bordom

من مذكرات المارد الجربان

منذ ما يقارب الخمسمئة عام..و مع انحسار مدهم الجغرافي.. و اضمحلال مخزونهم الفكري..و انعدام تأثيرهم الثقافي...و مع تكرار هزائمهم العسكرية...كان على اجدادي اتخاذ قرارهم بالعودة الى الكهوف الصخرية... فأمم الارض تتربص بهم...فكان الحل بالانزواء… و الانغلاق و الانطواء… و الابتهال بالدعاء… لتفريج الكرب بلا عناء...
و الى ان يقضي الله امرا كان مفعولا..عاشت الشعوب اجيالا في كهوف غلقت فتحاتها بالحجارة و الطين..و اعتادوا العيش في الظلمة…
بغياب الضوء استوى الجميع و بات الاعمى يقود المبصرين...و اعتاد الجميع الظلام … نمى الجرب … تكاثرت الجرذان… و انتشرت الحشرات
عشقنا رائحة الهواء الفاسد و ادمنا طعم المياه الآسنة. …باتت المياه النظيفة غير مستساغة ولا مقبولة...اكل الجرب اجسادنا لكن تعودنا عليه… تألفنا معه … الى الحد الذي جعل منه امرا طبيعيا… و اصبحنا نحن له و نشتاق اليه… و غدى من يهاجم الجرب يهين جزءا منا….يتطاول على كرامتنا و موروثاتنا... بل و.يهدد كياننا...
نسينا ان الجرب طارئ و دخيل...وانه عدو المياه و النظافة...نسينا كيف حارب اجدادنا الاوائل جربهم بالوضوء, فلا صلاة بلا وضوء.. ولا دعاء بلا عمل…
كيف نحيا بلا جرب؟؟ كيف يجرؤ احدنا على المجاهرة بأنه سئم الهواء العفن و الماء الملوث؟ كيف يتجاسر على اهانة طريقة عيشنا و يخون مقدساتنا...
لا تسألوني كيف تحول الجرب الى احد مقدساتنا ..فبالعتمة يحدث ما لا يمكن ان يحصل تحت ضوء الشمس..في العتمة يسرق التاريخ و تنهب الحضارة...في العتمة يغتصب الدين و ينتهك الحق في غفلة من الزمان..في العتمة يصبح الجاهل عالما و الفاسد اماما و العاهر عاهلا و سيدا...في العتمة اصبح العرب جربا…
بات كل من يحاول شق فتحة في جدار ليتسرب منه ضوءعسى ان نرى مشاكلنا فنحلها..اصبح خائنا كافرا... يقام عليه الحد فيقتل او يصلب او تقطع ايديه و ارجله من خلاف او ينفى من الارض...فهو يخالف اوامر اسيادنا و ولاة امرنا..و هم خلفاء الله في الارض… بل انه يتعداهم بفجوره و فسقه و بغيه و عدوانه… كيف لا و هو يدخل الشمس لتؤذي عيوننا التي ألفت العتمة… و تؤذي نفوسنا برؤية العفن الذي نعيش فيه؟
هو حتما متآمر يريد القضاء على شخصيتنا و حضارتنا المميزة بعد خمسمئة عام من العمل المتواصل على سد كل المنافذ ضد الغريب المتحفز … فتأتي طعنة الغدر من بين ظهرانينا
لا ...نحن لسنا منغلقين او منطوين او منعزلين...نحن ببساطة كامنون ... قادمون… نحن المردة الجربانون....و سنخرج عند خروج يأجوج و مأجوج...حتى ذلك الحين اقتلوا الفتنة و اقضوا على كل من تحدثه نفسه باشعال شمعة فهو سفاك اثيم...و الحمدلله رب العالمين

www.arab-jarab.com

yes unfortunatily it is a macho oriented society ...and u proved it

some syrian female blogger has come across some debate regarding the syrian society being very macho-oriented ( http://ya-ashrafe-nnas.blogspot.com/2007/04/notes-on-unconscious-arab-sexism.html )..i must first state that I'm for this theory, and it can be proved right very easily...however, the way this whole matter was debated was very funny and strange and shows that we "some syrian blogger" are not quite mature yet, and dont have a clear vision about how to set a goal and how to get to it.
lets start by the sequence of events as i've seen it

1- a syrian female blogger have writen a subjective peice of litreture about her experience with sexual harassment in public transportation in damascus.

2- this very lady had huge encouragging comments from people clapping, and saluting her "courage" to come accross such a very controversial debate. many of which were syrian bloggers that i highly look at.

3- i came to find that the post as it is is a good material to alarm us all about the problem and that its time to stand and face it.

4- after reading the comments...i had the feeling that everyone was taking this post as an objective matter rather than subjective, among which was the writer herself, so my prospective to the whole thing has changed.

5- accepting the post as an objective topic left me with no choice but to criticize it, as it was exaggurating far too much to pass, lacked the balanced judgement , and had lots of unlogical comparsions let alone the conclusion. in one sentence, as an academic, i could not just accept that post to be an objective material, tho i appraciated it as a subjective one.

6- i've sent a comment with this meaning to the writer and had such a protective hostile response tagging me with being an animale which is quite "easy to use" mean to respond when one lacks means to answer apropriately.

7- the writer of the blog released a note on the post, afterwords, using my comments in twisted way to verify her point about the syrian society being masculine (something i totally agree with). but unfortunatily she has done the following

a-she refered to my comments eventhough she refused to published them at the first place
b-she twisted my comments and put words on my mouth that i never said such as claiming that "i did not want her to publish our dirty laundry over the net" implying that i accepted what she already said as objective fact, and my problem was only that i did not want to reflect the "real"!!! image about our society to the readers.
c- she claimed that i said things which i have not AT ALL, therefore she was either falsefying or deliberately mixing my comments with other's so it can gain some cheap point to support her conclusion to come.

8- her final conclusion was that i was talking cuz i felt that my masculinity was hurt-affected, and that i look towards female as "inferiors" and that i feel it was my right to allow or disallow them to state or rise a point.

9- here comes the funniest bit...
i totally agree with the blogger that **UNFORTUNATILY** syrian male in general feel as "superior" to female but the problem is that even syrian female "represented in this case by the blogger" agree to that shamefull attitude...and a quick look at the comments encoureging her and clapping for her cuz of tackling the matter, and tagging her with " brave girl" "good girl"!! idicating how surprising they found the step comming of a "female" blogger.... and for her to accept these comments as complimentary ...shows that all the commentators deep inside do not look to female bloggers as equal to themselves and that they wanted to encourage razan...and strangely enough razan was eagerly waited to be evaluated by her male bloggers..and was not offended nor insulted by those comments which shows how ironic the situation is is our society and how people claim to be what they r not indeed

sorry for any typo mistake as im not bothered to use a corrector or to proofread

soon rotana will celebrate "mouhammad's (p.u.h) mawled" this way

please click on the "youtube" mark so it takes u to my youtube where u can view the clip.
thank you.

me singing "lemon tree"

video taken in campania - italy

عرب جرب arab jarab (www.arab-jarab.com)

The name could be offensive, if we read it and stop without furthering our reading through the paper. The name of the newly launched newspaper, Arab Jarab, is far
beyond controversial.

Then, why this name?

First of all, the name is a sign of refusal to many of the social or socio-political aspects in the Arab world. Since all the people who are working on this newspaper project are Arabs, then, we can be firm when we say, it is not about degrading the Arabs. It's about exposing what we have become. It's about highlighting the values that we have lost in order to remember, and maybe, revive them.

We have chosen to write in Arabic, although all the team members have good command of other languages. But the targeted audience is us, the Arabs. We are not in the business of degrading ourselves or our people. We are here criticizing our practices in our own language so that only us, Arabic speakers, can understand. Not to mention that such a paper in English would be getting lots of traffic! Indeed, None-Arabs would love to read such articles. Yet again, the purpose is not to get more people reading, but only to get Arabs reading and hopefully reacting!

We, the team members, are proud Syrians, and for that matter, Arabs. But our source of pride is not based on our people's ancient glories. It's for who we are and for what we stand for, for our values and morals. Let's say this paper is our own way of self-criticizing and our way to show what have we become and hope for the betterment.

If you are an Arab, you may want check the newspaper at www.arab-jarab.com

Tell us what you think…and whether you like it or not, please spread the word, as other may differ in opinion.


www.arab-jarab.com

my syria

the way i see my syria

سياحة و زفر

مرة كنت عم اتسكع بالشعلان مع رفقاتي بيوقفنا سائح ذي سحنة اجنبية و بيسألنا...


مين فادلاك ..كيف يذهب هاديكا زا نووبيا؟

نط رفيقي سألو..انت وين دللوك؟

طبعا وش السائح صار هيك ----->"?????"

مو كرمال شي بس يبدو ما فهم السؤال..

المهم من كلمة لكلمة فهمنا منو انو هو كان عم يتبع الخريطة بس ضاع عند ساحة تمانة اذار

و ما عد عرف اذا فات بشارع جمال ابو النصر او شارع الحرية

طبعا نحن الاربعة صرنا هيك ------>"!!!!!"

قلنالو عيني عطينا هالخريطة لنشوف ...لانو يكمن انت مخربط و جاية عالشام بدل حلب او حمص لانو ما عنا هيك شوارع و ساحات و حدايق بالشام...

الزلمة بكل براءة فتح الخريطة و الصادرة عن وزارة السياحة...









مسكنا طرف الخيط و بلشت تنفك الطلاسم..انو اذا ساحة تمانة ادار عالخريطة هي ساحة عرنوس بالواقع...معناتا شارع جما ابو النصر هو الصالحية و بالتالي شارع الحرية هو شارع الحمرا..



بناءا عليه بتكون حديقة زنوبيا هي جنينة السبكي



..


يلعمى اذا صحيح

ثقافة الكبت

لما كنت بالشام اخر مرة كنت عم باكل مع رفقاتي عند محل باباي بنورا ...شفت منظر كتير عجبني..شباب صغار تيينز يعني اعمارون شي ستعش او سبعتعش ...انو شلة صحاب ولاد و بنات قاعدين عم ياكلو و يتساءلو ع بعض و يمزحو مع بعض...عم يتصرفو بشكل كتير عفوي و احيانا بغلاظة بس الحلو انو كانو ع طبيعتون...ما كان كتير فارقة انو في بنات ..ما كان في حواجز...ما حسيت انو فيهون حدى كان عم يفكر مرة او تنتين قبل ما يقول كلمة او يطلع منو مسبة..ما كان فيهون حدا عم يحاول يخفف دم ع حساب غيرو ليترك انطباع...كانو شلة كتير مصهورة اذا بدكون....ناس كتير رح يشوفوها شلة مايعة لولاد مدللين اهلون يمكن حاطينون بالمدرسة الباكستانية او الامريكية او ما شابه...

بس انا شفت القصة بشكل تاني...

صرت فكر انو كيف الانسان مهيأ جينيا ليكون بلا عقد و يكون منفتح سواءا كان خلقان بفلوريدا او بالشام...و كيف انو المجتمع هو اللي بيولد براس الانسان الحواجز و المتاريس و الخطوط الحمر و التبوهات و الخوف و القلق و انعدام الثقة بالنفس

سبب حديثي عن هالموضوع هو عبارة استخدمتا اليوم شي 3 مرات و هي ثقافة الكبت..

اليوم كان في حديث عن كاتبة قصة سعودية نشرت كتاب عن قصص واقعية لبنات سعوديات و الامور اللي بتحصل بحياتون اليومية و تفكيرون و احلامون و علاقاتون مع البيئة حولون و تجاربون العاطفية بل حتى الجنسية..و تطرق الحديث الى عدة مؤلفات بالوطن العربي تناولو هالمواضيع بكتاباتون و كانت هالكتابات تشكل صدمة ظاهرية بتتبدى بردود الفعل المستهجنة لهالكتابات و بنفس الوقت شغف سري منقطع النظير بقراءة هذه المؤلفات...

طيب خلونا شوي نفكر بهالتناقض...في ناس حيت جهد هالكاتبات و جرءتهون على تناول هيك مواضيع و طرحها بشكل علني و مقاربتها بشجاعة و اعتبرو انو هالكتابات مؤشر لبداية تحرر ما و خطوة على طريق الانفتاح على الاخر في مجتمعاتنا..و في ناس نصدمت من جرأة الطرح و تناول بعض المحرمات و خصوصا من قبل عناصر انثوية في مجتمع ذكوري...

و ضمن الضجة يلي بتحدثها هالكتابات ما منلاقي غير النسخ الموجودة نباعت بالكامل و بفترة قياسية علما ان الشعب العربي لا يقرأ لا يقرأ لا يقرأ....

نفكر بالاسباب ما منلاقي غير سبب واحد ....الكبت...

الطفل بمجتمعنا بيولد و اكتر كلمة بيسمعها خلال فترات عمرو المبكر كلمة عيب...لاء حبيبي انت شب ما بيصير تلعب مع البنات...لا ماما انت بنت عيب تطلعي مع الولاد لعبي مع رفيقتك مها....

بالمدرسة ممنوع شي اسمو اختلاط....يا عيبو هاد بيحكي مع البنات....ييييي هي بتلعب مع الصبيان ....دائما في حاجز...دائما في حيط حتى لو غير مرئي حتى لو بمدرسة مختلطة....

الولد بيكبر و بعقلو صورة للبنت على انها مخلوق ينتمي لفصيلة مختلفة تماما و البنت نفس الشي...و اكبر مصيبة بتكون بالعيل يلي عندا ولاد من (فصيلة واحدة) يعني ذكور فقط او اناث فقط...هون الولاد بيكبرو بدون ادنى فكرة عن الجنس الاخر!!

بيصلو هالولاد لمرحلة المراهقة و بيبلشو بيحسو بالتغيرات النفسية و الجسدية و بيبلشو يحكو بمواضيع بتناسب هالمرحلة...و هون بتظهر الفاجعة و النتيجة المثمرة للتربية الخاطئة...لانو الولاد ما بيعرفو شي عن البنات و البنات ما بيعرفو شي عن الولاد ...و مع هيك في موضيع بدها تنحكي و في ناس بدها تحكي و من شان تحكي لازم تكون بتعرف و الا بدها تخترع...و في ولاد شغلتون هالشغلة و بيبلش نشر التخيلات و الخرافات و الافكار المغلوطة المبنية اساسا على خيال مروجيها و بتنقلب هالافكار لحقائق بعقل الولاد و خصوصي انو اذا صار و حدى منهون ارتكب الجرم المحظور و سأل اهلو رح يتعرض لابشع انواع الارهاب الفكري و النفسي ان لم يكن الجسدي حتى...بدك تلوم الاهل؟؟ ما فيك..لانون هنين بدوروهن ضحايا و كانو ولاد و تعرضو لنفس الشي....

و هيك بتروج تجارة ثقافة الكبت...و بيصير الولد او البنت مولع بسماع اي معلومة او خبرية عن الجنس الاخر المغيب تماما من حياتو و بتلاقي الولد لما بعد جهد جهيد حصل على كتاب من الكتب الثقافية الصفراء عم يقراه و قلبو عم يخفوء بقوة و افرازات التيستسترون عندو بالذروة و بنفس الوقت عم يشرر ادرينالين من خوفو انو اهلو يمسكو معو هالكتاب و بيصير قراية هيك كتب بحد ذاتها مثير و كل ما كان الكذب و التلفيق فبها اكبر كل ما زادت الاثارة

و بيكبر هالشب و بتكبر هالبنت على افكار مشوهة و على رؤية الجنس الاخر كلغز دفين و بتكبر الخيالات يلي براس هالشباب و بيصيرو يولدو صور مدهشة عن الجنس الاخر و علاقاتون المستقبلية معو و بيصير الواحد من افراد هالمجتمع ظاهريا سوي و لكن داخليا متخم بالعقد و الافكار المريضة.....

طب الحق ع مين؟؟

رح اترك السؤال مفتوح....

My message to the world

please keep the children away from all your bloody games!


the video is done by me on 20/10/2006

Say yes to Syria*

When you are a new and inexperienced candidate for prime minister, the plans that you present to the public soar. Out of excessive enthusiasm you promise to solve the problem of poverty, achieve quiet on the borders and make Israel into a country "where it is fun to live." But then you attain the office and discover that the "reality imp" is dancing on your desk. He makes it clear to you that despite your victory in the elections, your government is shaky, and it is not certain that you will even arrive safely at the next session of the Knesset. He laughs in your face when he encounters your far-reaching diplomatic plans and your proposals for containing poverty. One morning the reality imp whispers in your ear: If you want to live, throw aside all your revolutionary plans and concentrate on only one thing: your political survival. And if you ask him, 'Is it for this that I have arrived at this important position?' he will reply: Look what happened to Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, who wanted to solve fundamental problems. This is exactly what is happening now to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
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He has abandoned all his big plans and he has no agenda, apart from his political survival. To shore up his shaky government he is looking for an ally in the shape of Yisrael Beiteinu MK Avigdor Lieberman, a step that will give him the dose of oxygen needed for his continued existence. The price is clear: a freeze on diplomatic moves. The convergence plan - the sole reason for his victory in the in the elections - has been defined by Olmert as irrelevant. The evacuation of the illegal outposts has been postponed indefinitely. And, if this were not enough, he became a staunch peace refuser when he rejected entirely all of Syrian President Bashar Assad's attempts to open negotiations on peace in return for the Golan Heights.

Immediately after the Six-Day War, then prime minister Levi Eshkol said that the territories were only a deposit that we would be prepared to return in exchange for full peace, because peace is the only guarantee of security. But within a few weeks we "sobered up" and fell in love with the territories. At one time we saw United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (territories in return for peace) as a major achievement. Today Assad is adopting the resolution, and Olmert is not only rejecting it, but he is also publicly scorning it and saying with typical Olmertian arrogance: "The Golan Heights will remain in our hands for all eternity." What alternative is he leaving Assad? Every prime minister until now understood that a peace agreement with Syria is a strategic asset. Therefore Rabin, Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu conducted secret and indirect negotiations with the Syrian president - which did not ripen into an agreement. When Barak presented his plan for a withdrawal from the Golan in return for peace to the top echelon of the Israel Defense Forces, Gabi Ashkenazi, who was GOC Northern Command at that time and is now the director general of the Defense Ministry, said that he would help him market the plan to the public.

Israel's most dangerous enemy is Iran, which aspires to achieve nuclear capability. Syria has an alliance with Iran. Cutting it off is a definite Israeli interest. Let us not forget that Syria is ruled by a secular (Alawite) regime that is fighting the Muslim Brotherhood. From our perspective, an Islamic fundamentalist takeover of the Arab world is a possibility that is far worse than the entire Assad dynasty. Olmert is accusing Syria of supporting Palestinian terror and providing weapons to Hezbollah. The accusations are correct, but it is clear that one of the achievements of negotiations with Syria has to be a total cessation of support for terror. If we do nothing, the situation will only degenerate.

One day Assad could conclude that force is the only thing that Israel understands and the "quiet" Golan is liable to become a new terror arena. Syria has rockets that are targeted on every corner of Israel, including Dimona. The nuclear test that has just been made by North Korea stirs the imagination to even scarier scenarios. Therefore, Olmert is not entitled to listen to the reality imp's advice and concentrate only on his own political survival. He must at least respond to the Syrian challenge. This is crucial for us
----
*from the ha-aretz newspaper on october 12th 2006

is this the promised wind of change?

Wars, breaking news, blood, more blood, yet even more blood, tears, evil laughs, a voice from the darkness of hatred: we're fighting the devils, blood, more blood, tears, same voice again: we're fighting the ghosts, blood, blood, more blood..
Can’t find the devils, can't feel the ghosts. All I see is human blood, yet more blood, I’ve seen enough blood to serve the world for years if was wine, and hey..it's being cheaper!

perfect for students!

Islamic State of Syria?

Syria, Damascus, February the 4th 2006, dozens of Muslim extremists set fire to the Danish embassy during a demonstration against the publishing of some cartoons portraying the profit Muhammad in an offensive way.
Syria, Hama, February the 2nd 1982, the Syrian army set a comprehensive operation against the Muslim extremist group “Muslim brotherhood” which was planning a coup to take over the power by force.

Twenty-four years and two days separate the two events, and despite the fact that Syria is still ruled by the same party, the way of dealing with the Islamic tide has fundamentally changed.

When the late Hafiz Alassad came to power in 1970 his priority was to achieve a sort of political stability, he believed it is the key factor for economic and social prosperity. A major threat for his strategy was the growing power of the extremist Islamic group “the Muslim brotherhood”. The group belives in Islamism, employs Islam into politics, and try to make use of it as a mean to get to power, democratically when possible, or by force.

The Muslim brotherhood posed a double threat to the assad policies since he was aiming to build a secular state, as well as, maintaining the political stability (i.e., keeping the bath party in power).

At first, it was the task of various interior intelligence agencies to besiege the islamists, but at one point a military action was needed since the group has developed a military wing which started to execute terrorist attacks against civilian, governmental, and military targets. The action was lead by the Syrian special force units. they hit hard but it was necessary to rescue the country from getting back to the dark ages where religion would govern every single detail of every individual’s life as well as the economic, social, and political issues of the state at large.

Through the 80s and the 90s of the last century, a domesticated form of Islam was developed and has been encouraged by the government. The idea was to distance the Islam as a religion from being used in politics or directed against the government. This form of Islam was to be named “the moderate Islam” (please note that we are talking about Syria in mid eighties when the U.S and the world were not been introduced yet to the Islamism and the Islamophopia).

Starting by early 2000, there have been many signs indicating to the re-growth of the Islamic influence within the community, even though it has taken a more of a social form/cover this time. Moreover, It was obvious that the government did not feel like doing anything about this. Actually, at some points it seemed as if the government is in favour of this growth of the Islamic influence at the social levels, to an extent, it helped some Islamic personals, and in many cases, allowed them to represent the government views on different issues.

For me the idea was very clear, Syria has an overwhelming majority of Muslims, high percentage of this majority are conservatives. Those will be happy with any step taken by the government to get closer to them. The government recently had lots of problems internationally, especially in the relations with the United States of America. The general opinion in Syria on the street levels opposes the American policies towards Syria and the middle east, and in favour of the government official position. Therefore, the meeting between the government and the people of Syria is genuine at the moment.

The government is trying to reinforcing the relation with the people by tolerating the observed growth of the Islamic influence in the daily life of the people, at the same time trying to maintain a balance so it can give signals to those who it may concern, that the situation in Syria is not as smooth as they may think.

What worries me though, is that the government may loose control at some point and we all pay the price for allowing the re-growth of Islamism.
In physics we learnt about the critical balance and the stable one..I’m sure u all remember the knife standing vertically while you holding it from underneath…!

Memories

The human brain is made in such a complicated way. I’m not gonna talk science here, but I want to share some facts I’ve learnt about my own brain, well to be more specific the long term memory section of my brain I’d say. The section that deals with blurred scenes and stories I’ve lived ages ago.
My collective memory splits my life stream into phases, each of which is linked to, or coupled with an event (not particularly big or major), an image, a sound, or even an aroma (not the cafe shop in Damascus :P).
The way I recall phases of my life when exposed to certain situations reminds me of the famous Pavlov’s conditional response.
The funny thing is that, no matter how harsh some of those times “through which I’ve been” were, I still can’t see but the good side.

While,

The strange thing is that sometimes I spend (or is it waste) a long time and make a huge effort to, maybe, find and enjoy a song that is linked to a period of my life, and I get really happy when I find it. Yet after a while the excitement of finding the song and listening to it will eventually disappear, and the link with the old things will be damaged. Simply the song “the reminder” is not special anymore. Only at that point I think like : I wish I have not found it…I wish it was still there in the back of my mind linked to those lovely days.

P.S. in the clip: a video that may seem unrelated and stupid, but for those of you who used to watch the Syrian channel two in the late 80s it could mean a LOT.

Тающий снег /Ласковый май

A Far L'Amore Comincia Tu

foreigner in syria?

have you ever been to Syria? u donno what u r missing
Just before u jump into conclusions this article is not about promoting Syria as a tourist attraction. It's more about analysing some strange phenomenon widely spread among my people in Syria.
If you happened to be a foreigner visiting Damascus for a reason or another, you cant but notice the very funny way in which you r being approached by the locals.
In general Syrians are very friendly. Friendly to a point that you, the visitor, start wondering what is wrong with these people, and why do they act in such a way?
Damascus is the Syrian capital with a population of more than any city in the UK beside London. With its suburbs, Damascus extends over a very wide geographical area. Yet, you will never see a taxi driver with an A to Z map, ehem…actually, there is no such A to Z map for Damascus, but hey who needs it! for its people, Damascus seems to be too small, everyone seems to know all its districts, streets, alleys for some reason I cant explain.

Maybe for the reasons stated above, Damascus may seem like a village where you can spot a foreigner quite easily, especially when they look like one (blond hair, coloured eyes, u name it).

Now, if you r spotted as a foreigner, u have to, mentally, prepare yourself for the privilege!!. The over reaction of the locals in welcoming you " to souria" as if you were a VIP or someone who they know personally and have not seen for a long while.

People will start giving you free advices, volunteering to show you places, offerring help that you have not asked for at the first place. Everyone wants to socialise with you, from those who don't know but the word "welcome" supported with a stupid smile and funny arm waving in a traditional souq, to those very educated young lads u'd meet out on a street of a market cruising area, at some restaurant, or a café shop.

Strangely enough, people in my country think that it's a national duty of theirs to reflect a very good image about their homeland to any foreign individual they meet. Ahhh…especially if this individual is American or brit, a typical conversation would be literally as follow from the very first moment,

"Hey welcome to Syria, so where u form? U from the states? We really like you guys, plz don't believe what you hear about us in the U.S its the media, we just dislike your president but we have nothing against you..why don't you join us for some drink and we'll explain it all" !!!! they'll leave you speechless .

yep, apparently the Syrians believe in changing the typical image about the Arabs through building the individual links with every single tourist or visitor they may meet. I don't blame them, they feel its its unfair the way they r being represented to the "west" through the media, and they want to try whatever possible for them to change that, using whatever mean available.

Personally, I'm against this, and I see it as a weak point in the Syrian mentality rather than a way of delivering a msg.

It's cool to be warm and friendly to foreigners but only when you are as friendly and warm when dealing with your fellow citizens, and only as long as its not in such a stupid overreacted way.

me and the american bandana

I live somewhere in the north west of the united kingdom..and i have some british mates who happened to be into politics. and they always ask me questions about the situation in the middle east trying to understand it from a "local" point of view.
in general people here tend to ask me much about my country and how is it back there. sometime they seem to be genuinely interested in knowing these stuff. maybe the middle east issues are "stylish" just like drinking Magners over here these days hehe.
and since u dont know me yet i guess i'll have to admit that i love being asked all sorta questions as i like to play "mr know it all" so when u make that mistake and ask me about something make sure that u r seriously interested cuz i really explain much, to an extent that even an interested guy will get bored and regret the fact he asked at the fisrt place.
back to those mates of mine who r into politics. we had lots of chats about the situation in the middle east, the american involvement, and the american policy towards the region. my opinion was always very clear.
I have always believed that the americans will never understand the situation in the middle east, and will keep on making one mistake after another, as long as they are approaching the problems in such a naive way and trying to tackle the results rather than the causes (i will deffo explain what i mean by this at later times).
it was obvious for my mates that i am not very "pro american" untill they've recently seen me wearing the american flag as a head bandana!
ray? american bandana?..does not add up ...how come?
well its not a secret that the americans are not very popular generally in the UK..and this has to do with lots (again i may come across this in details in near future), so you would not expect a brit to use the american flag as a bandana...actually you would not expect anyone "but american" to wear that, let alone a Syrian guy who is not very fond of the american policy towards his country. that really rised a question for my mates...though the answer was very simple..
there were two reasons for me to wear that bandana,
firstly, i do oppose the american role in the middle east and i really disagree with their policy. YET, i have nothing but respect to the americans as a nation and to the american people and values!
my second reason is even more simple..i use the bandana cuz sometimes i run outta time and i cant shave my head b4 heading out!

تجار الوطن

لما يكونو جوا بيكونو راكبين سيارات عم تشتغل ععرق و دم السوريين او بيكون اهلون مدراء مؤسسات فيها عبيد سوريين او بيكونو قرايبين او رفقات ناس حراس كولاباتون سوريين...بيكبرو و بياكلو و بيشربو و بيصيفو و بيتعلمو و بيتثقفو و بيصيرو ع حساب هالشعب المعتر يلي عم يحرق حالو حطب ليحرك البلد لقدام..هدول نفسون بيتمنو هالشعب يزول لانو بس هن الناس ..الباقي بنظرون كلاب و نور و بيستكترو عليهون الجنسية لانو بحفلات الكوكتيل الاجتماعية ما بيناسبهون انو يكونو هنن و هالرعاع بيشتركو بالمواطنة..بيصدقو حالون انو هن احسن و بينسو انو هالرعاع هنن يلي وصللوهون و انو اذا الحمار بيموت بتوقف العربة.
هدول نفسون ذاتون لما بيطلعو لبرا و نتيجة علاقاتون مع المتنفذين بيصيرو ممثلين للاسف للبلد و بيصير اجا دور انو يستعملو اسم البلد برا متل ما استعملو البلد جواو بيصلو لمرحلة فعليا بيصدقو حالون انو هنن البلد و البلد هن...