusting your own eyes and ears, and most of all, no chance of any non-aligned, neutral analysis because it is made totally clear in big easy tabloid speak JUST WHOSE SIDE YOU SHOULD BE ON!
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22029_Directed_By_Green_Helmet_Guy&only
It could be that some footage coming out of Qana is a fake. It could just as easily be that this 'discovery' is a fake too, staged to take the heat out of Israel's detractors. I know a silly tiny amount about television now and I can tell you that this would not be hard to stage either as a pitch for'Lookit-the-nasty-murderin-jews' or for 'Lookit-the-cheatin-lyin-ayrabs'. It cannot be treated as evidence because it has no outside reference point beyond the immediate environment around the ambulance, and it is not being allocated emotionless scrutiny; the decision has been made for you and all you must decide is whether you are for this atrocity - whoops, sorry, FOR this ATROCITY or AGAINST it. The very lack of neutrality in its presentation makes it suspect.
By contrast, the Wiki entry seems to be trying hard to stay neutral, charting where the conspiracy theories began. It makes for very interesting reading and provides a clear, useful backdrop to the current Qana fakery theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Qana_airstrike_conspiracy_theories
My own stance? I have a sentimental love of Israel, formed from early bible stories, my own desires to see Canaan and Sinai, friends from that land, and something very trivial, the way my real name sounds when spoken with the right accent; Devorah. While I have real issues with that grand and horrible book, the Bible, I want to see Jerusalem one day (pray that I don't see it in ashes and dust) and wander out to the scented fig trees in the hills my friends have told me about.
But that doesn't mean Israel is right, and Hezbollah is wrong, any more than my preference for Egyptian broad bean falafel to Israeli chickpea falafel means the Muslims are right and the Hebrews are wrong. This has nothing to do with my preferences, my loves, my hates, my kneejerk reactions. So give me the evidence, let me hear what is going on and trust me to make a decision for myself. Don't give me judgement ready-made and emotive words and wait for my judiciously pulled strings to swing me round to the conclusion so desperately angled for.
This video is shocking and painful to watch. But, one way or the other, as it stands at the time of writing, it is not evidence.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-10 11:07 pm (UTC)My mother's reading a book about Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, and she said to me yesterday that she had no idea during the war that Roosevelt was disabled. Such things were carefully kept from the public. So, yes, spin has always been with us. But it strikes me that after awhile one acquires the gift of discernment in these matters even in the face of contrary evidence.
The U.S. government often uses such diversions to discredit opponents, just as people with certain kinds of religious beliefs make their faith hinge on the historicity of one particular claim.
What can one do but read and think? And eat falafel. I have a freezer, fridge and cupboard full of different kinds of broad beans. Decisions, decisions. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-11 07:59 am (UTC)21st century info, 19th century minds, 1950s comfort zone.
Speaking of lack of info, I didn't know there was more than one kind of broad bean!
no subject
Date: 2006-08-11 08:27 am (UTC)There are numerous broad bean cultivars (basically long podded ones and short podded ones), but I was thinking of the small field (or horse) beans which the Egyptians use for Ful Medames as opposed to the larger dried broad beans, and small fresh broad beans cheek by jowl with older, mealier ones. At the moment I have jars of the former two, a bag of fresh young things, and a bag of frozen beans which are too coarse to stir fry.
This may sound like overkill, but I couldn't get broad beans here for years and years. I don't know why, because they're common in mainland Chinese cuisine. So now I have them on hand when I can get them fresh and always have a stock of frozen ones to use in stew.