HW#33 "Alive in Baghdad"

For this assignment we were asked to view two of three pod casts from "Alive in Baghdad," and choose one to write about. The first one I chose was called "Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families." This was published 10/15/2007. You can find it at http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families. It basically talks about kids that go to work at a young age to help provide for their families. There are three boys who appear in the video, Hussein Kammall, Yousif, and Mustafa Malek Fathulla Ali. Mustafa is a 14 year old sixth grader who has been working in the carpentry business since he was a young boy. He talks about how it is not safe where he lives, "There is no peace here, and our financial condition is hard. I ask our neighborhood countries to take care of us." I find what he say's to be kind of sad. He knows that things in his country aren’t the best right now, and he is asking for our help, to protect them and take care of them. They say how security systems are very difficult and no one can protect themselves. In the background you see the kids mostly in a workshop area set outside, the ground looks dirty, and the buildings look old. I think from watching these videos you see what is really going on behind the scenes. You see how young kids have to live in fear, they can’t even get to work a certain way because of the traffic jams and killings. The most memorable thing for me in the video was when one of the kids, Yousif, talked about how he was born with a disability because of the war. To say it plain and simple, children should not have to live like this.