ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

ارابيكا Kristen Gillespie

A R A B I C A ارابيكا

SIZING UP SYRIA

*Pan-Arab news website Elaph.com reports witnesses in Daraa as saying that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are part of the 5,000-strong troop contingent surrounding the southern Syrian city. There are also reports of "Hezbollah elements' in both Daraa and the northern city of Aleppo. The government, meanwhile, has imposed a media blackout across Syria, and journalists are relying on social-networking sites to pass on information from witnesses on the ground.

*The Facebook group "Revolution against Bashar al-Assad" posted an "urgent" message asking Syrians to contribute carpets and mats for the "large numbers of people at sit-ins."

*Singer Samih Shafiq performs a new song called "O, injustice" about the "martyrs' who were killed in Daraa. "They used live bullets against us," he sings, with pictures from protests in Daraa over the music. "This proves the crimes of the government," wrote one commenter.

EYEING EGYPT

*The BBC Arabic reports that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is under house arrest. His family is also living under house arrest somewhere in Egypt, the ruling military leadership said in a statement, denying reports that the Mubaraks had fled to Saudi Arabia.

*Egypt's military announced that Parliamentary elections will be held in September. Following the announcement, rumors started flying that the presidential elections would be postponed. Notice number 28 by the military leadership, posted on its Facebook page, says that presidential elections will not in fact be postponed.

LATEST ON LIBYA

Libyan rebels are slowing advancing on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, where AFP reports "they seem to face less resistance from Gaddafi's forces."

March 28, 2011

photo credit: illustir

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Geopolitics

United Kingdom

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

ارابيكا Kristen Gillespie

A R A B I C A ارابيكا

SIZING UP SYRIA

*The Facebook group "Revolution against Bashar al-Assad" posted an "urgent" message asking Syrians to contribute carpets and mats for the "large numbers of people at sit-ins."

EYEING EGYPT

LATEST ON LIBYA

Libyan rebels are slowing advancing on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, where AFP reports "they seem to face less resistance from Gaddafi's forces."

March 28, 2011

photo credit: illustir

WORLDCRUNCH

Premium stories from Worldcrunch's own network of multi-lingual journalists in over 30 countries.

WORLDCRUNCH

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Migrant Lives

Migration

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

David Peinado via Zuma Press

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.