The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Diarmuid wrote in response to Yasser: > Perhaps if the Iraqi people had not been subjected to the added torture of a > decade of bombings, sanctions, death and disease, they would be in a better > position to let their voices be heard. As it is, their voice is not heard > here in England. This is an important point: how can the voices of ordinary Iraqis be heard so loudly in the US/UK that they can't be ignored or dismissed? So that Phillip Knightley's third stage of misinformation is unsuccessful? (Knightley talks about different stages of misinformation in times of war: Stage 1 - the crisis, the government prepares its people for war; Stage 2 - the demonisation of the leader of the enemy country (already well under way); Stage 3 - the demonisation of that country's people. see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4270014,00.html ) Someone in the British media has tracked down the English boy who, aged 5, refused to sit on Saddam Hussein's knee back in 1990/91 - now aged 16 he is reported as saying that 'Iraqis are just like us' and he doesn't agree to war except as a very last resort. 'Any normal 5 year old would have refused to sit on the knee of a stranger who wasn't very nice.' No demonisation material there, then. (Perhaps we need more 16 year olds in the White House and Number 10.) How possible would it be to support/supply equipment for the making of films and the taking of pictures by ordinary Iraqi people living in Iraq? Not focusing on the suffering/horror, important though that is to be shown of course, but giving Iraqis' own views of ordinary life as lived by resourceful, intelligent survivors, who are 'just like us'? Remove the threat of war and the real work resumes, ie. bringing about the conditions whereby people who are 'just like us' can rebuild their own country - and pictures will help. Much of the world's media responds first and mainly to pictures, which often set the news agenda. Cathy Aitchison Aitchison Media & Development _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk