Syria's First Responders

September 22, 2014 9:27 AM

Whoever saves a life - In a war with many villains, these are the good guys. Earlier this month Khaled Hajjo and the majority of the Hanano team were briefly arrested by a rebel brigade in the city, and then forced to flee to Turkey.
posted by TheProudAardvark (5 comments total)

whenever I hear the word hero bandied around, I want to to point to these people and say look before you say that word again
posted by lalochezia at 9:56 AM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thanks for passing this on. It's shamefully easy to forget that Syria is happening.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:55 AM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

See also: Medyan Dairieh's film The Battle for Aleppo (Previously).
posted by zbsachs at 2:45 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

It's shamefully easy to forget that Syria is happening.

According to Matti Friedman, who used to be the head of AP in Israel (I think), AP had forty employees in Israel; one regime-picked part-timer in Syria. Hence the lack of coverage.

Oh, and because of the risks they're not going to run stories from freelancers in Syria any more, so there will basically be no coverage of Syria at all.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:47 PM on September 22, 2014

In every blood-soaked conflict or natural catastrophe it seems there are the most amazing heroes busily saving lives and risking their own off in the background someplace. These are the crown jewels of humanity - and most of them we never know anything about.

I hate the idea that we should be ashamed of our whiteness or of our wealth or of our cushy life in this country when others in other places are suffering beyond belief; we were born into this place with this color skin and we can no more change that than a leopard can change his spots, BUT

BUT these men humble me and I cry for them and for their families.
posted by aryma at 8:42 PM on September 24, 2014