Monday, December 10, 2007

From the department of the bleeding obvious:

"Arab culture does not flourish easily in the occupied territories. In Damascus, it is in full spate."

Posted by Maysaloon at 11:13 am

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9 comments:

Yazan said...

LOL :) great way to put it!

4:38 pm
Dania said...

young beef shawarma and chewing gum, those are his unreservedly happy memories in Damascus!
Impressive really...
cheers

8:14 pm
julius said...

That was an interesting take on Damascus. Here is another one, far more negative and pessimistic, but interesting nonetheless: http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/cat_syrian_journal.html
Wassim, I'm curious to know what you think of this.

7:15 am
Maysaloon said...

Hi Julius,
I read through this chaps article and it's ridiculous, like the blog version of "The Arab Mind". He thinks the questions he asks are intelligent, that he is the reasoned, logical westerner there to understand these kooky Arabs and reach out to them. He couches the framework of his discussion as an attempt at railing against dictatorship and tyranny - offering as an alternative, indirectly, surrender to an occupation. Of course he presents this as some logical and courageous choice which only a few seem intellectually capable of grasping. He seems thrilled when he finds someone who tells him that the West is too "soft" on these dictatorships and is sending the wrong message.

Condescending and malicious, hidden in the typical cloak of Westernised naiveity and an air of innocence. I don't think he's intelligent enough to realise how his narrative is distorting the unwary readers perception, it is probably how he genuinely sees things. I could be wrong, but the thought amused me, these Syrians he mocks were probably more amused with his attempts at being *smart-dumb* with them. In Arabic we would say, yijdiba.

He should have just stuck to reviewing the food, no amount of bias would have affected his article then :)

10:25 am
annie said...

I read the guy's blog at
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/cat_syrian_journal.html
the whole thing. He started with a biased view of Syria. His narration is totally unsympathetic and judgmental. No wonder his blog stands the way it is.
Nevertheless, it makes for interesting reading.
I know I have a tendency to see everything in Syria - or nearly - thru the rosy glasses of love.
But what's his name had grey glasses and got what he was looking thru.

6:09 pm
Maysaloon said...

Hi Annie,
Welcome to the discussion and to Maysaloon!

9:43 am
annie said...

I am taking advantage of my absence from Syria to read and comment on the "forbidden" sites.
A bummer, that blockstop

10:30 am
Lirun said...

i am fascinated.. but how this culture "in full spate" produces the well informed individuals who believe that:

"anti-Semitism was a Zionist construct and that a prominent Jewish family bankrolled the Holocaust. "

really gives you something to aspire to doesnt it.. hahah

10:18 pm
annie said...

Lirun, I would not take as gospel what someone told the visitor at the back of a microbus.
People in your country say asinine things about Syrians all the time.
That Zionists were served by antijewish persecution is true.
That Rotschild bankrolled the holocaust, I never heard anyone say this in Syria.

5:44 am

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