As the war worsens, rescue workers risk their lives on the front lines
BY JARED MALSIN / GAZIANTEP, TURKEY
It was a heart-lifting display, maybe a bit tardy after the movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya, but you certainly knew whom to cheer for. The good guys were in plain sight, chanting “Freedom” and “Peace” from orderly rows. Until the government forces opened fire.
But as the crowds scattered for cover and, before long, took up arms themselves, what steadily enveloped the conflict was not so much the fog of war as its miasma. Opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad shattered into more than 1,000 armed groups. The most successful gathered under the banner of jihadism, either al-Qaeda or eventually ISIS, its even more repugnant spin-off. There’s nothing to like there. Then the neighbors started in, sending guns or money or troops—Iran, Russia, Hizballah, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and finally the U.S.
But as the crowds scattered for cover and, before long, took up arms themselves, what steadily enveloped the conflict was not so much the fog of war as its miasma. Opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad shattered into more than 1,000 armed groups. The most successful gathered under the banner of jihadism, either al-Qaeda or eventually ISIS, its even more repugnant spin-off. There’s nothing to like there. Then the neighbors started in, sending guns or money or troops—Iran, Russia, Hizballah, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and finally the U.S.
Enter the White Helmets. Ordinary Syrians emerged from the dust that hangs over the rubble of cities like Aleppo, double-timing it into some of the most dangerous places on earth to do what the world has refused to do—save Syrian lives.
In a war that seemed to have no one to pull for, here was Khaled Omar retrieving a 10-day-old baby from the boulders that had been his mother’s home, still alive after hours beneath the rubble. (Omar would live only another year; he was killed by a mortar this August.)
Today, there is no electricity in much of the rebel sector, and at night terrified families huddle together in the dark as the shelling lights up the sky. “I believe the international community let us down and did nothing to stop Russia and Assad’s massacres,” says Najmaldin Khaled, 30, a teacher living in the area under siege. “We are dying every minute, every hour.”
And every minute, every hour, those who do not die, but are hurt and hidden and incapacitated by rubble, will be reached by their neighbors, men clad in the jumpsuit of the first responder and protected by headgear that has already grown iconic: the White Helmets. Most important of all, they are Syrians, and in the most elemental way they are retaking ownership of a conflict that has cast them as victims, hapless pawns of jihadist ideologues or something else other than people who organize, care for and govern themselves.
part of: http://time.com/syria-white-helmets/
In a war that seemed to have no one to pull for, here was Khaled Omar retrieving a 10-day-old baby from the boulders that had been his mother’s home, still alive after hours beneath the rubble. (Omar would live only another year; he was killed by a mortar this August.)
Today, there is no electricity in much of the rebel sector, and at night terrified families huddle together in the dark as the shelling lights up the sky. “I believe the international community let us down and did nothing to stop Russia and Assad’s massacres,” says Najmaldin Khaled, 30, a teacher living in the area under siege. “We are dying every minute, every hour.”
And every minute, every hour, those who do not die, but are hurt and hidden and incapacitated by rubble, will be reached by their neighbors, men clad in the jumpsuit of the first responder and protected by headgear that has already grown iconic: the White Helmets. Most important of all, they are Syrians, and in the most elemental way they are retaking ownership of a conflict that has cast them as victims, hapless pawns of jihadist ideologues or something else other than people who organize, care for and govern themselves.
part of: http://time.com/syria-white-helmets/
WHAT:White Helmets Organization
WHO:White Helmets
WHEN:2016/08
WHERE: In Syria
WHY: To rescue the victim in the war
KEY WORDS:
2.chant (V.) 吟唱,誦揚 (N.) 聖歌
3.regime (N.)政權,當權期間,政體,社會制度
4.huddle (V.)雜亂一團,混亂,擁擠
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