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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo Boston. From Kabul. With Love.
Last edited Wed Apr 17, 2013, 05:47 AM - Edit history (1)
Have tissue handy.
MORE IMAGES HERE: http://principlepictures.com/blog/2013/04/16/to-boston-from-kabul-with-love/
STORY BEHIND THE PICTURES
lastlib
(23,191 posts)WE inflicted a lot of it, and they can still do this....! Amazing!
Right back atcha, Kabul!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,560 posts)OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)You're welcome.
Old and In the Way
(37,540 posts)Turns out that they are human beings...just like us.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)and put in the house behind us that is for sale...
Mythos
(1 post)Thank you for your support, Kabul. It is a blessing.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)This is truly moving and inspiring. Thank you for posting this.
To Kabul from us with love...
WillyT
(72,631 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Except none of these people have the slightest idea that ANYTHING happened in Boston. They have never heard of Boston and they don't know what the sign they are holding says.
As I understand it, it is incredibly unlikely they have ever even heard of 9-11 or the twin towers. Even after all this time something like 90% of the Afghan population has never heard of this attack and has no idea what we are doing there.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)I read somewhere that an average Afghan did not know what the Twin Towers were, the main thing they knew about the attack was that it meant the US was going to attack them and they were terrified of that.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035160/Most-Afghans-know-9-11-according-disturbing-poll.html#ixzz2QgcCB7WK
Think tank: 92% of Afghans never heard of 9/11
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/19/think-tank-afghans-dont-know-911/
Study: Few Afghans Know About 9/11, Reason for War. 92 percent of men in key province are unaware of 2001 attacks on U.S.
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/20
It is possible that the photographer told these people that there was a terrorist attack and the sign expressed condolences, but we will never know for sure. The photographer might have told them the sign said "Yankee Go Home!" What we DO know is that these people likely had no independent knowlege of this attack. How could they?
FourScore
(9,704 posts)Thanks for the info.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)Thanks for that very, very important information. I had no idea.
FourScore
(9,704 posts)If you look through all the pictures at the link, all of the people are holding the same sign. Look at it closely. So basically, someone convinced them to hold hold a hand written sign (they couldn't even read) and they took their picture -- thereby substantiating the comment that they have probably never heard of Boston and have no idea what happened.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)bhikkhu
(10,714 posts)after so many decades of war. Perhaps the people in the pictures don't know how to write, but perhaps they know more about the message than we do anyway.
JI7
(89,244 posts)so they might be the small number of people who do get outside info.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)TVs were banned under the Taliban.
I assume that nowadays most villages will have at least one TV and radio.
Ola.
(7 posts)This is the story behind my photo series To Boston. From Kabul. With Love.
When I left Boston for Afghanistan nearly 6 weeks ago, it was with some trepidation the first Ive felt after several filming trips here. Why now? Perhaps because the Afghanistan Im visiting this Spring is not the same as the country I traveled to in 2001/2002, 2006 and 2009. It has experienced a decade of war, and Ive seen firsthand how the outlook has changed among so many from one of cautious hope for a better future to one of grim acceptance that this last painful, protracted period of violence and political upheaval may still not yield freedom from oppression in this country.
Just last week I woke up to frantic emails and texts from home after the worst insurgent attack in the country in over a decade. Yes, Im fine. Safe. I wrote to family and friends, assuring them that I was far from the violence. Today, when I grabbed my phone off the bedside table, I thought I was re-reading one of my own texts: Were ok. And everyone we know is safe. But instead it was a message from my husband, Dennis, assuring me that he and our 5-year-old daughter were fine. Boston. Attacked. It was still is hard to comprehend. Like so many others, I have experienced the pure joy and pain of crossing the Boston Marathon finish line, and I felt heartbroken for the victims and for our little city. I also felt a deep sense of longing to be home.
I decided I wanted to send some love from 6500 miles away. Before leaving the house, I made the sign, To Boston / From Kabul / With Love and planned to take one picture of me holding it. But as I talked to people here about what had happened many had heard the news I saw the pain in their faces, and reminders of their own hardships. They said, Im so sorry, with that defining head shake that doesnt need another word of explanation; it says, I understand.
Frozan Rahmani, a program officer for CARE International, was especially emotional, Every time I hear about attacks happening whether its in the United States, Pakistan, England or here, I became too sad. All those people had hopes and dreams for their futures. Their parents had hopes and dreams for their futures. It doesnt matter that we experience this more often here. No one should experience any of it ever. Its always the innocent who suffer.
She paused. I wish there was something I could do.
There is, I said. Would you be willing to hold this sign to send a little love from Kabul?
http://principlepictures.com/blog/2013/04/17/the-story-behind-the-pictures/
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)Welcome to DU!
a la izquierda
(11,791 posts)FourScore
(9,704 posts)I needed a story like that.
renate
(13,776 posts)Here's another story about how this is for real:
"As I started to talk with people here about what was happening, I saw the expressions on their faces change," she said. "They experience things like this here all the time. You might expect that they'd be desensitized to it or talk about it with a lack of compassion, but it was the exact opposite. There was this shared experience of pain and suffering, and the way people expressed that to me was really beautiful."
Those expressions led Murphy to ask permission to photograph them holding her sign a spontaneous idea that quickly spread around the world and went viral on the Internet.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/20/17839134-to-boston-from-kabul-with-love?lite
JI7
(89,244 posts)this is from iraq.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)Peace, for Kabul & all.