Thursday, September 3, 2015

The Photo That Shamed the World

This picture of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi made global headlines and caused a dramatic upturn in international concern over the refugee crisis.

 

The picture has been credited with causing a surge in donations to charities helping migrants and refugees.  Brendan O'Neill wrote in The Spectator that: "The global spreading of this snapshot ... is justified as a way of raising awareness about the migrant crisis. Please. It's more like a snuff photo for progressives, dead-child porn, designed not to start a serious debate about migration in the 21st century but to elicit a self-satisfied feeling of sadness among Western observers."

Nick Logan of Global News argued that "Photojournalists sometimes capture images so powerful the public and policymakers can't ignore what the pictures show."

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