Death Squads and the Leicas

[raid]

This is just a note in which I would like to share some thoughts that have been coming to my mind. I have always been a passionate photographer and I later on started also enjoying accumulating/collecting cameras and lenses.

I am originally from Baghdad (Iraq), and my family still lives there.
My wife and I get each day news from our families in Baghdad, and these news are typically along the line of keeping us abreast of the count of executed people thrown within 100m of our family homes.

I start thinking about myself and my role in this world. Am I being side tracked by my hobby? Is it fundamentally wrong that I am enjoying Leicas while my family hopes to stay alive each following day in Baghdad?

Maybe some of you are going through a similar soul search.

I wish I had the answer to my search.


Raid

 

[Ash]

I was working in a factory called Dorman's last week. Eryan, a really nice Albanian was speaking to me. He was very embarassed that he is a refugee, and he's actually paying off a £2000 credit card bill. He took £2000 from his account before his brother was caught and deported. He regularly keeps in touch with his family, but at the same time he goes out and enjoys life, wearing designer clothes and enjoying clubs/nightllife.

I think that if you cannot enjoy your life, then you will become drawn into despair, you'll end up in a worse situation than if you were still in your mother country.

 

[jody]

I start thinking about myself and my role in this world. Am I being side tracked by my hobby? Is it fundamentally wrong that I am enjoying Leicas while my family hopes to stay alive each following day in Baghdad?



Raid

This really isn't the question. The question should be what do you do to help the people of your country. Many have died on both side of the issue trying to help your country. I am not advocating that you give your life just asking what do you do?

 

[Bryce]

Raid-
What a thing to think about. The best I can tell you is that we all do the best we can for ourselves and those near us (in mind and in space) and that punishing yourself for being more fortunate than others is pointless.
All the best to your family, for people everywhere. How ever it is to come, may peace prevail.

 

[raid]

Jody: I have been helping my family formany years now. I tried to save my father's life as he faced cancer, but the treatment in Jordan was too late. This part of my life I take care of first.

I was quite shaken when my brother today told me on the phone that another ten bodies were thrown outside our home.

Raid

 

[raid]

Raid-
What a thing to think about. The best I can tell you is that we all do the best we can for ourselves and those near us (in mind and in space) and that punishing yourself for being more fortunate than others is pointless.
All the best to your family, for people everywhere. How ever it is to come, may peace prevail.

Bryce: Yes, this is what seems to be the logical and natural thing to do. I am a happy guy even when facing disasters. Thanks.

Raid

 

[akptc]

Raid, can they leave the country?

 

[xayraa33]

I simpathize with your dilema Raid.
Whether you enjoy using fine Leica gear or not, is
not going to make a difference to the seemingly senseless killings of
people near your place of origin.
the real cause of, and who to blame for this " divide and rule " tactic is beyond the scope of each single human being on this planet.
fear is always used as a control system.
The powers that be want chaos in Iraq right now.
you can be sure the same powers that be, will have the" reaction " and the " solution " to this problem in the future, as long as their goal is achieved.

 

[rxmd]

Hi Raid,

what you are saying echoes what I've heard from a number of Iraqis and Lebanese over the last months.

Just think of what you can do for your family over in Iraq and do it, but don't feel guilty for not doing something else. Don't let yourself get dragged down, because that's not helping. If there is something you feel you ought to do, and your hobby here distracts you from it, I would ditch the hobby for a while, but only then, because you need it, too, in order to keep your head clear. I am under the impression that there is little to be done at the moment except having them leave the country, but this is not an option for most people obviously.

Always remember that there will be brighter days. Yawm 3asal yawm basal.

Philipp

 

[Uncle Bill]

Raid,

That is some very serious stuff having bodies dumped in front of your family's home in Iraq. On the surface photography seems to be a frivolous pastime considering the "Have a Nice Day" world we exist in and weighty issues we face.
I dealt with my dad's death from cancer last year due to my hobby/obession of photography, its now part of my identity. Echoing other posts, have you contacted the US immigration service to see what's required to get your relatives to the US as (using a Canadian term) landed immigrants? I cannot begin to fathom what life in Baghdad is like and I don't think we in the west are getting an accurate picture regardless the media source. I just hope you can get them out.

Bill

 

[raid]

I hope that my family will be able to leave soon. Only tons of money buys freedom for Iraqis these days. No immigration services in any country will help. There are too many Iraqis leaving Iraq to escape death. As a statistician, and having worked in Iraq, I know that death counts are off.

Thanks for your responses.

Raid

 

[Toby]

If selling all your camera equipment and never taking another picture in your life could save your family then of course you should do it. But you and I both know it wouldn't make a scintilla of difference.

 

[c.poulton]

Raid

I wish you and your family in Iraq all the best and dearly hope that all this madness will end soon...

As to your photography, well don't feal guilty about it, having a hobby probably does provide a form of mental release for you. Consider also your photography as art, you are creating a legacy that will be around long after this unfortunate period we now live in has ended. You are documenting your own family as they grow up and that is priceless.

 

[raid]

Toby: Yes, you are right here. I would have taken out a huge loan if such a loan would make any difference.

Raid

 

[SCOTFORTHLAD]

Raid,
No response from me can adequately recognise the concerns which you must feel.Although I am sure that your family members in Iraq are relieved that at least you and yours are safe.You should feel no guilt at your better fortune.

Guilt must be reserved for the perpetrators of these horrors whoever they may be.
Good luck,

Brian.

 

[Jocko]

Raid,

I am sure you know the answer to your question already. A burden can only be carried so far without relief. Yet as someone who greatly admires your photographs, I feel that your work is not simply an outlet or a hobby. It is surely a way of visualising - of making - a better, saner and more beautiful world. Of expressing love and hope.

If I may suggest this, your photography is not some narcotic escape from reality or private self-indulgence. It is an expression - literally the focus - of values that enable you, your family and all of us to endure. Art has often flourished in the worst of times and places, not because it is apart from life, but because it is at the core. There can be neither guilt nor waste in that.

All the best, Ian

 

[eli griggs]

Raid, forgive me if this sounds overly simplistic, but I will say to you what I've said to my children and wife and tried to use in my personal life.

When confronted with a situation or trying to take a decision, first determine if there is anything positive that you can do and if there is, no matter how small, do it... and move on.

If however, you find that there is nothing positive to be done, then accept that as a truth and a fact... and move on.

The fact that you were compelled to ask your question, in this very public forum, seems to me to indicate that you know something needs doing or changing. Whether it is a refocusing of your attentions or a call to action, only you can decide.

As to the pleasures your photography provides, you do not need to put aside this positive aspect of your life as penitence for troubles not of your making, or pain in your life, inflicted by a greater world at-large.

I've enjoyed viewing your images and I'm sure they are of comforts to your children and family, showing them that ,even though there are great troubles in this world, some hitting very close to home, that there is still time for joy and pleasure and relief from evil times. Continuing your work in your hobby shows them stability in their lives at a time when they too may question the upsets they undoubtedly know or sense are going on; some kids are very good at picking up signals from adults, whenever adults are worried or upset.

My opinion is that you should not radically change this aspect of your families' life, but you know best what is needed there.

What ever you decide, Best Regards,
Eli

 

[BrianShaw]

...
I start thinking about myself and my role in this world. Am I being side tracked by my hobby? Is it fundamentally wrong that I am enjoying Leicas while my family hopes to stay alive each following day in Baghdad?

Maybe some of you are going through a similar soul search.

I wish I had the answer to my search.

Raid,

I doubt that most of us can even imagine what your family in Bagdad is going through. No matter how vivid the news reports are, they are experiencing that horror on a constant basis... all day and night long... while we see snippets of their life in one or three minute segments.

What I can imagine is the "guilt" that you have expressed. You made a good choice; it really is a shame that they did not, or could not, have done the same. There is little that you can do, however, that will change that situation at this time.

All you and the rest of us can really do is pray for them. Perhaps, also, a prayer for us to help us better understand what our role is in the world and how we might be able to make a difference. Also, how about remembering prayers of thanksgiving for the good situation that you and your immediate family has been blessed with.

 

[Pherdinand]

Raid, I don't think strangers over the Internet can help you with such questions, decisions. We can express our sympathy, we can agree, disagree with you, we can congratulate with your decisions, but you are the one who has to know what's important and what not.

I have similar thoughts about my photography, my cameras, and in general my easy life whenever I see someone troubled. And the world is full of troubled people, of cities like port moresby where there is 80% unemployment and children are gang-fighting with self-made weapons, of ancient religious sites used used as guerilla camps, when i fly i think about the kids that "fly" by sniffing glue and that certainly will never fly on an airplane, when i drink the n-th beer in a pub i know there are people dying because they have not enough water

This is a tricky issue. The "help", both economical, military or social/medical, should be offered with extreme care because, [see what's happening in some sub-saharan african countries or even Iraq in my oppinion], it's very easy to "overhelp" a community wth short term benefits while on the long term we create poverty, lack of experience in farming health care or even lack of political skill to lead a country.
People, communities, countries are able to get over the problems themselves without major external implications; all the eastern european countries got rid of the communist dictators eventually, and miracle: there was nobody helping them; the same will happen sooner or later with Cuba and North Corea, and there was quite some success in fighting famine in China and some latin american countries but boy it is so easy to spoil the children, to create a society that is dependent on external help/influence and unable to find its own way through the 21th century...

Anyway. Here's a shot of a proud Iraqi teenager I've met in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He asked me if i would take his shot and he posed for me and told me his own little story. Just one small guy, one lucky little devil who escaped in time and who eventually was given asylum, in the wonderworld we are living in.
Here he is.

 

[Pherdinand]

All you and the rest of us can really do is pray for them.

Prayers can help the ones who are praying. They will feel better. In the rest...i don't think so, but that's just my view of the things.