Vice news does some good reports. This is 30 mins long on Aleppo

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5UEz_Ao0g[/video]

My point is, that in most cases nowadays, our media sells us short, and has already made this decision for us. We’re being treated like children.

Agreed – te media is also very selective about what stories it covers Heard much from the CAR recently? But I don’t think the media can be blamed entirely – they cover the stories people wan to hear, and dramatic stories involving young white people are more in demand.

Indeed the media is selective about what it covers and how, it is also increasingly manipulated by the people on the ground who chose what the media can see and film.

This piece is from Global Post who James Foley worked for. It’s not earth shattering but perhaps but shows futility of much of the conflict, its from 2012

Global Post: Aleppo

Horrific things have not just been happening in Syria for 4 or 5 years; they have been happening since the Assads and their cronies took control of the country:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Hama_Massacre

I think it was Robert Fisk in his book Pity the Nation who described visiting the site of the Hama massacre and meeting an old man wandering about in the rubble. When he asks: “What happened to the people who used to live here?” the old man replies: “You are walking on them”.

Having visited Syria about a dozen times I have fond memories of the place and the people and wish I could do something to help. I can only console myself by hoping that once people have left the country their lives will eventually improve, when the wounds have healed. My agent in Jordan is Chairman of the chamber of commerce in Amman and he tells me that this year around 700 new businesses have been established every month in Jordan by Iraqi and Syrian refugees. Consequently the Jordanian economy is booming and one can only hope this will benefit the refugees in the long term.

My brother lives in Michigan amongst a large community of expat Lebanese and I’m sure that those people enjoy a far higher standard of living as well as greater security than the ones who still live in Lebanon.