Where the children sleep
September 27, 2015 1:08 AM   Subscribe

Two million children are fleeing Syria, this is where they sleep.
posted by Iteki (30 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
Horrifying.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:54 AM on September 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


.
posted by adept256 at 5:00 AM on September 27, 2015


Seriously people of the world, get your shit together. This is horrifying.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 5:25 AM on September 27, 2015 [13 favorites]


Sometimes we really suck as a species.
posted by COD at 6:10 AM on September 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


I came here to say that this is horrifying
posted by growabrain at 6:10 AM on September 27, 2015


Full on ugly crying. Organizations helping Syrian refugees.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 6:20 AM on September 27, 2015 [9 favorites]


Jesus Christ. I am having a hard time describing just how much it affected me to see little children sleeping on rocks and debris in the woods. IN THE WOODS. They are sleeping in the woods and we're doing nothing to help.
posted by lydhre at 7:07 AM on September 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fuck.
posted by 256 at 7:08 AM on September 27, 2015


Heartbreaking
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:28 AM on September 27, 2015


This is a damning indictment of our "civilization."
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 8:09 AM on September 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'm having that reaction, the horrified/want-to-hug-them/overwhelmed response . . . and it's the overwhelmed part that is hitting me so hard. Give to Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross/Crescent, volunteer . . . and then feel overwhelmed all over again because of the "people suck" part of things. ~sigh~
posted by pt68 at 8:49 AM on September 27, 2015


We created this mess... and the only way to fix it is to reverse course, rebuild all their homes, businesses and other infrastructure as the start of an apology.
posted by MikeWarot at 8:52 AM on September 27, 2015


Estimates I've heard of domestic homelessness in the US are on the same order of magnitude, which makes it perhaps unsurprising we're not better at giving Syrian children a bed.
posted by weston at 9:03 AM on September 27, 2015 [7 favorites]


On literally my first day on the job in the Coast Guard, I was pulling Cuban refugees out of the ocean. The 1994 exodus had started about 24 hours before, and it went on for two months. We found one group as the weather was turning bad and their raft was coming apart. I had to haul a dude twice my size up over the gunwale. I'm not a big guy and I've never been particularly strong. I don't know how I did it.

This is my ship on our busiest day, with something like 223 on board. My ship was a 110' cutter. We were told to stop picking up rafters once we had about 150 on deck, but there were days when we just couldn't, because how could we turn around on people who were calling for help? (The whole series of pics is worth a look.)

We never turned away from anyone. My captain was a jerk and anything but inspiring, my shipmates were often awful to me, but we never once left anyone in the water. We even saved dogs when command told us to kill them. It taught me that even bullies and complete assholes still have some fucking humanity.

As far as I know, the US took in all those refugees. It wasn't a straight shot from my boat to Florida, but they got processed through a camp at Gitmo and eventually they entered the US.

I know this situation here is different. The numbers are far, far greater. But it's also different because of Islamophobia and racism and politics. These people are fleeing a fucking war, and it's one where people have really put their backs into being savage monsters. I don't understand how so many people with the power to help can leave them hanging. I just don't. It's fucking cowardly.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:14 AM on September 27, 2015 [67 favorites]


We broke it, and I suspect that our attempting to fix it will make it worse...send in Christian aid orgs to try to convert the Muslim hordes? Sure! More CIA spooks posing as aid workers to infiltrate the camps and find ISIS? Of course!!
posted by nevercalm at 9:16 AM on September 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


The stories lending indivuality to each of the subjects here go some way to avoiding the problems inherent in this kind of photo report.

This is right around the corner for us here in Europe, and we're nowhere near understanding that the greatest tide is yet to come.
posted by progosk at 9:17 AM on September 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


and the only way to fix it

I strongly doubt that, to quote RationalWiki, "a survivalist and crank-laden mess" of a web site and YouTube channel "that makes the average Tea Party look sane" and "where World War III and the impending collapse of the economy/nation/global civilization/etc. is just around the corner, with a good helping of NWO, 9/11 trutherism, and a kitchen sink of conspiracy propaganda" has the answer to anything, honestly.
posted by effbot at 9:18 AM on September 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


You remember how you loved the tender, sleeping faces of your young ones, searched for their first smiles, listened to echo their first words; these are no less, and no less ours.
posted by Oyéah at 9:49 AM on September 27, 2015 [7 favorites]


Don't forget folks, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and other oil-rich states are taking in ....

zero

refugees.

Good to see European press making a big deal of this. Oh. Perhaps not.
posted by rolandroland at 10:22 AM on September 27, 2015 [10 favorites]


Absolutely horrifying. Though I think the article's focus on nightmares is a bit beside the point. Nightmares are a common part of childhood--even a peaceful adult world is somewhat incomprehensible and therefore terrifying to brand new beings.

What breaks my heart is the lost opportunity for good nourishment, education, and innocent play that should be available to all children. The normalization of horrific war acts is a wound that will take generations to heal. The worst part is, I can't help but think that we are intentionally using civilian zones as battlefields.
posted by mantecol at 11:57 AM on September 27, 2015 [4 favorites]


Regrettably, they are only a fraction of the world's children who sleep in godawful conditions.
posted by IndigoJones at 12:58 PM on September 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


Ben Carson recently said that the only reason Americans were interested in Syrian refugees was "political correctness," and that America should only take in refugees who can bring skilled labor to our economy.

If you care about this, write your senators and representatives. And for God's sake, vote. It matters.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:47 PM on September 27, 2015 [4 favorites]


Charity Navigator has an entire page with charities for Syria and you can click to see what they focus on.

I still feel useless.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 3:15 PM on September 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm sad that I posted this on my social media account and people responded that this is no different from us ignoring all the other children in the world who sleep on trash at night.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 5:17 PM on September 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'm sad that I posted this on my social media account and people responded that this is no different from us ignoring all the other children in the world who sleep on trash at night.

Do you disagree? I think that that is a fair comparison, but my conclusion is that it is horrifying that we ignore either of these situations, not that we should do nothing about the Syrian refugees either.
posted by lollusc at 10:59 PM on September 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


progosk: "The stories lending indivuality to each of the subjects here go some way to avoiding the problems inherent in this kind of photo report."

I am not sure that's an apt comparison - the problems inherent in photo reports of African famines are about colonialism and white saviorism, and about generating stereotypes about a continent of dozens of countries. These are pictures of stateless people sleeping rough after being driven from their single home nation, which is currently collapsing.
There is also a problem that humanitarian NGOs use photographs of vulnerable, desperate children to signify generic need, but when the funds are being raised to help the children in the specific photographed crisis, it's less a problem and more a design feature.
posted by gingerest at 11:57 PM on September 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


It isn't a neat fit, no - but it's not a complete coincidence that a part of the world was shaken into reaction to this issue/crisis by another photograph of a supine child.
posted by progosk at 7:19 AM on September 28, 2015


"I don't understand how so many people with the power to help can leave them hanging."

What can be done though? The numbers are huge. In just one 24-hour period 13,000 refugees arrived in Munich. There are millions of Syrian refugees. They'll need shelter, food, etc, all while the countries' own people also need help. How do you find housing for so many people at once? How do you get food ready? The logistics are mindboggling.
posted by I-baLL at 11:35 AM on September 28, 2015


The logistics are being managed, and to a large extent by private citizens and organizations. The local group I am in has a thousand members, making food, driving refugees to temporary accommodation, buying tickets, buying underwear, buying ping-pong balls. What other options are there? We've tried letting them drown, but it doesn't seem to stop them, they keep wanting to get to safety. 13,000? The vast majority of the world's refugees are in neighboring countries. A tiny percentage makes it to Europe and are received primarily by Germany and Sweden. Europe needs to create safe ways to enter and apply for asylum and needs to cooperate on how to spread the burden and opportunity that it is to welcome refugees and North America need to step up to the plate a bit more.
posted by Iteki at 4:17 PM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


It would be nice if we (as a nation) stopped creating humanitarian disasters like this, wouldn't it?
posted by MikeWarot at 5:08 PM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


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