State of Emergency: Travels in a Troubled World

by Navid Kermani, Tony Crawford (Translator)

This book ventures into the world beyond Lampedusa: the crisis belt that stretches from Kashmir across Pakistan and Afghanistan to the Arab world and beyond, to the borders and coasts of Europe. Celebrated author Navid Kermani reports from a region which is our immediate neighbour, despite all too often being depicted as remote and distant from our daily concerns. Kermani has visited the places where no CNN transmitter truck is parked and yet smouldering fires threaten world peace. In his widely praised, wonderfully agile and careful prose, he reports on NATO's war in Afghanistan and the underside of globalization in India, on the civil war in Syria and the struggle of Shiites and Kurds against the 'Islamic State' in Iraq. He was the only Western reporter present at the suppression of the mass protests in Tehran, travelled with Sufis through Pakistan, talked with Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Najaf, and observed the disastrous Mediterranean refugee route in Lampedusa. Kermani's gripping reports allow us to understand a world in turmoil, to share the suspense and the suffering of the people in it. As if by magic, he brings individual lives and situations to life so vividly that complex and seemingly distant problems of world politics suddenly appear crystal clear. Our world too lies beyond Lampedusa.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Iran, India, Travel, Pakistan

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2013

About the author

Navid Kermani, born 1967, lives as an Islamic scholar, journalist and writer in Cologne.

Reviews

[lise.charmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raccolta di reportage di viaggi effettuati dall'autore dai primi anni Duemila fino a circa la metà degli anni Dieci, in luoghi del mondo che sono in "Stato di emergenza", dal Kashmir a Gaza, dall'Iraq a Lampedusa.
Con autentico spirito giornalistico l'autore cerca di parlare con tutte le parti del conflitto (in corso o latente) e di portare le varie voci, il tutto con grandissima umanità e il desiderio di andare a vedere come la situazione tocca poi la vita quotidiana dei singoli.
Poiché sono reportage un po' vecchi, nella maggior parte dei casi la situazione è cambiata e mi duole dire, è cambiata in peggio: spezza il cuore leggere di afgani convinti che i talebani non sarebbero potuti tornare più o di come già allora la vita a Gaza fosse un inferno. Ciononostante vale comunque la pena di leggere questo libro per ricostruire situazioni recenti ma che potrebbero essere sfuggite dalla nostra memoria, vedendo quanto siano collegate a quelle attuali.
Kermani tra l'altro ha una capacità di accogliere l'altro così grande, che in questi giorni più volte mi è venuto il desiderio di potergli parlare, di sentire il suo punto di vista sulla situazione e cercare di intravedere - come fa lui quasi sempre - una luce dove tutto sembra buio.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eine wunderbare, wie auch intensive und verstörende Reportagensammlung quer durch die zerrüttete, oriental-arabische Welt des letzten Jahrzehnts. Navid Kermani nimmt uns auf eine packende Reise vom hintersten Kashmir durch Indien, Pakistan, Afghanistan, den Iran, durch den Irak, nach Syrien und Palästina, Ägypten - und schliesslich nach Lampedusa vor den Toren Europas.

Die Sammlung ist geografisch und nicht etwa chronologisch geordnet; die Berichte springen zwischen 2005 und 2014 hin und her. Jedoch tut sich der Verständlichkeit dadurch keinen Abbruch, im Gegenteil, diese Struktur ermöglicht es den Reportagen, die Hintergründe der regionalen Konflikte des jeweilig nächsten Landes besser einzuleiten. Obwohl die Reportagen zum Teil auch nicht mehr die aktuellsten sind, so erzählt sie Kermani aber dermassen intim, komisch und farbenfroh, dass das jeweilige Erscheinungsdatum höchstens eine Nebenrolle spielt. Diese Berichte sind auch noch in fünf Jahren anthropologisch wertvoll.

Speziell erwähnen möchte ich, dass ich neben einem tiefen Einblick in die jeweiligen Kulturen auch neue Kenntnisse zu verschiedensten Religionen und deren politischen Zielen erhalten habe. Die vielen Begegnungen und Gespräche Kermanis mit Hindus, Sunniten, Schiiten, Sufis, Alewiten, Kurden, Christen, Juden und Anhängern der Taliban, Peschmerga, dem IS, der Hizbollah oder den syrischen Rebellen lassen einem die brodelnden Konflikte, welche zum Teil bis heute andauern, besser verstehen.

Navid Kermani als freien Journalisten kannte ich ehrlich gesagt vor diesem Buch noch nicht, doch nun werde ich vermehrt bei NZZ und der deutschen FAZ nach ihm Auschau halten.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, insightful, and at times deeply depressing. This book contains a collection of articles first published in German newspapers and magazines from Kermani's travels into various regions beset by conflict, strife, and other difficulties, between 2005 and 2013. His destinations include India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, and more, concluding right at the gates of Europe with a piece about the refugee crisis in the Italian island of Lampedusa a decade before 2015's far bigger influx of refugees far outstripped the numbers of arrivals seen there.

[Kevin Tole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised to see so few reader reviews of this book and hardly any in English. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised really, as Kermani publishes in Germany and in German and we are less familiar with him as a writer and journalist in the UK. This book, a collection of his writings on conflicts from India to Lampedusa, was published in 2016 and the pieces date from 2006 to 2014. A number of people have wondered about how reportage of a time in the past and, now, looking at those same conflicts from the present - how the reportage stands up and how it reflects in the current light and happenings that occurred between the reported piece time and currently. But there is much more to this book than reportage of conflicts.

The one thing that ties them all together I suppose is conflict through sectarianism of one sort or another. The writing is always strong and to a large degree always non-impassioned, non taking-of-side, non-opinionated as much as it is possible for any journalist to be. In fact Kermani values precisely that each piece should be JUST about observation. All the pieces are interesting and through his detachment he manages to be able to impart the local colour and to give the reader a cognisance of the affairs described which is outside exactly what one would normally expect to read in a news article. And they are not exactly news articles, more like Op-Ed pieces with the ‘Op’ taken out. The kind of pieces one might read in a Sunday colour supplement, though that sounds somewhat cheapening.

Each piece looks at a zone of conflict through a different perspective. And he does shine a different light on each of them which is reflective and makes the reader think beyond. Some of these conflicts are less ‘sectarian’ than others but all of them have that element within them somewhere.

However the nub of the book and the issues it raises, not the least of which is actually within Kermani himself, takes 270 pages to get to and occurs within the section on Palestine in 2005. Why do we treat the Palestinians, and allow them to be treated, as if they were not human beings? To be complicit with a State that victimises one section of its population is to take part in that victimisation. To take a stand against Israel is to play into the hands of those that would label anything against Israel as anti-semitic. Navid’s dilemma of always wanting to be simply the ‘observer’ is fully tested and he cannot simply stand as either an innocent or a bystander. He HAS to take a stance. He cannot remain as he wants to be, impartial. In confronting this question of why is an occupying force so brutal he asks serious questions.

On this trip I was no longer able to remain an observer and to understand the people I was writing about. And that had always been the premise of my reporting. As much as I sympathised with the people, I forced myself to report on them as accurately as possible. But now I am not reporting; I am judging. I am no longer sympathising; I have become partial. For that reason, I am finding description difficult – or I don’t really want to describe. It’s all been said before, I think; who needs the umpteenth story of the Palestinian olive trees that the settlers cut down under the watchful eyes of the army? I notice it myself as I read: the whole time, I’m writing down what I thought, not what I saw. Perhaps that too is an observation: that I have lost that sympathetic understanding. For me as an author, it is capitulation.

This is brutal honesty and self-reflection and does him great credit. It is what raises this book beyond mere reportage, to know that he has all these dilemnas within him and he is always trying to be just. And from this comes an illumination that stands out. That is that to brand ‘The Other’ a danger makes it into a wild animal and we lose all our inhibitions in relation to ‘The Other’. It is the same response that gave rise to the actions of the detainers in Abu Ghraib and even to the youth gang knife attacks in London in 2019 as well as the sectarianism in Ulster and the West of Scotland. It is DEMONISATION of one group by another. And it is precisely this behaviour that has played out and is reported in all the sections before the report on Palestine is reached.

On Kashmir in 2007, and the Indians perception he writes,

"To the Indians it is a war on terror. To the local people(Muslims)it is an occupation."

This might explain why attempts to get India to reduce its troop presence have fallen on deaf ears. The situation in the Kashmir Valley itself is highly complex (aren’t they all) with Muslims in Kashmir, Hindus in Jammu and Buddhists in Ladakh. The violence is seen to have taken on a sectarian nature through a Muslim / Hindu conflict which becomes a political conflict between Pakistan and India which has never been resolved since before the partition of the Indian sub-continent. If Kashmir COULD become independent then it would have to be a secular, multicultural state between India, Pakistan and China and between Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists let alone any differing sects within those religions.

”Today India is too strong internationally to have to accept compromise, and the Pakistan government too weak domestically to be able to accept one.”

And it might be added that China has much bigger fish to fry and much greater interests to follow up elsewhere. He manages to encapsulate a lot whilst barely touching on his points; how racism and sectarianism are not just elements of white society, the desire of ordinary people for peace and to live at ease with their neighbours whoever they are, with shared values in an independent state against the greater social and geopolitical issues within Group –v- Group and State –v- State. As an opener to the book it is pretty revealing and strong.

The Land Rights issue in India in 2007 is a piece about class and inequality that does not venture into the Marxist line but looks at where India stands right now (well.... 2007... but not a great deal has change and if anything the schisms he points out are if anything greater now than in 2007). 750 million Indians have little or no share in the 9% growth rate seen in the Indian economy. ‘Trickle –Down’ is a neo-liberal fabrication designed to hoodwink the underclass whilst imposing austerity on them and promoting further the wealthy and elite and already rich.

The Pakistan 2012 section is an examination of sectarianism within Pakistan and particularly on the mystical elements within Islam, particularly Sufism. He manages to cover the Fundamentalist suppression of mysticism within Islam and link it to hard-line theologians and particularly the dominance of Saudi Wahhabism. It is clear that his own senses and feelings lie with the mystical, with Sufism.

"The problem with Pakistan is lawlessness."

(not a Fundamentalist mass-movement at grassroots level – in fact Sufism might be seen as a bulwark AGAINST Fundamentalism and also against any change from the way Islam is practised with Pakistan).

In this section Kermani more than anything seems to be trying to be an Islamic John Pilger. Navid’s writing has the flavour of wanting to make sense of it ALL and FOR HIMSELF, dragging along his readers as an aside. It is very Pilger-like, almost proselytising (Heroes etc). But it also feels like a fait accompli in Kermani’s acceptance and observational stance.

The two sections on Afghanistan in 2006 and 20011 gave me little I did not already know apart from alerting me to Rory Stewart's 'The Places in Between'.

And so on through Iran, Iraq and Syria – all illuminating in a way, all different to what you might have read before, all having elements of sectarianism in them, all embracing the points noted above.

This is an openly honest book by a German Muslim journalist of Iranian ethnicity which raises more questions than it can answer. And that is partly why it is such a good book. To try band identify the reasons for conflict, the reasons for sectarianism, the underlying humanity in all these places puts a very hard strain on the journalist AND the reader. It is well worth reading but in many ways it is easy to overlook until that personal revelation of Kermani’s after 270 pages. Then you see the book and the author in a different light.

[Horst Walther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although none of the conflicts was entirely new to me (well, the situation in Gujarat has far less media coverage than the others), after having read Navid Kermanis book, my impression was strongly intensified. Being an excellent narrator he draws a colorful picture. He lets you dive into the local circumstances yourself. And he does so without personal agitation (Well, except in the Palestine case). It is hard however to maintain an optimistic view of the world while being exposed to his haunting portrayal, rather you might find yourself being depressed.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informativ, nachdenklich, persönlich und anregend. So sollte "Reiseliteratur" sein!

[M M · Rating 2 out of 5]

A common problem with current affairs journalism is that it is of the moment. By the time it is compiled into a book, some of its timeliness is gone. If you consider the gap between publication in the original language (this book came out in German in 2016) and in translation (by Tony Crawford, 2018), you can imagine that the coverage is more or less obsolete.

Indeed, much of the reportage in this book is from the period 2007-2012. The latest piece is from Iraq, 2014. How much relevance do these articles have in the present day? Have any of the pieces been updated in light of more recent events?

One way of gauging the import of such a book is to see if the author's judgments and prognostications bear the test of time. In this regard, Navid Kermani succeeds in a few cases.

The book is a collection of short pieces based Kermani wrote as a correspondent for various German newspapers. He travelled in various troubled zones - Kashmir, parts of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine. As a speaker of Persian, he found it easy to converse with people in some of these regions. Where Persian failed, he got by with English, and on occasion, in German.

His report of Kashmir is unoriginal. Indeed, much of the coverage of India is not novel. He discusses the state of Indian Muslims, increasingly corralled out of social life by an assertive and aggressive brand of Hinduism. In Kashmir, he sees a population exhausted by the military presence, all rebellion beaten out of it. In 2007, they hoped for economic growth and peace. In Gujarat, under the then chief minister Modi (now Indian prime minister), there was an economic renaissance that supported the majority Hindus. It was accompanied by a pogrom against Muslims, who have since become even more marginalised and poorer. At the time, Modi was seen as a fringe element in the BJP, a nationalist Hindu party. Other BJP party members dismissed the idea of him ever gaining further power. Kermani, though, saw the possibility of his rise, one of a few keen bits of political forecasting.

Pakistan is seen through the light of Muslim fundamentalism aimed at destroying the Sufi milieu that is supposed to pervade the country. By destroying Sufi shrines and the culture of tolerance, the fabric of Pakistani society continues to fray under the onslaught. Kermani does point out, though, that the Sufis were also very conservative, wanting to ossify society along feudal lines and preserve economic and social power among the elite (who, often, were descended from families of famous Sufi saints). While the Sufis may not go about gunning down adherents of other faiths, they were not much more active in promoting education and rationality.

The pieces on the qawwals and other Sufi mystics were, for me, some of the more interesting ones. Kermani mentions one saint who was in the habit of spitting on his followers. A bit of spittle lands on Kermani's nose; the tissue he uses to wipe it off is preserved in religious awe by his driver. And so irrationality and bizarre behaviours continue to flourish.

In Afghanistan there's more madness, this time on the part of the foreigners who have come in ostensibly to help rebuild the country. A European chef admits he can't hire Afghans in his kitchen, or use their produce. Everything is flown from abroad. Security concerns prevent other foreigners from visiting local sites or interacting with the locals overmuch. Indeed, even the security guards protecting the foreign soldiers are themselves foreigners - Nepalis and Indians. It is literally a case of foreign money flowing in and flowing right out, with nary an uptick in the Afghan economy. Of course, the foreigners can't be blamed completely. The situation is fraught - that hasn't changed in the 10 years since the articles were written. But in 2007, people had great hopes: the Taliban insurgency appeared to be under control, the new Afghan army looked capable, there were health and education resources for a large chunk of the population. In 2011, when Kermani came back, the situation did look better. No overt begging, better electric supplies (at least in Kabul), falling crime rates. But he admitted that while the cities were safer, the countryside was not. Large swathes remained inaccessible.

Kermani next covers Iran in 2009, when the younger generation suddenly exploded in protest. The elections appeared to be rigged, Iran was having trouble qualifying for the World Cup, and the demonstrations - peaceful to start with - degenerated into a one-sided rout. The state security apparatus crushed the people. Kermani's writing of these events is urgent, troubling.

The next set of stories is from Iraq. In Najaf, Iranian pilgrims wander around Shiite holy sites. The Shiite clergy here try to distance themselves from politics. While much of their funding is Iranian, they recognise that Iran's playbook is different from their own - the Iranians want regional influence, the Iraqi Shia probably want power commensurate with their majority in the splintered country. In 2014, ISIS was still rampant, the notion of a stable Iraqi government itself on shaky ground. But what were the Iraqi clergy doing with the enormous tithes they were earning from the pilgrimages? Very little of it circulated into the local economies - the penury of the people was stark.

Kermani managed to meet the grand cleric himself, Sistani. In a few sparkling pages, we see that Sistani - who doesn't meet journalists, who doesn't want to opine on political matters - had a fine and nuanced understanding of the state of Islam, its political and social troubles, and the fallout from its schisms. Were there a few more people on all sides who thought and acted like him, perhaps much of the horror of past 10 years could have been reduced.

The last chapters of the book deal with Syria and a centre of the results of that country's implosion - Lampedusa in Sicily. The great refugee migration to Europe started by the Syrian war sucked up vast numbers of other peoples: Tunisians, Afghans, sub-Saharan Africans. The camps they were held in were barred for entry even to those otherwise saintly doctors without frontiers. Lampedusa was meant to be an example of European caring: refugees were not beaten or threatened or treated like beasts; instead, they had medical and psychological help, they were even allowed to wander about town. But then the politicians said that the locals felt threatened and goodwill disappeared. There are limits to humanitarianism, after all.

[Hannes S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toller Ethnologischer Bericht über Erfahrungen aus der Kaschmir Region. Sehr Altagsnah.

[Max Hankel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vor ca. 1 Jahr das erste Kermani-Buch gelesen und seitdem nicht mehr aufgehört. Auch dieses wieder sehr lesenswert.

[Pavuluzza Gnucca · Rating 5 out of 5]

La raccolta di reportage di Navid Kermani è un'opera giornalistica con i piedi ancorati nella letteratura.Kermani infatti, che è un profondo conoscitore dell'Asia, del Medioriente e dell'Islam, si reca in luoghi penetrati da lunghi conflitti (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egitto, Siria, Palestina ma anche Lampedusa), ma è interessato di più alla piccola storia, alle persone, alle loro vite quotidiane, a come le grandi manovre politiche impattano sulla loro vita.
Ed è in questo sguardo che si annida la letteratura, supportato da una prosa lirica, riflessiva, filosofica.
Kernani riporta le impressioni di tutti, di tutte le parti coinvolte nei conflitti, e lo fa con onestà, anche quando è di fronte all'orrore o all'impossibilità della narrazione.
Un testo molto bello, con l'unica pecca di contenere reportage anche molto distanti tra loro nel tempo, cosa che però spinge il lettore all'urgenza di informarsi su quel lasso di tempo mancante tra il momento della scrittura e quello della lettura.

[Dara Evilmorning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sjajna knjiga čiji pisac svjedoči o stanju kriznih područja u različitim razdobljima. Irak, Iran, Afganistan, Kašmir pa sve do Lampeduse su teritorije na kojima su opisane sudbine cijelih naroda pogođenih ratnim zbivanjima. Jedina mana ove knjige jeste što ipak zahtjeva bar neko predznanje o geopolitičkoj situaciji u tim područijima a nama, sa Balkana, je obično dosta sopstvene "situacije" da bi se bavili nečim tuđim. Cijelo vrijeme dok sam je čitala, morala sam guglati kako bi mi neke stvari bile jasnije ali nekom bolje informisanom možda to neće ni trebati. Preporuka svakako.

[Patrizia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Politisch sehr interessant. Einblick in Kashmir, Afghanistan und Lampedusa

[Zvonimir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ovo nije knjiga koju bi si čovjek poželio pročitati u predblagdansko vrijeme - iako zadržava reporterski ton tijekom cijele knjige, kroz opise situacija, osobnih doživljaja i razgovora s ljudima iz područja u kojem vlada ili je u nastanku izvanredno stanje (u doba pisanja, od 2005. do 2014., - od onda se puno toga razvilo baš u smjeru u kojem se može iščitati iz i između redaka), autor nam približava civilizacijske razlike i uvjete u kojima žive ljudi u mahom islamističkim zemljama, ono što se ne vidi na TV reportažama ili je sakriveno u medijskim izvještajima, te prema kraju knjige postupno pojačava osjećaj bespomoćnosti, depresivnosti i beznađa, da bi na kraju sam priznao da je kao autor kapitulirao doživljavajući situaciju u Palestini.
Treba mi (nam) više ovakvih knjiga, pomoću kojih bi mogli razumijeti svijet i različitosti oko nas, koje bi nas inspirirale da propitkujemo vlastite stavove, predrasude i vjerovanja, kako bi na kraju svojim primjerom i djelovanjem pridonijeli da ovaj svijet bude bar malo ljepše mjesto za (su)život.

[Jana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Musste ich leider, trotz grundsätzlich interessantem Thema, abbrechen, da mir der Aufbau und Stil überhaupt nicht gefiel.
Ich fand die Kapitel in ihrem Inhalt und Aufbau einfach zufällig zusammengewürfelt, ohne groß irgendeinen Inhalt vermittel zu können. Daher war der Erkenntnisgehalt ungefähr gleich null. Es war für mich nicht ersichtlich, was zum Beispiel die Spiegelstriche bedeuten sollten. Manchmal waren es scheinbar wörtliche Rede, ohne diese Anzuzeigen oder einen Gesprächspartner zu erwähnen, manchmal Gedanken - ich weiß es nicht. Ich wusste durch den zusammengewürfelten Inhalt auch einfach nicht, worauf das Buch aus war. Mir hat vermutlich auch viel Vorwissen gefehlt, was hier hilfreich gewesen wäre. Der Fokus des Buches ist auf jeden Fall wirtschaftlich, nur zur Info.

[Jasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality of the writing can be very good but unfortunately it wasn't consistent. It was especially scrappy in his chapter about Palestine, which I suppose makes sense in that it reflects his brittle state of mind at the time of reporting - he admits that in Palestine he finds he can no longer be the detached and impartial journalist. I shouldn't judge a book like this on its writing style (it's a translation from the German), when what matters is the plight of the unfortunates who populate its pages; but I can't help myself.

[Pia Bröker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich habe sehr lange gebraucht, dieses Buch zu lesen. Ich glaube, weil ich nicht richtig interessiert war. Die Berichte sind echt gut geschrieben und auch interessant, aber irgendwie nicht so relevant zurzeit für mich. Es kann auch sein, weil ich schon ähnliche, neuere Berichte vorher gelesen habe.

Trotzdem ein gutes Buch.

Vor allem zu den letzten Kapiteln empfehle ich das Buch "Europa schafft sich ab" oder den Film "Die Schwimmer".

[Vici · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interessant und gehaltvoll, aber der Schreibstil mit dem zum Teil stichwortartigen Dialogen war nicht so ganz meins.

[Nicky2910 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ausnahmezustand: Reisen in eine beunruhigte Welt von Navid Kermani Dieses Buch besteht aus einer Sammlung von Reportagen aus Krisengebieten, die Kermani zwischen 2005 und 2014 besucht hat, unter diesen Regionen wie Kaschmir, Pakistan und Indien, aber auch allgegenwärtige Kriegsgebiete wie Afghanistan, Irak oder Syrien. Oder auch ein kleiner Blick nach Palästina oder auf die Insel Lampedusa.
 
Besonders machen diese Reportagen die vielen Begegnungen mit der Bevölkerung einerseits, aber auch Politikern, religiösen Führern auf der anderen Seite. Kermani nähert sich Konflikten mit offener Gesinnung, lässt Widersprüchliches unkommentiert für sich sprechen und alle zu Wort kommen. Kermani hat hier die Rolle eines Chronisten über - er zeichnet auf, er berichtet, aber er urteilt nicht. Ja, natürlich ergeben sich abstruse Tatsachen, die einen ungläubig den Kopf schütteln lassen, aber diese werden ohne die moralische Keule wiedergegeben.
 
Beeindruckend ist auch der Blick hinter die Kulissen, die Unmittelbarkeit der Ereignisse, die Kermani erlebt hat (s. Iran, auch Syrien), und die Schilderung der Lebensumstände seiner Interviewpartner. Und diese sind es auch, die ihm ein einziges Mal in diesem Buch seine grundlegend offene Herangehensweise verwehren, nämlich im Kapitel Palästina, als er die offenen Erniedrigungen der Palästinenser, aber auch die Weiterführung der Siedlungspolitik eindeutig als Einzementieren der jetzigen Situation beurteilt ohne Willen, diese zu verbessern.
 
Man lernt vieles bei der Lektüre: Unterschiede zwischen Revolutionsbewegungen, die hier in den Medien doch als gleichförmig beschrieben wurden (s. Syrien), das Outsourcen von Gewalt, nur um als friedvoller Machthaber zu gelten, die katastrophalen Lebensumstände, die dennoch nicht die Hoffnung rauben, und nicht zu vergessen die Tatsache, dass reine Menschlichkeit Leben retten kann.
 
Beeindruckend.