Just Image:

JustImage.org features the work of photographer Matthew Cassel. The purpose of this site is to showcase photography that aims to bring about social change by exposing different stories of injustice throughout our world. This site is currently being developed. If you have any questions or interested in collaboration contact Matthew.

From all around Beirut, captured by a cell phone:
“Some friends in high school used to call me “White Cassel” because of the color of my skin + my last name. conveniently, it also sounds like an american fast food chain that spends a lot of money on marketing which should help people remember this blog. Updated with at least one picture daily (at least that’s the plan), all images are taken with my cell phone and mostly uploaded to this blog from it as well.”

On a picture taken - which you can see on his picture blog:

“taking this picture in the Hamra area of Beirut got me in trouble with the Hariri security folks or “shebab” (guys) who “guard” (sit) on the street. They made me erase the pic, little did they know I am a photographer and photographers always take 2 images! This is the first pic of many to come uploaded from my new cell phone!”

Visit Whitecassel’s Picture Blog to see daily images from Beirut…

I am appalled by the seemingly never ending miseries that are witnessed every single day across the globe. It’s very nasty out there…

The latest school shooting takes place at NIU!

This is the first alert that went up on the NIU homepage:

3:20 p.m.
There has been a report of a possible gunman on campus. Get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear. Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity.

With minutes left in a class in ocean sciences at Northern Illinois University on Thursday afternoon, a tall skinny man dressed all in black stepped out from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall, said nothing, and opened fire with a shotgun, the authorities and witnesses said. Killing 7 and injuring more than 20.

When the gunman first burst in, Mr. McEnery said, the classroom turned loud and chaotic with some students shouting, “He has a gun!” and “Call 911!”

Then came an eerie silence, but for the bullets. “Once he settled in and started shooting people, pretty much everyone was quiet,”

The gunman had been a graduate student in sociology at the university in 2007, but was no longer enrolled. Records suggested that the man, who had more recently attended a different state school, had no previous police contact, the authorities said.

This is sick! It rally is a jungle out there!
My prayers go out to the victims and condolences to their families as they try to cope with their loss.

Three years ago - 2/14/2005 - marks Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s Three-year assassination.

By midmorning, thousands poured into Beirut’s main Martyrs’ Square for the third anniversary of Hariri’s assassination, braving the rain and the cold, waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the [ex-Prime Minister].

Crowds paid respects at Hariri’s gravesite next to the downtown square as his brother, Shafik, unveiled a statue of him at the spot where he was killed, a few hundred yards away on a seaside boulevard.

A flame was lit and a taped message broadcast from Hariri’s widow, Nazek, who lives in Paris, urging against “falling into hatred” and calling on “unity to save the country.”[Source]

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3:

God bless his soul.

I love waking up in the morning …

I love picking out what to wear …

I love getting in my car and on the road…knowing that how I choose to react to the bunch of idiots out there is very well within my control…

I love Chicago’s blistering cold. It’s so refreshing.

And most of all … I love Mondays…

(and no, I was not being sarcastic. at. all.)

Have a great week!:)

The de facto government in the Gaza Strip released a senior advisor to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Friday after holding him for almost 50 days in a Gaza prison.

Omar Al-Ghoul, a well-known journalist and frequent critic of Hamas, was taken from his home in Gaza in December, Fatah officials said. Hamas said they released Ghoul after lengthy mediation with Palestinian factions.

Al-Ghoul was the most senior Fatah official to be arrested by Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover of the coastal region in June 2007. He thanked all those who assisted in securing his release, describing the 46 days he spent in prison as “a sign of defending the legitimate government.”

After spending the day in Gaza Al-Ghoul will head to Ramallah to join his wife and children. Hamas leader in the West Bank, Nasser Ash-Sha’ir, said that Islamic Jihad had helped negotiate Al-Ghoul’s release, adding that he hoped his release would indicate the start of dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.[Source]

But the dude is not Fatah!