March 2011
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Friends back home have been writing me to ask what is going on in Syria. As of this morning, I still thought the protests would probably fizzle after some concessions by the government, but what happened in Daraa today appears to be very bad. Rumors are everywhere, while the country’s reliable journalistic eyes and ears are disappearing into prison, including those of a friend. Some say 6...
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"We love you, we love you, we love you!"
They’re feeling the love in kite form today over at the Facebook group that’s sprung up in support of the president. The big finish at the tail says: “We love you, our leader Bashar Al-Assad. God, Syria, Bashar, and nothing else.”
…….♥#########♥ …..♥#############♥ …♥###############♥...
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A request for non-violence
Bassam Al-Kady, the head of the Syrian Women’s Observatory, is another Syrian voice worth hearing. He calls for an end to the violence being practiced by both government forces and protestors alike, as well as an end to the sectarian rhetoric weaving its way into discussion of the unrest. You can tell from the issues he address what some of the concerns and fears are here if the protests...
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Selifying Secrets: The fall of Syria →
A Syrian voice worth hearing. Read.
seleucid:
Syria is slipping, bit by bit….
Syria, the pride of the Arab lands, the symbol of resistance, dignity. The land which may be impoverished, yet is a land true to its people, and wears that truth like a badge.
Yet today I witness the collapse of everything Syria used to represent. While others…
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BBC: Letters to the Arab World: Rana Kabbani to... →
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“Syrian Interior Ministry on Wednesday announced that while some families were...”
– The official take from SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency). Extra, extra, read all about it.
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The view from Marjeh Square
The kingdom of silence grew a little noisier this afternoon.
Yesterday’s protests were a surprise, the result of kids following Facebook pages without a connection to established opposition groups. In fact, when I told one activist that’d I’d run smack into the protest on my way to meet him, he didn’t believe me at first. The last time anyone tried to organize online, for...
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“Gen Clapper seems to agree with Mao that “power grows from the barrel of a...”
– The BBC does a worthy job making sense of the conflicting analyses that came out of the Obama crew in yesterday’s Senate testimony on Libya. Also, from the sacred to the profane, at one point links to Urban Dictionary.
There hasn’t been nearly enough outrage about the case of these four Syrians who disappeared in Lebanon: http://bit.ly/fVgJ
Qifa Nakbi has a smart interview with Gary Gambill about the Syrian political climate: http://bit.ly/hFLISY
So, apparently this trippy video of snakes and puppies and Hafez Al-Assad aired on Syrian national TV back in the ’80s. Not breaking news.
Hrmmm… http://yhoo.it/dIHchw
Still getting back into swing of things, so this maybe old news, but this TIME article warrants a shout-out either way: http://ti.me/eq4tS3
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Very interesting economic analysis of Egypt in the past few years, with implications for Syria. http://nyti.ms/htKp2R
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“The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an...”
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From this week’s cover of NEWSWEEK: Sharon Begley on the science of decision-making (via newsweek)
So, Newsweek, you understand my struggle. Now how’s about giving all employees with Twitter accounts another few weeks to decide about that buyout?
RT @WSJ: The biggest news service in the U.S. is one that almost nobody has ever heard of. Its publisher? The CIA: http://on.wsj.com/hIZp7g
RT @WSJ: The biggest news service in the U.S. is one that almost nobody has ever heard of. Its publisher? The CIA: http://on.wsj.com/hIZp7g
Here’s the scoop on that bizarre mama drama from this morning. I’ll try to translate an English summary tomorrow. http://bit.ly/fEtd1v
Here’s the scoop on that bizarre mama drama from this morning. I’ll try to translate an English summary tomorrow. http://bit.ly/fEtd1v
February 2011
18 posts
MTN & Syriatel, partners in crime. Literally. http://bit.ly/dYW0oM (via @atoraia & @Seleucid)
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“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again...”
– Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in an address to West Point cadets on Friday. (Submitted by DannyDB.) (via officialssay)
And, um, for some lighter fare… RT @syrianews: Vogue: Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert http://bit.ly/eueRQQ
Sweet Jesus. There are more factual errors in that Vogue article than there are mustaches in this whole country.
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“Asma al-Assad empties a box of fondue mix into a saucepan for lunch. The...”
– Oh, the irony.
RT @syrianews: So this will be Gadaffi’s third speech. The rules of revolution (BenAli/Mubarak) state that he will quit within 48 hours….
Meanwhile, in Yemen, this is some really excellent reporting. http://ht.ly/42EY2
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“You don’t need special programs and projects to help free the Internet in...”
– Smart stuff from Rebecca Mackinnon on Clinton’s internet freedom speech earlier this week.
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“Even if The Huffington Post were to lose most or all of its unpaid bloggers,...”
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Nate Silver does HuffPo: The Economics of Blogging and The Huffington Post - NYTimes.com (via nickdouglas)
Power law distributions can be so cruel.
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In which dinner conversation ends up on the...
You know, shit happens. Excerpt:
شكل وضع المرأة في المجتمع وطريقة النظر إليها، مقياسا لمعرفة مدى تقدم مجتمع ما، لأن الاعتراف بالمرأة كإنسان بعيدا عن الجنس يشكل أس الاساس لتقدم أي مجتمع وسيره في ركاب الحضارة والتطور المستمر. حول وضع المرأة في المجتمع وكيفية التعامل معها، التقينا في شرق وغرب الصحفية السورية كاتي الحايك والصحفية الأمريكية كيتي بول التي تدرس اللغة العربية وتحضر لماجستير، لمعرفة...
Syria's web opening, visualized
The Syrian government’s internet mavens decided to smile upon Sham today. For the first time in five over three years, Syrians can now access Facebook, Youtube and Blogspot without a proxy, opening up three sites of the hundreds currently blocked by the country’s various censorship tools. I initially had my doubts about how much of an impact this would have, since web access here is...