A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, Iran versus Israel

Most people are more visual than audial when it comes to learning and understanding.  Colors and images are comprehended much more quickly than reading and listening.  Many years ago I worked in a "bagel place" and was in charge of the department for selling ready-made sandwiches, salads (which I added to the menu,) drinks, bourekas and cakes to offices.  We also had to prepare the sandwiches first thing in the morning.  One of the first changes I made was to color-code the stickers, the labels indicating if it was tuna, cheese, lox etc.  That speeded things up for us in sorting and selling.  The label still had the name of the sandwich, but as long as our salesperson wasn't colorblind, he or she would just have to quickly glance at the color to know what was in that bagel.  (Yes, we did end up with one colorblind salesman who was a handsome, charming hunk of a guy, but that's another story...)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Think of how many words and how much space it would take a pundit, op-ed/editorial writer or blogger explain this cartoon.

Some people are mocking Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's use of this picture in his recent United Nations General Assembly speech, but I think that using a visual aid was the right thing to do.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel shows an illustration as he describes his concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions during his address to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Remember that for most of the world, English is not the native tongue and listening to translations and not totally familiar languages is a strain.  It's much too easy to tune out.  By bringing out this picture, which has few words and easy to comprehend numbers, more people can follow what Netanyahu is saying.

As an experienced remedial teacher, I applaud Netanyahu's use of this technique.  And it makes me wonder if one of the reasons that the media and international leaders and diplomats haven't condemned Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vicious, threatening United Nations General Assembly speech be that they were bored to death and had tuned out?

Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of Israel stated that the Israeli government was a "fake government" responsible for the "genocide" of the Palestinian people. Ahmadinejad did not mention Israel's unilateral peace moves such as leaving Gaza and the terror rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli towns and cities.
"The continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality," said Ahmadinejad, who in the past has denied the Holocaust and just days earlier called for the "elimination" of Israel.
Ahmadinejad stated that despite all efforts to achieve happiness - capitalism and consumerism by the US, the UK, France, Germany and Japan was responsible for both droughts and floods. He stated that the present global, democratic leadership represented an oppressive international world order, words that Hitler once used. That this "wrong management of the world was working for the devil" - colonialism founded on materialism and capitalism.

How many people listened and how many cared about what he said?  How much does this speech differ with his other ones?

One excellent commentator on the subject is Arlene Kushner, and I highly recommend reading her article about those two United Nations speeches plus the Obama's. 

Kushner's analysis is excellent, and considering that today is the Eve of the Holiday of Succot, and I have much too much to do at home, I'll leave you in Arlene's very capable hands.

Chag Sameach

Have a Joyful Holiday