This assignment combined my passion for conflict journalism with my English Literature degree. Through analysing three texts, I identify the raw and tragic cost of the war on terror. The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim, Home fire by Kamila Shamsie and Exit West by Moshin Hamid allow a western audience to see the human cost of the war on terror on a personal and emotional level; a perspective often overlooked by mainstream media. As America withdraw from Afghanistan, there is no better time to reflect on the lasting impact of the war on terror and the many nations targeted by America and the West in general.
Markers comments: This is a thoughtful and focused discussion of literary treatments of the 'war on terror', which explores both the politics of the war and the human cost. The learning outcomes have been met with success, with a knowledgeable discussion of the history of contemporary conflict and an insightful study of the three chosen texts. The work is well structured and includes a clear introduction and conclusion, with the latter rounding off the argument extremely well. Regarding the primary texts, there is a high level of knowledge and comprehension on display - the interpretation is good, the level of primary quotation high and the analysis mostly pertinent (although close reading of passages could have expanded on occasion with more discussion of diction, imagery and symbolism). The level of critical quotation is very good and the discussion of the 'war on terror' reveals a keen interest in the topic, backed up by an extensive bibliography (although more articles on your chosen texts/authors could have been located in Onesearch and the electronic reading list). The work is also well written, with an expressive, formal prose and good referencing and bibliographic layout (although a few errors appear in the former). Overall, this is a strong piece of writing, with an informed and detailed approach to the question topic. Secondary Marker: A strong analysis of a set of complex and distressing primary texts. Good contextualisation and good references to secondary sources.
0 Comments
On Saturday thousands of protesters marched through London chanting “Freedom”.
At the anti-lockdown protest in November, we saw a zero-tolerance approach from the police and over 150 arrests. This weekend the police took a considerable step back and, after early attempts at preventing the protestors from gathering had failed, allowed the march to continue through the city centre. Breaches to Covid regulation led to over 30 arrests. Protesters were told to head to central London and mill around until 11:00, when the location would be announced to meet, using the popular messaging app Telegram. This meant the police could not lock down a specific area and prevent protesters from meeting up. As the location was announced, Hyde Park Corner, thousands of people flocked to the park and mixed with the general population. The police attempted to block all exits to the park, but it was difficult to differentiate between protesters and members of the public. At 12:00, coloured smoke flares were set off, and thousands of protesters emerged from the general public and created a force more significant than the police expected. The police didn’t have the numbers to contain the protest in the park, and the rally moved onto the streets, stopping traffic and unrestricted by the police who followed the protest but did very little to interfere. Once it was clear that the protest wouldn’t be stopped, the City Police moved ahead of the march to stop traffic. On asking a police officer when they would stop the rally, he replied, “when the protesters want to stop, I am here to make sure they are safe”. And this is the vibe many of the officers gave off on the day. The protest, now numbering thousands, marched East from Hyde Park, down Oxford Street, carrying on until Cornhill, before turning back towards Parliament. It remained peaceful, and by the time the protest arrived at Trafalgar Square at around 16:00, they had marched over 15km. The police in London resisted using force and allowed the protest to proceed peacefully. As the government looks to push through a bill restricting peaceful demonstrations, it is essential to acknowledge that there will only be a rise in violent protests and riots. A group of young men, some crawling through thick mud with barbed wire overhead, scrambling over a twelve-foot wall. All in identical green uniforms, A80 rifles slung across their shoulders. The only way of recognition being the surname taped onto the front of their Kevlar helmets. To the eye there's nothing out of the ordinary about this scene, but what if I told you one of the men is twice the age of all of us in training, married with children and with a successful civilian career. Mark Dunkley joined the British Army at forty-five, an age you would expect most soldiers to be leaving with a full pension. Why? Now, two years later I met with Captain Mark Dunkley in the Victory Services Club, London. Mark approached me in the reception (all the memories I had of the man returned, the repetitive drills, the endless lectures and tenacious training). He is a man in his forties, well-dressed with dark fitted trousers and a light blue Oxford button down chequered shirt. He is of medium height, with a broad figure and chiselled yet youthful face enhanced by his blue eyes and dark blond hair. His familiar smile instantly instils a sense of comfort as we shake hands as old comrades. He made his way towards the marble topped bar offering a range of British drinks, asking me what I wanted. As he ordered, I seated myself on a low leather chair with an equally low old oak table; seconds later he joined me. Mark doesn’t look like the traditional soldier, because he isn’t one. He is part of a new heritage unit within the British Army dubbed the “Modern Monuments Men” by The Telegraph Newspaper and the Cultural Property Protection Unit by the military, which Mark referrers to as “CPPU”. Being a new unit, little has been released about its role within the British Army, however, Mark was eager to tell of how the unit’s role has been conflated with that of the Monuments Men during World War Two; ‘The CPPU are being called the “Modern Monuments Men” but the two roles are very different’. He continued, ‘the role of the modern CPPU will be two-fold, they’ll be an element of training in the UK, to make sure that every soldier in training is aware of cultural aspects, there will also be a new cultural heritage overlay, for any operational maps.’ Overall, Mark made it clear to me that it will be the role of the unit to advise commanders whether a site can be attacked and the impact of damaging sites of heritage and cultural importance. The CPPU will still perform the “conflated” roles stated in The Telegraph, such as “protecting art, and archaeology, investigating looting, bringing smuggling gangs to justice”, however, again, Mark emphasised how the role is ‘Less physical and more intelligence lead’ to meet requirements of modern warfare. Joining the army in your mid-forties , isn’t the career path many would consider, however, to Mark it was fulfilling a missed opportunity earlier in this life; “I have always had a really nerdy interest in the armed forces (…) since going to the Farnborough air show with my dad (aged ten) I knew I wanted to be a fighter pilot”, but unfortunately, his dream job was stolen from him when ‘George Younger stood up in parliament and said, “no more air crew”’ announcing cuts in defence spending, meaning he lost the chance to enrol with the Royal Air Force, even after accepting and completing a University Scholarship. Little did he know then, his degree in archaeology would lead to his specialist role within the British Army today. Mark’s civilian career as an underwater archaeologist has been and will continue being as important and as that of his military career, however, even he understands that archaeology to many isn’t as striking; “the challenges for archaeology in general, is engaging people with bits of pot” because often a piece of pottery just isn’t as adrenaline pumped as war stories. However, Mark was keen to tell me of his find that uncovered the disturbing effects of war and eighteenth century colonialisation; “I was diving and found some human bone on this wreck site, but it was black and had been burnt and even more terrifying was an iron bracelet on this piece of forearm.” This led to Mark questioning “What had led to this individual dying in this heat?” and the answer was horrifying; “He was a slave, when the ship arrived in the harbour it was too dark to unload the human cargo, so they were going to wait until the morning to do it. One of the navel tactics at the time against an enemy fleet was to send in fire ships… So, the Dutch sent in fire ships, not realising perhaps that they were cargos of slaves, so the slave ships burnt and then these thousands of poor souls burnt to death.” If Mark hadn’t found the bone fused with metal, then this terrible event would have been forgotten to time. The piece of bone didn’t just “bring history alive” but it also had direct relevance to the population of Trinidad and Tobago now, as it is their heritage. Marks career in underwater archaeology has given him unique speciality that the Army needs to catch up with other nations. The United Kingdom is not the last but the latest country to start a Cultural Property Protection Unit, behind Russia, Austria and Italy. Subsequently Mark was “Latched on to, and told to get himself through Sandhurst”. The aim: to prevent heritage being damaged and to limit the destruction of war on sites that simply cannot be rebuilt. This new aspect to warfare creates a debate that Mark is well aware of, as he asked me; “where do you value human life over protecting some Greek stones?”. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on the 27th of September and a ceasefire was brokered with the support of Russia on the 10th of November. Overall, the intense fighting lasted a month and two weeks. Over 5000 soldiers were killed in the recent conflict and more than 150 civilians. With our guest today we will be discussing how the conflict as a whole was not reported and published by the UK media and how there was been very little to no information on the thousands of people displaced by the war. I follow a few conflict journalists on social media and saw the horrific scenes as thousands of civilians had to leave their homes as the territory has been handed over to the Azerbaijanis, some of the civilians even burning their homes to not allow the Azerbaijanis to live in them. However, since seeing the mass migration of refugees leave their homes I have heard very little news on where they have gone and if they have a home to live in. There are no numbers online that can tell us how many people have been displaced. Hopefully, this conversation with Alara will help answer some of these questions and if not then at least it may help us think more about why we aren’t getting the answers we want and need. The name of the interviewee has been changed to protect her as there has been a massive amount of cyber attacks and abuse given to those seen to support Armenia by groups such as the Grey Wolves, a Turkish Fascist group and Azerjanini groups. I would like to thank Emile Ghessen (@emileghessen) for reporting on this conflict and allowing me to use his materials in this podcast. Please check out these charities and give support where you can:
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust ArmeniaFund.org ArmenianWoundedHeroes.com himnadram.org Children of Armenia Fund Roof for Refugees from Artsakh (Facebook) Women's Resource Centre FemLibrary Armenia Women's Rights House Real World Real People NorArar (Facebook) Help us bring New Year's Miracle to Artsakh's displaced children (Facebook) On Saturday the 28th of November, hundreds of protesters headed into central London in an attempt to show their anger and displeasure at the current lockdown regulations. From the offset, the police use a tactic of isolate and disrupt. The location to which the protesters were supposed to meet continuously changed throughout the day; owing to the rapid response and arrests of the police. Due to the new lockdown laws police were able to arrest anyone who had a banner or showed any sign of protesting and they used this newfound power to significant effect. Anyone who so much as started a chant or raised a sign was arrested. When I asked one of the liaison officers what was happening at Kings Cross, one of the supposed meeting points for protesters. He replied; 'a load of idiots who don't believe in Covid want to meet here, and we are going to arrest them'. Arrest them they did, there were more than 150 arrests on Saturday, and I ended up walking over 15km trying to keep up with the ever-moving police. One of the difficulties that the protesters had was the lack of cohesion. I asked many protesters why they were in London, and I got such a broad array of answers. Some were anti-lockdown, some were anti-mask, some were anti-vaccine, and some didn't believe in Covid at all. The protesters didn't have one voice and, except for a gathering in Hyde park toward the end of the day, the protesters were spread all around different parts of London attempting to link up. Saturday was a great example of what the police can achieve with more powers; however, the debate is whether they should have these powers at all. I am not a protestor, and I can't entirely agree with the protesters in many ways; however, the power the police had to arrest anyone they wanted was frightening. As lockdown ends in a few days, maybe we can reflect and give out a sigh of relief that the police in the UK will not have these unprecedented powers for much longer. Footage from the day:I have been interested in conflicts across the world for a good few years now; however, it was the many, many protests and clashes with police in Athens that gave me my first taste of recording and reporting myself.
I was lucky enough to have an Erasmus year in Athens. During this year, I saw molotovs being thrown, and I had my first spicy taste of tear gas. It was being at the protest armed with nothing but a camera which got me into photographing and reporting on the clashes I witnessed between the Athenian youth and the anti-riot police. It was my experience in Greece that projected me to the photojournalist I am today, and this is the start of my journey and this blog will tell where my journey will go. |
|