A R A B I C A ارابيكا

FRIDAY IN SYRIA
*Syrian activists told news organizations that at least 20 people were shot dead around the country during another bloody Friday of protests. Here is video reportedly of a Damascus protest on Friday in which many of the participants cover their faces and heads so as not to be identified and targeted by the intelligence services.

*Thousands of people gathered in the conservative city of Hama, waving Syrian flags and even climbing to the top of the clock tower in the middle of town.

*With more than 200,000 members, the Syrian Revolution facebook group has become the online clearing house for relevant information about what is happening inside Syria. Administrators posted dozens of video clips from Friday alone, a sign that despite internet cuts and a serious security crackdown across Syria, a network of people inside the country are finding ways to get the videos to the outside world.

*A small hint is offered in this account by Arabic-speaking journalist Khalid Sid Mohand, who spent 25 days in a Syrian prison. Mohand writes: "That evening, a new prisoner captures everyone's attention because he has no cell of his own. He is forced to sit, his eyes blindfolded. For three days, interrogators and torturers attempt to break him down, to no avail. Eventually I learn that he was arrested after he was found carrying CDs containing what the regime considers subversive information. He comes from northern Syria, and he has probably come to Damascus to pass the information to one of the cyber-militant groups that act as a link between human rights associations and foreign media, on one side, and protesters in small villages and towns on the other."

*The Syrian Revolution posted a photo album from Friday, including banners hung on public buildings in Hama denouncing Assad and stating: "the people want the regime to fall."

*The "We are all Hamza al-Khatib" facebook group reported that the Idlib hospital in north Syria was ordered by the government to refuse treatment to any wounded citizens from Jisr al-Shughour.

*This cartoon of a bloody President Assad uses an Arabic pun for the words "Syrian" and "sorry": "I'm Soory Arabic for Syrian but not sorry."

*Tweeted under the hashtag #F---YouAssad is this video of Syrian soldiers beating an old man. Comments include a range of curses against the individual perpetrators and the Syrian regime.

PAN-ARAB MOCKERY
*A mock-up of a video game in Arabic posted on YouTube features protesters knocking out various Arab leaders.

June 10, 2011

photo credit: illustir