Another story of Syria

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

Jon Stewart returned last night, and the talk of the day was, of course, Syria (and he, of course, tried to inject a little humor into the situation.) However, the interview segment with which he closed out the show was anything but humorous, bringing in Andrew Harper, the head of the United Nations Refugee Agency in Jordan. This is the important story, in my opinion: the story of millions of people displaced from their homes, many of them women and children. It's also the story of nations such as Jordan who are doing what they can to provide a safe haven for some of these people, and the incredible work being done by the UN, an organization that is so often derided by folks here in the U.S., but which does certain things very well; this is one of them.

Any discussion of our response to the situation in Syria should involve the discussion of how we can help these people. While we're talking about what message we should send to the Assad regime, or whether or not we should act militarily, and in which way, here is an obvious human crisis where we could all put our money where our mouths are. I'd prefer to see this story given the lion's share of airtime on our cable news stations, over constant redundant talking heads debating back and forth on questions of chemical weapons and factions and military responses and political calculus.

Here's the interview, in two parts:

If the embedding doesn't work for some reason, here are direct links:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-3-2013/exclusive---andrew-harper-extended-interview-pt--1

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-3-2013/exclusive---andrew-harper-extended-interview-pt--2

Comments

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

Helping refugees is somewhat like curing the sympthoms, not the illness itself.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

What a charmingly platitudinal way to justify the ignoring of the suffering of almost two milion people, mostly women and children.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Remember, they're not people, they're mooslims.

It's important to dehumanize the suffering, it keeps the charade going.

(frozen) (no subject)

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

We - you and me - have different views. You suggest to help those who suffer.
I recommend to stop making those AND NEW people suffering.
I admit, it's a hard thing to encompass for an ordinary brain...

(frozen) (no subject)

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Your last remark was absolutely unnecessary.

(frozen) (no subject)

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

> (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1762258.html?thread=140454354#t140454354) I admit, it's a hard thing to encompass for an ordinary brain...
> (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1762258.html?thread=140457682#t140457682) it's all about learning. It's possibly not one of your favorites.

You were warned (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1751791.html?thread=139713519#t139713519) that you were treading very close to the precipice. Several (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1741615.html?thread=138822447#t138822447) times. Multiple (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1720949.html?thread=137063029#t137063029) times, actually. Unfortunately, you didn't realize how dangerously close you were.

So here we go again.



I think you'll eventually begin to realize that these will be coming at an exponentially frequent rate for you.

Bye for another week, then.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

So you admit whats going on over there is an illness

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

I SAY it, not 'admit'.
I ain't John Kerry.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Livejournal has been really slow lately, has Putin lost his temper again?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

When you have a fever because you have a flu, your first priority is to deal with the high temperature (the symptom), and then tackle the flu itself (the illness).

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

The first priority is giving a pill, and not waving hands to cool the hot forehead 'to help'

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Yes, a pill to bring down the temperature, i.e. to handle the symptom. It's not so hard to comprehend this, is it.

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

there are differnt pills, believe you me.
Some, e.g., called antibiotics.
PS. There are contraceptives, too.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Feel free to keep making as little sense as ever.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

And what should be done with those hundreds of thousands of refugees? Should they be left to rot in the dirt?

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

Your question is easy to answer.
You just roll back to the moment when the number was hundreds, not hundreds of thousands - and ask yourself what changed since then.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Reminiscing about past events still wouldn't feed, clothe and warm those hundreds of thousands. Do you have some other, more practical proposition?

(frozen) (no subject)

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

it's not about 'reminiscing', it's all about learning.
It's possibly not one of your favorites.

(frozen) (no subject)

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to spend the next 7 days (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1762258.html?thread=140458194#t140458194) "reminiscing" about what went wrong with your conduct - yet again. Admittedly, that might not be among your favorite occupations, but ultimately, it's all up to you.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Stalin used to argue, "No person: no problem".

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

How would you propose to cure the illness?

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend to start with stopping doing wrong things

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Could you be more specific?

(frozen) (no subject)

[papasha-mueller.livejournal.com]

I already was, somewhere around, speaking of analysis.
I probably take it right when I decide that 'learning curve', 'plan-do-analyse-change' and all that jazz are just fuzzy concepts for some local folks

(frozen) (no subject)

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

So, apart from the personal attacks that may or may not betray a lack of arguments, you actually have got nothing specific? Unfortunate.