Thursday, March 1, 2007

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5bSUCj3qk50

I thought it was interesting and was also appalled to see not only the way they treat women but also kids in the Middle East. While reading Baghdad without a Map, we learned that in the Middle East women are considered to be dangerous and are supposed to be protected and controlled by men. In the Middle East, kids are used to protect people by using them as shields, or by making them do dangerous work that no one else wants to risk their lives by doing. Kids aren’t supposed to be running around as “slaves” for other people; they are supposed to be hanging out with their friends having a good time. -rb

2 comments:

Baghdad Blog said...

Wow that was an amazing video. What really struck me was the little girl in first grade or so saying she wanted to be a suicide warrior in battle dress. What is to happen to the coming generations of children who grow up in environments where they are expected to take the lives of others and their own for a terrorist cause. This is why I thank god that I grew up in such a great country where we do not have to worry about handling machine guns, or dying, or becoming expierenced in combat before hitting puberty. I wish it was easier to help these god-forsaken parts of the world. -MAD

Baghdad Blog said...

I agree that it is terrible that children have to be put through so much. Because after all, if they experience such bad childhoods, how can they be expected to improve their society in the future? The unfortunate answer is that they (or the majority of them) do no improve their society. Some of them are probably not even taught right from wrong. This is one difference I can note between the U.S.-at least what I have experienced in my 16 years-and the middle east (what I have read). Here there is crime, much more than there should be, but almost everyone knows once they are a certain age that they will be punished for breaking the law. To some extent, I would argue, that everyone say 10, and older know the difference between right and wrong. Even if they see their crime-committing brothers, sisters, and friends as the good, and law enforcement as the bad, they understand punishments will be made from their actions (if they are crimes). This repeatedly seems different in the Middle East. People of all ages living in crime and poverty, with not very effective law enforcement (stemming from oftentimes inhumane laws) cannot be expected to do anything else. Yes it is their culture, and we the West need to respect it. Yes also, however, they need to make some major changes within their society if they want to prosper. –C.S.