LOST CHILDHOOD: Haunting Photos Of 10-Year-Old Boy Working In A Syrian Weapons Factory

[FarCenter]

In the two-year-old Syrian civil war, it's easy to lose sight of how ordinary civilians are suffering amid the heated debate on both sides of a possible U.S. intervention in the conflict.

No matter what the international community does or doesn't do, the lives of many Syrians will likely be affected for a long time to come. More than 110,000 people have lost their lives since March 2011, and millions have been internally displaced or fled to overcrowded refugee camps.

For those who remain in the country, however, their lives have shifted from normalcy to survival. In a package released Sunday by Reuters, photos are able to express this change much better than words can.

Issa, a 10-year-old boy living in Aleppo, is shown working with his father to fix weapons systems in a factory for 10 hours a day. His education has been replaced with on-the-job training, and it seems that his childhood is being lost with each day.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/boy-working-syrian-weapons-factory-2013-9

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. haunting indeed

[KurtNYC]

2. Is this an art project?

The lighting is dramatic and professional. Each picture is carefully framed and he is wearing lipstick in the last shot (?!)

What is this?

[NYC_SKP]

4. IMO, this is TOTALLY staged propaganda. What a crock and shame on Reuters for publishing it.

Not only are the lighting and compositions professional and dramatic, the setting is phonied up, that doesn't look anything like an active shop, those warheads look like crusty old surplus they found on the side of the road, and the one that's chucked up in the lathe where the kid is using calipers is just so inauthentic.

This whole photo set is bullshit.

[KurtNYC]

5. the captions don't lie though - they just say he carries a bomb or whatever

they don' t really say what the photos suggest -- that some little kid is repairing military gear by himself in a well lit factory.

Looks like outtakes from the Mad Max Thuderdome.

[Live and Learn]

3. Misleading. He is working for the rebels.

This is who we are supposedly helping. Why? We know little about either side in this war since we refuse to talk with Syria.

From the article: "Issa, a 10-year-old boy living in Aleppo, is shown working with his father to fix weapons systems for the Free Syrian Army in a factory for 10 hours a day."

[Autumn]

6. So they have one child working in their " factory " ?

And I should believe that the one young man standing against the far wall watching him in the third photo, wearing cleaner clothes, and not dirty at all is his Father?

You know, I have horses in the barn. I clean up a LOT of horse shit. I walk thought the pasture and I see a LOT of horse shit. But I ain't never seen as much horse shit as I have in this story and those photos.

[Historic NY]

7. Bogus...Issa, 10 years old, poses for a picture...

there is no way the kid has the upper body strength to handle the tools, not along assemble a bomb. If he is it makes good evidence to support the claims of the detonation of the chemical weapons was accidental by the rebels themselves.

[MattBaggins]

8. What a load of tosh

Looks like a bad display by a high school art student.

[jsr]

9. Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999

http://bit.ly/15Kw0OO

For the purposes of this Convention, the term the worst forms of child labour comprises:

(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

[wandy]

10. Sure is funny. All these terrible things happening in all these countries.........

Theres never an appeal to help them.
Theres never an appeal to help our own.
You never here about them..

Until the US wants to bomb them back to the stone age.

[otohara]

11. There Is Our Horrific Gun Problem

more kids getting killed over here by violence than over there.

Got any suggestions in dealing with the deranged gun owners?

I'm with Australia - don't go to America - no one is safe. Boycott is about
all other countries can do.

[wandy]

12. That's just the thing. We have so many problems of our own to deal with.....

Deranged gun owners is only a small part of the problem.
I could wear out a keyboard mentioning others.

It would be nice to save the world but at the moment we aren't doing a good job of saving ourselves.

[otohara]

13. We're Too Divided

and apathetic - lazy and frustrated.

I live in a state with two recalls over guns and counties who want to secede from this amazing state
because of guns and oil. I fear John Morse who is a good man is on his way out.

[wandy]

16. And even at that, we are doing better than many.......

Greetings from the Republic of Boulder.

[otohara]

17. I Used to Work

for KBCO

[leeroysphitz]

14. This is tragic. A few cruise missles will fix that situation right up.

[LittleBlue]

15. Looks fake. nt