Descendants

Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.

This photo was snapped in Bosra, Syria where I was being spied on by a curious bunch of kids who were hiding behind a wall. I must have been a peculiar sight, wandering around in an un-touristy area with a big camera. I remember seeing them duck for cover as I raised my camera to shoot them, with cheeky grins on their faces. It was part game, part shyness and only after one or two approached me did the rest pour out from behind the wall, running and laughing. As I watched the news this evening, I couldn't help but think that a perverse version of this scene is happening now in some Syrian cities, where kids are hiding behind walls because strange men are shooting at them, just that this time with bullets. The death toll rises in Syria and more women and children are being slaughtered. In war, it is always the children that suffer; always the innocent. And as talks go on now at the UN on how to deal with this crisis the bloodshed continues. If only the problem could be talked away.