Art of Revolution, Part 1

Not even the barbaric regime of Assad can kill the spirit of beautiful revolutionary Syrian art. Here I share with the world some images inspired by the reality which the people of Syria call life...

حتى نظام الأسد الهمجي غير قادر على قتل روح الفن الثوري السوري. هنا أشارك العالم ببعض اللوحات المستوحاة من الواقع  اليومي الذي يحياه الشعب السوري

What and Why the US Owes the People of Syria

The US government owes the Syrian people to get down off its moral high horse and quietly ensure the removal of the Assad regime. Why that is you might be thinking? Because regardless of the hostile rhetoric both Syrian and American governments enjoyed exchanging whenever they needed to mobilize public national support, the US government under the Bush administration directly and indirectly supported the torturous Syrian regime.

During it's so called war on terror, the US used Syria as an interrogation/ torture camp to force oftentimes false confessions out of US and non-US civilians alike under torture. The case of Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen, who was born in Syria but left to Canada when he was 17 years old drives the case in point. In 2002, Arar was transiting to Canada via JFK airport when he was detained for 2 weeks without charges after which he was flown and detained in the notorious Sednaya Prison of Syria. Arar was not released till a year later of suffering and after a relentless campaign by his wife. To date, the US refuses to admit it made a mistake and won't issue even a public apology to Arar and his family.

If this kind of rendition is not a seal of approval from the US to the criminal practices committed under Assad, then I don't know what it is.

While it remains doubtful that the US government will ever publicly apologize to Arar, it still carries the responsibility of removing the murderous regime it conspired with for numerous years.

ماذا و لماذا الولايات المتحدة مدينة للشعب السوري

تدين الولايات المتحدة للشعب السوري بأن تنزل بكل تواضع من تعاليها الأخلاقي و تعمل على ازالة نظام الأسد. تتساءل و لما هذا ؟ لأنه و بالرغم من اللغة العدوانية التي تتمتع كلا الحكومتين بتبادلها لحشد الدعم الوطني فإن الحكومة الأمريكية تحت إدارة بوش دعمت بشكل مباشر و غير مباشر نظام الأسد المجرم.

خلال ما سمته بالحرب على الإرهاب قامت أمريكا باستخدام سوريا كمركز تحقيق و تعذيب لتجبر مواطنين أمريكيين و غير أمريكيين على حد سواء للاعتراف ببيانات خاطئة تحت وطء التعذيب. إن قضية ماهر عرار، المواطن الكندي و الذي ولد في سوريا و هاجر منها في عمر ال١٧ تصب في بيت القصيد. في عام ٢٠٠٢ و بينما كان عرار يعبر إلى كندا من مطار جون كندي تم احتجازه لمدة أسبوعين من دون تهم و من بعدها تم نقله إلى سجن صيدنايا ذو الصيت الذي تقشعر له الأبدان في سوريا. لم يتم الإفراج عن عرار إلا بعد عام كامل عانى خلالها الأمرين و بعد حملة متواصلة من تنظيم زوجته لإطلاق سراحه. إلى تاريخنا اليوم لم تصدر الحكومة الأمريكية اعتذاراً رسمياً بحق عرار و لم تعترف بحدوث خطأ فادح قي حقه و حق عائلته.

إن لم يكن هذا النوع من التسليم المجحف بمثابة ختم موافقة من الحكومة الأمريكية على الممارسات الإجرامية لنظام الأسد فلا أدر ماذا يكون. في حين تكمن شكوك حقيقية في نية الحكومة الأمريكية بأن تصدر اعتذاراً رسمياً لعرار فأنها ما زالت تحمل مسؤولية تجاه الشعب السوري بأن تنزع الحكومة المجرمة التي طالما تآمرت معها على مر السنين.

In Support of Ali Ferzat

Ali Ferzat, one of the most famous cartoonists in Syria and the Arab world who has been a critic of the Syrian government, was severly beaten on 25 August by pro-government thugs in order to intimidate him and the Syrian opposition. In support of the talented and courageous Mr. Ferzat, here are some of his poignant cartoons.
Freedom to information in Syria:

Freedom of expression in Syria:

 Media coverage:

 Dr. Bashar's reform

 Bashar flipping through calendar, scared of Friday

 Super Glue!

 And finally, a defiant Ali Ferzat in his hospital bed

For more cartoons visit http://www.ali-ferzat.com/ar/home.html

Clouds of fear hang over Mideast bloggers

By David Miller, The Media Line

Arab bloggers have encountered “astounding” levels of intimidation and arrest since the onset of the Arab Spring, but large numbers of them have made it easy for the authorities to find them by failing to take defensive measures to protect their identities, a survey conducted by Harvard University has found.


One third of the 98 bloggers surveyed by Harvard’s Berkman Centre for Internet and Society in May said they had been threatened for their opinions and one fifth reported that their on-line accounts had been hacked.

Almost a tenth of the respondents admitted to being arrested or detained for their on-line activity.

“I’m constantly receiving threats from paramilitary forces, members of Lebanese political parties and anonymous people related to my online support of cyber-dissidents in the region,” Imad Bazzi, a Lebanese activist who blogs at trella.org, told The Media Line.

The Internet has played a key role in the spread of protests this year, with activists bypassing media and communications networks controlled by governments in favour of social media to spread the word of upcoming rallies and report news. The authorities have responded by imposing stricter controls and in some cases shutting down networks entirely.

In Syria, a well-organised effort, known as the Syrian Electronic Army, has been carrying out attacks to disable and compromise websites critical of the regime as mass protests enter their sixth month.

Even countries where protesters have ousted long-time despots, successor governments have been acting to douse critical bloggers. Egyptian Asmaa Mahfouz was arrested and released on bail recently after she was accused of using Facebook and Twitter to defame the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

In Tunisia, the government was blamed for a phishing attack against human rights activists in an effort to gain access to their G-mail accounts.

The tough treatment meted out to bloggers was to be expected, according to the Berkman report, which noted that the survey was taken amid a surge of on-line activity spawned by the Arab Spring, and just one of the 98 bloggers surveyed described himself as pro-government.

Nevertheless, researchers said the extent of the crackdown was “astounding.”

The researchers found that Arab bloggers were often unaware of the available security measures to protect their identity. Most bloggers reported choosing an e-mail provider based on design and sharing capabilities rather than its ability to protect their security. The bloggers’ responses revealed that their knowledge and practice of on-line security ranged “from fair to very poor”, the study found.

Asked how they identify themselves on-line, 49% told the Berkman researchers that they used their full name while 47% said they provided an e-mail address and 42% a photograph of themselves. Only 20% rated “resistance to sharing data with your government” as one of the three most important features of a company hosting their blog, the Berkman report showed.

Bazzi says his blog was repeatedly hacked before he received training from international advocacy organisations that taught him how to protect his on-line identity and information.

“Bloggers always learn from their experiences in terms of on-line security,” Bazzi said. “My blog was hacked twice by supporters of political parties who didn’t like what I have to say regarding freedom of expression and human rights in Lebanon.”

Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian blogger and social activist, said that her blog recently earned her an anonymous threat. “A couple of weeks ago I got a threatening message on my mobile phone and I do not know who sent it.”

According to the Berkman Centre, some 35,000 Arabic-language blogs exist on the Internet.

Self-censorship is widely practiced by Arab bloggers. Half of the respondents said they self-censored their on-line content, with many citing fear of retribution from their government as the main reason. Many bloggers opted to write their blog in English, attempting to evade government surveillance.

But Naseem Tarawneh, a Jordanian who blogs in English at The Black Iris, says he feared his compatriots more than the government.

“I do practice self-censorship, but it’s minimal,” Tarawneh told The Media Line. “My fear is less with the government and more with goons and thugs that are busy waving flags out of some sense of pop-nationalism.”

The assault on free speech hasn’t been as bad in Jordan as it is in other Arab countries during the Arab Spring, Tarawneh says, since the Jordanian public was calling for political reform and not a revolution.

However, independent news websites are being gradually limited by new press and publication laws that impose government censorship to their content. Tarawneh says the new laws would likely lead to greater self-censorship on the part of these websites.

“Freedom of speech is typically the first victim on the chopping block when it comes to the Arab Spring,” he said.

Jad Aoun, a Lebanese blogger living in Dubai, says his English-language blog did not cover political issues, but if it did he would probably censor himself.

“With the change in the status quo, anything can happen,” Aoun, who blogs at Lebanon News: Under Rug Swept, told The Media Line. “Regional governments seem to be more focused on social media and are more likely to pounce on any online dissent to pre-empt street action.”

Kal, an American of Syrian and Algerian origin who blogs about North Africa at The Moor Next Door, says he practised self-censorship to a limited degree, “mainly to avoid unnecessary controversy which might provoke spam attacks or the like”.

He says that although never hacked or threatened with violence, he did receive a massive amount of spam from Bahraini e-mail accounts after criticising the government crackdown on protesters on his Twitter account. His blog was also spammed by “Moroccan commenters of obscure origin” who objected to his posts about the country’s control of Western Sahara.

Bazzi, the Lebanese blogger, says he opposed self-censorship in principle.

“I believe I have the right to freely express my ideas and beliefs,” he said. “This is my human and legal right, also guaranteed by the Lebanese law and constitution.”

The anonymity of some Arab bloggers was recently abused, however. In June, American blogger Tom Macmaster admitted to creating the persona of Amina Arraf, a Lesbian Syrian-American blogger, who claimed in a blog that she had been persecuted by Syrian authorities for her sexual orientation, and finally arrested.

Macmaster apologised to his readers for the hoax, but says that “the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground”.

The Harvard research concluded that more could be done to protect Middle East bloggers from menacing regimes. They recommended expanding on-line security training efforts, online monitoring of threats, and appealing to Internet providers to better their security options and defaults.
(http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=454054&version=1&template_id=46&parent_id=26)

Most Famous Literary Cafes

Carol Brown from Onlinecollege.org was kind enough to draw my attention to this very interesting article on some of the most famous literary cafes worldwide. Feel free to either read the article below or go to the original link at http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/04/13/15-most-famous-cafes-in-the-literary-world/
Thanks Carol!

"15 Most Famous Cafes in the Literary World

Some of the most famous novels and literary moments of all time were written and inspired by cafes in Europe. From the American ex-pat writers in Paris to Henrik Ibsen's continental travels, cafes were a place to work while socializing, building stories, and of course, eating and drinking. If you've turned to coffee shops and restaurants to study instead of your room or the library, you'll appreciate the literary significance of these 15 famous cafes.

1. La Rotonde: One of the most famous Parisian cafes during the great American literary ex-pat era is Cafe La Rotonde, which was actually written about in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, although Hemingway's Jake Barnes seems to lament its overwhelming popularity: "No matter what cafe in Montparnasse you ask a taxi-driver to bring you to from the right bank of the river, they always take you to the Rotonde," Hemingway wrote. Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald and T.S. Eliot were also patrons there.

2. Le Dome Cafe: The very next line in Hemingway's quote above is, "Ten years from now it will probably be the Dome." Le Dome Cafe in Montparnasse in Paris was actually the first major cafe in that area to attract ex-pats and intellectuals. La Rotonde, Le Select and La Coupole were its competitors, but the Dome is now a more established seafood restaurant, no longer catering to up-and-coming artists and writers.

3. The Literary Cafe: St. Petersburg's Literary Cafe supposedly entertained many top Russian writers, including Chernyshevsky and Dostoevsky, and is said to be the last cafe that poet Alexander Pushkin visited before dying in a duel.

4. Les Deux Magots: Now a popular tourist spot, Les Deux Magots is known as Hemingway's favorite spot in Paris. But the St. Germain-des-Pres cafe also served many other legendary writers and artists, including Rimbaud, Simone de Beauvoir, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Jean Paul Sartre, and even Picasso. It's one of the oldest cafes in Paris, and pays tribute to its old but polished heritage in its current design and character (though is most likely more expensive than it was in Hemingway's day).

5. Cafe Braunerhof: Like Paris, Vienna is a city dotted with cafes, many of which were home to famous writers, artists and intellectuals. The Cafe Braunerhof located near the Habsburg city palace is said to be lauded writer Thomas Bernhard's favorite spot, and where we worked on some of the most important works in the German-speaking world after WWII.

6. Cafe de Flore: Now a popular hang-out among the fashion set and other glamorous types, Cafe de Flore — principal rival to Les Deux Magots — was another office for Hemingway and his contemporaries. In 1994, Cafe de Flore began handing out its own annual literary prize — the Prix de Flore — to promising young authors of French-language literature. Besides a cash prize, the winner gets to drink a glass of the white wine Pouilly-Fume at the cafe every day for a year.

7. Dingo Bar: Now the restaurant Auberge de Venise, the Dingo Bar was another Montparnasse staple that opened in 1923 and catered to English and American ex-pats in Paris, like writer Djuna Barnes and publishing house owner Nancy Cunard. It's also the spot where Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald met for the first time.

8. Cafe Montmartre: This cafe is actually located in Prague and was sometimes called by its nickname, Montik, or The Monty. Some of the most important writers from Germany and Czechoslovakia — like Franz Kafka, Eduard Bass and Max Brod — all came here.

9. Pedrocchi Cafe: Padua's Pedrocchi Cafe is one of the biggest cafes in the world and was known as a favorite hang-out for Lord Byron and French writer Stendhal.

10. Harry's New York Bar: Actually located in Paris, Harry's New York Bar was named for its early manager, a Scotsman. It opened in 1911, and Harry was supposedly responsible for making it a legitimate ex-pat cafe during the next decade, attracting Sinclair Lewis, Humphrey Bogart, Hemingway, and others. Side tip: Harry's New York Bar is also where the Bloody Mary was first concocted.

11. Antico Caffe Greco: Situated near the Spanish Steps in a very posh area of Rome, the Antico Caffe Greco — founded in 1760 — is also the city's most famous. Over the past centuries, writers like Lord Byron, John Keats, Henrik Ibsen and Hans Christian Andersen became patrons.

12. La Coupole: La Coupole is another historical Montparnasse cafe, which opened in 1927, soon after Le Select, and aimed to compete against Le Dome for the expat intellectual clientele. The massive cafe could seat 600 people, including famous guests like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. La Coupole is now an official historic monument.

13. La Closerie des Lilas: Also situated in Paris' Montparnasse is La Closerie, which opened in 1847 and attracted everyone from Henry James to Leon Trotsky to Gertrude Stein and Hemingway, who references nearby statues and descriptions in The Sun Also Rises.

14. Caffe Giubbe Rosse: One of Florence's most famous cafes is Caffe Giubbe Rosse, named for Garibaldi's Red Shirts, and also inspiration for the waiters' uniforms. Celebrated for its role in producing the Futurist movement, Caffe Giubbe Rosse was also a favored spot for many notable Italian poets.

15. Grand Cafe: The Grand Hotel in Oslo is home to the Grand Cafe, a famous restaurant and meet-up. It's where the Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held each year, and is said to be the daily lunch spot of Henrik Ibsen. Roald Dahl also stayed at the hotel during his youth. "

(Image: Sartre and de Beauvoir at the Café de Flore)

Back to the Beginning!

This week I would like to share an insightful article prepared by Ausama Monajed and others in association with the Strategic Research and Communication Centre. For the full article and more details, click here

"Back to the Beginning!

As Assad forces continue to seek salvation through bloodletting, protesters rely on sheer defiance and continued commitment to nonviolence, managing to reenergize their 9-weeks long movement.

44 dead and dozens wounded in the largest day of protest yet, with death toll expected to rise as more communities send their reports on Azzadi Friday (Azzadi in Kurdish means "Freedom").

Damascus & Suburbs, Hama & Suburbs, Homs & Suburbs, Idlib & Suburbs, Deraa & Suburbs, Alboukamal, Deir Ezzor, Raqqah, Qamishly, Amudeh, Kobani Banyas and Jableh among others, all took part in the protests.

With so many dead today despite all international pressures and sanctions, it’s clear that the Assads won’t go gently into that good night, but since the protesters are foolhardy enough to keep taking to the streets to die for the cause, the choice facing world leaders is how much bloodshed will be enough before they act.

We might call it the Obama Effect: those who felt the American President’s speech as being too light on Assad felt angered and expressed their frustration by taking to the streets, and those who felt it was just right for now, having raised the possibility of Assad’s departure, have also taken to the streets feeling that the momentum is back on their side.

This is at least one explanation for the mass turnout today. But even if true, the Obama Effect is just one factor here, a marginal one even. The reality is: the protesters were reacting to repeated assertions by Syrian officials over the last two weeks that their movement has lost steam and that the authorities have regained the upper-hand. They were also reacting to the statements by Bashar Al-Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf that struck a raw nerve with Syrians by stressing the family-based nature of the regime and the willingness of the Assads to do whatever it takes to hang on to power.

Now it’s all about the Assads. The masks are off. Rami’s statements about Israeli security rendered all talk about resistance ideology rather meaningless. Even security officers are now order to chant for “Abu Hafiz” during their clashes with protesters. Abu Hafiz is Bashar’s traditional nickname and refers to the name of both his late father and his eldest son. The point is to say that Bashar will rule until his death and will be followed by his son. A pro-regime graffiti left on the walls of a Homs community by security officers even state “Bashar is our King.”

Forget about reforms then: the choice this is about Assad forever or Assad never. Whatever “reforms” Assad will be willing to entertain can never challenge his or his family’s hold on power, which is a complete anathema to the protesters. The resulting stalemate means more violence will continue to take place on a daily basis throughout the country, for the foreseeable future and until such time that army leadership begins cracking under pressure, with some changing their loyalties to the side of the protesters. Naturally, sectarian faultiness will figure highly in this. The ability of Syrian opposition forces to project an alternative that can be embraced by grassroots protest leaders and the international community will facilitate the adoption of a more proactive response by the international community, pushing leaders like President Obama into making clear-cut calls on Assad to leave or face certain dire consequences."

Painting by M.C. Escher

When Blind Justice Goes Deaf and Dumb Too...

Oil prices go up and down, stock prices increase and decrease, but the only commodity that seems to be suffering chronic devaluation is the human soul. This crisis, of course, has been around for as long as humans have existed on the planet. But what is remarkable is that in spite of the ubiquity of human-rights organizations, institutions, declarations, resolutions, reports, councils, committees, campaigns; flagrant violations still occur. It's no secret to the world that a human soul can in fact be snatched away for as much as an opinion, as the rising death toll in Syria asserts. After about 2 months into the protests, about 800 civilians have been killed. Such large-scale institutionalized killings are nothing but a badge of shame on all communities concerned with human rights, especially Arab ones. At least back in 2008-09 when about a 1000 were killed in Gaza, Arab and international states quickly condemned the actions and demanded an immediate halt to the violence. A UN-supported mission was later assembled to investigate the crime. It's true that verbal condemnation was deemed highly insufficient, but to tell you the truth I miss any sense of justice no matter how insufficient.

(Painting: Lady Justice by Luco Giordano)