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December 06, 2004
Nine to Five in Afghanistan
Hmmm... let's say your job is to caption news photos. I think that would be a great job, you get to see all the pictures and label them for the people, giving a perspective on the news via the image they see.
The problem: You work for the AP and/or Reuters. The job becomes more difficult because now you have to put a negative spin on the United States of America, Freedom, Democracy, the ousting of tyranny and oppression.
So. that means you take a most excellent picture, like the one below, and spin it into something negative. It must be in subtle and delicate way, so that the viewer comes away feeling sadness and grief at the powers that caused the scene. Seems impossible doesn't it?
Still, the captioner for this photo found a way to trash everything that the Coalition has accomplished in Afghanistan with two words: Traffic and Pollution.
Abdul Saboor, 37, an Afghan traffic police officer, regulates the vehicles circulation at the rushed hours in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday Dec. 2, 2004. For 12 years Saboor does his duty as a traffic police officer in Kabul where he has experienced a few regimes in the past as like, Najibullah's regime, Mujahedeen's and Taliban's regimes too. But he says "In the past regimes there wasn't so traffic jam as it is now." Since the ousting of the Taliban over two years ago, the number of vehicles on Kabul roads increased to 350,000 in a city designed for 40,000 vehicles resulting in traffic chaos and air pollution.
Now, I hate rush hour traffic as much as the next person but the increase of vehicular traffic means prosperity is on the rise in Afghanistan, all those people driving those cars couldn't have one two years ago. All those people driving those cars have somewhere to go, work, shopping, etc. They have money to spend in order to get there. They are no longer hiding in their homes, hoping no one will show up to measure their beards today.
The bottom line is that enduring a traffic jam is certainly preferable to mass executions and public stonings.
But, what do I know? Oh the evils of democracy and freedom.
Posted by LindaSoG at December 6, 2004 07:41 AM