WEEK 7: White Helmets

As the war worsens, rescue workers risk their lives on the front lines

BY JARED MALSIN / GAZIANTEP, TURKEY | PHOTOGRAPHS BY MOHAMMED BADRA

In Syria, it’s been all too easy to lose the plot. Things began simply enough, another promising bud in the Arab Spring—­ordinary citizens marching peacefully against a Middle Eastern despot.
It was a heart-­lifting display, maybe a bit tardy after the movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya, but you certainly knew whom to cheer for. The good guys were in plain sight, chanting “Freedom” and “Peace” from orderly rows. Until the government forces opened fire.

But as the crowds scattered for cover and, before long, took up arms themselves, what steadily enveloped the conflict was not so much the fog of war as its miasma. Opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad shattered into more than 1,000 armed groups. The most successful gathered under the banner of jihadism, either al-Qaeda or eventually ISIS, its even more repugnant spin-off. There’s nothing to like there. Then the neighbors started in, sending guns or money or troops—Iran, Russia, Hizballah, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and finally the U.S.

All wars produce ­confusion—for chaos, nothing else comes close—but even the most brutal contests produce a glimmer of hope, or at least some sense of what is driving people to put their lives on the line. Yet to outsiders, 5½ years of revolution and war in Syria might appear to have produced mostly villains, along with refugees and numbing images of suffering on a blasted landscape that recalls Stalingrad.

http://time.com/syria-white-helmets/

WHO: White Helmets
WHAT: save people from wars
WHERE: Syria
WHEN: every moment when there is a war 
WHY: save people



repugnant (adj.) If behavior or beliefs, etc. are repugnant, they are very unpleasant, causing a feeling of disgust.

orderly (n.) a hospital worker who does jobs for which no training is 

steadily (adv.) gradually

beneath (prep.) in or to a lower position than someone or something, under someone or something

glimmer (v.) to shine with a weak light or a light that is not continuous

blast (v.) to explode or destroy something or someone with explosives, or to break through or hit something with a similar, very strong force

tardy (adj.) slow or late in happening or arriving