But what about the children! Oh, they have an opinion?

October 17, 2003 10:23 AM

Shocked and Awed: A gallery of Iraq schoolchildren art. Interesting galleries of crayon works, some obviously have high opinions of the occupation while others may not. [via Dangerousmeta]
posted by mathowie (14 comments total)

I'm reminded of a article I once read somewhere (maybe Ha'aretz? Sorry, no link), where young palestinian boys said that they wanted to be IDF soldiers when they grew up.

Just a reminder that kids often latch onto any visible figures of authoriy/power.
posted by kickingtheground at 11:18 AM on October 17, 2003

pre-emptive kneejerk response: america bad! the pictures are CIA forgeries! america baaaad!
posted by keswick at 11:27 AM on October 17, 2003

Something seems weird about this exhibit. Why are almost all of the women blonde? Including many of them that appear to be depictions of dead iraqis.
posted by jnthnjng at 11:29 AM on October 17, 2003

And then came the second occupation.
posted by Guy Smiley at 11:34 AM on October 17, 2003

jnthnjng: that's what jumped out at me first, too.

it's like the rampant anti-americanism in france (not that I have any problem with rampant anti-americanism), where at the same time so many french people secretly love to go and swill down garbage like mcdonalds, kfc, nike, etc.

then again, it could be simply one kid that started with the blonde women, and then if you didn't put that in your picture too, well then, you weren't cool. you know how kids are. (except in my elementary school it was stuff like guns or hotrods or native americans...)

hmm that puffin dealie is in soho eh? guess we should wander across the river and take a look firsthand.
posted by dorian at 11:51 AM on October 17, 2003

Cool link. You can read a lot into some of them, while others just confuse me.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:58 AM on October 17, 2003

Great link, thanks for posting it. That dangerousmeta is seriously amazing at finding stuff every damn day, isn't it? Anyway thanks again for the link.
posted by cell divide at 12:03 PM on October 17, 2003

Drawings by kids during the Spanish Civil War.
posted by Zootoon at 12:34 PM on October 17, 2003

The War Through My Eyes, Children's Drawings of Chechnya.
They Still Draw Pictures (an apparently different set of drawings from the Spanish Civil War)

I've been trying to find a link that shows some of the famous Terezin children's drawings, but all I can find are bits and pieces: arrival; House on a Leaf; Landscape; Children's Room at Terezin; View of Theresienstadt
posted by anastasiav at 1:06 PM on October 17, 2003

One had an Israeli flag on a tank, hmm, another looks like a British Flag on the tank in the back. Wonder if this child knows something we don't, don't recall Israel fighting too. Funny, the child who drew this, spelt Bush like boob, Boosh.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:35 PM on October 17, 2003

wow.
posted by delmoi at 7:20 PM on October 17, 2003

there's also Pictures of Peace from the UN cyber schoolbus
posted by amberglow at 9:50 PM on October 17, 2003

Nice post, mathowie. It's always interesting to see things through the eyes of children, no history is complete without that unique vantage.

Good collection of in-thread links too. There is also the rather horrifying Witness to Genocide: the Children of Rwanda, a wrenching and grisly gallery.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:28 PM on October 17, 2003

This blog is written by a member of the Army National Guard who set up and is running a toy drive for Iraqi kids. You can send things like crayons and drawing paper as well as school supplies or small items of children's clothing as well as toys. As it's mailed to a warehouse in Maryland, for US folks it's cheap postage.
posted by darsh at 6:27 AM on October 22, 2003