WLIW21: In The Footsteps of Marco Polo

I missed In The Footsteps of Marco Polo, a delightful and unusual travelogue on WLIW21, most probably because I was traveling and not in New York. However, I now have the chance of watching it on its website, and it promises to be a great televised yarn.

The series chronicles the journey of two men  Belliveau, at the time a wedding photographer, and ODonnell, an artist and former Marine  as they set out to follow Marco Polos route. Equal parts travelogue, adventure story, history trek and buddy movie, the 90-minute film weaves footage from the duos often perilous voyage with Marco Polos descriptions and experiences. Richly enhanced with Belliveaus photographs, the program details their highs and lows as they retrace Polos path, trying to see what he saw and feel what he must have felt.

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New York Times: Gaza's Youth

Image Copyright © Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times sometimes has an intellectual and moral spine (I think it's vestigial, but that's an argument for another post), and it did the right thing this week by featuring a multimedia slideshow on the plight of young Gazans who pay the price for Israeli security. Narrated by Steven Erlanger in an appropriate compassionate voice and intonation, and produced in collaboration with Cornelius Schmid, it features still photographs by Ali Ali, Amir Cohen, Emilio Morenatti, Edi Israel and Shawn Baldwin.

Here's how the accompanying article starts:

The three Abu Ghazala fathers were in mourning, in the Palestinian way, sitting with their relatives recently in a shaded courtyard, open to the fields of watermelon and eggplant in which their children had died. Israeli fire has killed 18 Palestinian youths in Gaza recently. The children � Yehiya, 12, Mahmoud, 9, and Sara, 9 � were tending goats and playing tag on Aug. 29 when an Israeli shell or rocket blew them apart.

Dangerous Ground

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NY Times: Turning The Tribes

Image Copyright © Benjamin Lowy/New York Times-All Rights Reserved
In one of its rare serious reportage photographic essays, this week's New York Times Magazine is featuring a photo-documentary in slideshow format on the efforts by the US military in Iraq to 'turn' the Sunni tribes, and to have these form alliances of convenience with it. The somewhat grating narration is by Michael Gordon, a reporter for the Times and the impressive photography is by the talented and experienced Ben Lowy.

From a political standpoint, I must say that these images and the narration reaffirm what many of us have known all along...we cannot win in Iraq. Are we now forming alliances with minority Sunni tribes by offering protection and funds (wasn't that what Saddam Hussein was doing during his terrible regime?), and ignoring the fact that these very Sunnis are insurgents, have fought against US troops, have killed US troops (and continue to do so) and are unwilling to be governed by the Shi'a government we helped install in the first place...but one that we currently don't like because they're close to Iran? The mind boggles.

Having watched the slideshow many times, I was consistently humbled by Lowy's and Gordon's immense courage and dedication in obtaining such material.

The NY Times' Turning The Tribes.

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