The most curious thing(Abu Gharib)

The Most Curious Thing

By Errol Morris

The following essay shows how a photograph aided and abetted a terrible miscarriage of justice. I invite readers to offer their own interpretation of the considerable amount of material contained in the footnotes.

“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”
– Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“How can you say she’s a good person?” I am sitting in an editing-room in Cambridge, Mass. arguing with one of my editors. I reply, “Well, exactly what is it that she did that is bad?” We are arguing about Sabrina Harman, one of the notorious “seven bad apples” convicted of abuse in the notorious Abu Ghraib scandal.

http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/the-most-curious-thing/?hp


There is a yellow smile, in Arabic culture, which is an ingenuine smile. A yellow smile is used when a person is concealing lack of interest, fear, or any emotion he wishes to keep hidden. It is sometimes used as a joke, by making a face of a crooked, ingenuine smile, when somebody tells a bad joke or is trying to make others laugh for something they do not find humorous enough.
(interesting cultural references about the meaning of yellow here)
http://www.answers.com/topic/yellow
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( like a yellow cheddar cheese smile?)
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Have you ever yellowed your own smile?
By Underground Panther in the Sky

"Arabs often talk of “the yellow smile.” By this they mean a smile that is not genuine. They distinguish four such grimaces: the smile that comes from need, when hunger or want force one to ingratiate oneself; the smile of fear, when a friendly expression masks the inner terror; the smile of contempt, when one is bribed to feign delight; and the smile of the unknown, when the dominant emotion is bewilderment."

Have you ever yellowed your own smile?

With smiles, Arabs have just been more honestly observant than us. They can observe what we suppress here, they aren't so afraid to call a hypocrite a hypocrite right to their face, like Americans are. In America's culture of psychological/financial oppression which is not a florid dictatorship but still brutally dictates over your life in subtle ways, with it's own sadistic/smug grins of domination it effects you. It's the dominator/ sadist /tyrant smile of entitlement that makes everyone else's smile turn yellow.

Have you ever yellowed your own smile?

How about when you approach the boss for a raise and you force down your own self respect and dignity into a convincing yellow toothed grovel so you could pay the landlord whom you flashed a yellow smile to so you could pay rent late???

Have you ever smiled nervously with a flush of shame and yellow glow when you were caught by a parent breaking house rules, caught by a teacher breaking school rules, a cop sniffing around your belongings or the school bully out to humiliate you? Have you ever grinned yellow when your boss gives you worthless stock options in his company instead of a hard cash raise or bonus at the company Xmas party? Have you ever grinned yellow in disappointment or from broken promises that still you were socially required to show gratitude when this is NOT what you feel?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3733024