Iraq’s Youngest Photographer

(via Reuters)

Qamar Hashim is an 8-year-old Iraqi photographer. He tours famous streets to picture Baghdadis with his single camera and is the youngest Iraqi photographer to win several local awards, according to the Iraqi Society Photographic (ISP).

Below, Qamar responds to a series of questions.

• When did you take your first photograph and what did it show?

I do not remember exactly the first picture but I had been mimicking my father since I was 4 or 5 years-old and started to take pictures of the Tigris river, the gulls, birds, old houses and heritage places.

• Why do you think photography is important?

Photography is very important. It documents life and pauses time. We can show the city, life and the people.

• What do you want to show people about Iraq?

I want to say through my pictures that Iraq is precious and Iraqis are very kind. Iraq is peaceful and has a great history.

• How do you feel about the U.S. troops leaving Iraq?

I am afraid of the U.S. soldiers, they destroyed the house my family rented in 2003, when I was a fetus. Thank God my family survived and I am happy now for their departure. I am free and not afraid of their tanks.

• What do you want to be when you finish school?

I like to act and I would like to be a child-activist.

• Which is your favorite photo you have taken and why?

My favorite picture is of a man sleeping who sells books at al-Mutanabi street. Also a picture of a bee on a rose, I ran a lot to follow the bee until I got this picture.

• Are there any photographers you look up to?

There a lot of good photographers and I learned from them (Adel Qassim, Fouad Shakir, Kareem al-Ba’aj, and Hameed Majeed).

• Are there any photos you wish to take but haven’t been able to yet?

The dangerous pictures like fire, blasts, other incidents but I have been sent off the site. They say I am a child. Also I wish to get a picture of the triangle of migrant birds.

• What does the future of Iraq look like?

I see a flourishing future for Iraq especially when my family owns a house. I love Iraq, my home, and it is more precious than anything else.

See also http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/

Two sure fire table conversation killers - religion and politics

I know these are the two topics that you MUST avoid at a dinner party for fear of the designated black sheep label but hey, these are the two most important topics in my lil ol heart and this ain't no freakin dinner party. It's strange that we all have a sense of spirituality and faith no matter how shallow some may seem on the surface, pondering questions like 'Why are we here?' Yet religion is SUCH a taboo subject especially in Britain. Even fiery me very rarely talks about religion and that's still only with people who I'd trust with my life, and even then it's only at a surface level. In a society which is so liberated and free you're made to feel so uncomfortable and even foolish when speaking on something which permeates your every fibre, your body and soul; what you believe in.

Atheists or people who just plainly hate religion may think that people have always needed a comfort to bring them to terms with the hardships of life so we made up this concept of God or a higher spiritual being. That the main three monotheist religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are following the words of a book that was written by a bunch of men who thought that they were something special. That religions were just formed from cultures and their practices. That religions were made to brainwash people.

The latter has been said in front of me with no respect to my beliefs, my family and my intelligence. I theoretically retorted (when actually I just left the place immediately) with the fact that, fair enough if you think that these words were written by man but you believe newspapers today like The Sun like they were the word of God. If you don't believe in a supposed divine message that has the same principles coming from different countries centuries apart then you should also not believe everything written by so-called journalists who work for dodgy billionaires. Even if faiths were created to brainwash or guide people, they all preach doing good deeds and living your life in a humble peaceful way so what's actually wrong with that?

Religion is the main cause of wars and killing people they would reply. I would say Hitler was an atheist and was responsible for exterminating how many millions of Jews? Not to mention how many millions have been imprisoned, tortured and killed in the name of Communism (Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Soviet Union, China etc), a rejection of religion and God for the sake of the community and state, which is really just some old dictator. In modern times, segments of the secular West have gone to war in countries thousands of miles away from them in an apparent attempt to 'liberate' them killing thousands in the process, quite any oxymoron but that's another rant altogether. Clearly, people of faith and people without faith both cause insurmountable pain and suffering. To conclude, shit happens. And the last time I checked religion hasn't been the common denominator.


The Sun, Daily Mail et al 21st century line of argument against religion is; 'Look at the child abusing priests' and 'Bin Laden and all the other Islamic extremists'. Clearly you cannot expect even two next-door neighbours to act in unison  so why would you expect that from millions or billions of people from the same religion. Plus, if we believers were so brainwashed wouldn't every single one of us act homogeneously? Aaaah the governments of the world would love that!

 I'll save politiking for the next time...

See also http://raraproductions.blogspot.com/ & http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/