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الآن . . . القسم العربي بحلة جديدة
Jadaliyya Launches Photography Page (click here!)
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In the Suburbs of Damascus
The normal pace of everyday life may surprise those who venture to visit Damascus these days. From the city center with its vibrant markets, the idea that observers from the Arab League are visiting the city to investigate serious human rights abuses seems almost unreal. Yet, something has changed. In cafés and taxis ... Read More »
Turkey and Syria: A Breakup Bound to Happen
While Syria and Turkey have called it quits for now, a possible regime change in Syria could bring them even closer together. The sultans must be green with envy. At no time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire have Turks held such sway over the Middle East. In the context of Arab uprisings, Turkey has been able to ... Read More »
استعد.. استرح
في مدرسة "دار السلام" وسط ساحة النجمة، قلب العاصمة دمشق، أمضيت كل فترة دراستي. من عمر الرابعة وحتى الثامنة عشر. كانت واحدة من أفضل المدارس الخاصة. طلابها ينتمون إلى عائلات ميسورة. تجار، مسؤولون، وما كان يسمى آنذاك بـ "الطبقة الوسطى". في المدرسة ذاتها، درست إبنة خالتي التي تكبرني عشرين عاماً. ... Read More »
Four Poems by Hussein Habasch
[Hussein Habasch (b. 1970) is a Kurdish poet from Syria. He writes in Kurdish and Arabic. He has published four collections of poetry. He lives in Germany] Four Poems Hussein Habasch In Praise of my Father My father, his trousers flowing His shirt adorned with the ... Read More »
مقابلة مع هيثم مناع
يرفض هيثم مناع ان يوضع الشعب السوري في حال يكون فيها «مجبراً على الاختيار بين الكوليرا والطاعون». القيادي في «هيئة التنسيق الوطنية السورية» يقول في مقابلة لـ«الأخبار» اللبنانية من القاهرة «بعد كل التضحيات لن نتراجع الآن». «جدلية» تعيد نشر المقابلة التي أجرتها سرين اسير. ■ يرفض الاتفاق الموقّع مع المجلس الوطني ... Read More »
The Case Against Military Intervention in Syria
Looking back at 2011, the effect of the Arab Spring is still lingering. People have risen in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria, initiating a worldwide quest for political rights and social justice. Once characterized as politically and economically stagnant by neo-Orientalists, the Arab world set the ... Read More »
A Syrian Activist and Filmmaker in Hiding: Interview with Democracy Now!
Syrian troops continue to fire on protesters despite a visit by Arab League monitors to assess the Assad regime’s compliance with a plan to resolve the country’s political crisis. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the nine-month-long uprising. We’re joined from Damascus by Bassel, a Syrian activist and ... Read More »
Outside the Walls
Out of all the pieces of me, those little bricks that build what we call our identity, being from Aleppo is the one I can never change. Although I no longer live in the ancient northern Syrian city, Aleppo is the place I call home. Growing up, being from Aleppo was a source of extreme pride. As my father never ceases ... Read More »
The Syrian Revolution and the Question of Militarization
[Translated from the Arabic by Jeff Regger] Syrian activists and intellectuals have recently been defending the non-violent character of the revolution in the face of calls for armed struggle against the Assad regime. Nine months after the first protests and sit-ins erupted in Syria, more than 5,000 have been killed, ... Read More »
خواطر في الربيع السوري: من العبث إلى الرجاء
هو شخص ممزق مسكين، تطرده الشرطية فيشعل النار في جسده! هو حالة من فيض اليأس في وجود من اللامعنى. هو البوعزيزي كظاهرة عبثية وجدت في العدم خلاصاً! لكن، لم يتسنَ لهذا الذي أشعل النار في جسده يائساً أن يرى كيف أحرقنا بلهيبه، وكيف امتدت ألسنة نيرانه غرباً وشرقاً لتصل إلى سوريا. هذا الذي كان في ذاته حالة من فقدان المعنى، ... Read More »
Patriotism, Democracy, and Revolution in Syria and Beyond: An Interview with Tha'ir Deeb
Congratulations to the Syrian writer and translator Tha’ir Deeb. What is currently happening in Syria right now was a dream of his that landed him in jail back in 1987, which led to his being tortured and having his toes hacked off. The following is how he described the change for which he has “dedicated his life and ... Read More »
2011, A Memory From Lebanon
When the revolutions began in March of 2011, I was envious. It is not easy to admit this. Back then, before the revolutions turned bloody, before Libya and Bahrain and Syria and before the continuation of a military state in Egypt, the possibilities seemed contagious. But even then, while in the fever of January, ... Read More »
A New Phase? Syria Roundup [Updated]
[This post, originally started earlier this week, will be updated as matters develop after today's bombing. Last Update: 4:00 PM, Washington DC time] Two car bombings rocked the greater city of Damascus this morning, targeting two security services branches--a first occurrence on such scale since the 1980s. The ... Read More »
الدين/الأخلاق، سوريا/المقاومة : أين ”اليسار“ من سوريا؟
محادثة بين اصدقاء. . . وليست بالضرورة للجميع. في مقال كتبته قبل ثلاثة أشهر، انتقدت قسماً من اليسار الذى واصل دعمه للنظام السوري وقمعه الوحشي للمتظاهرين على أساس سجل النظام في المقاومة ومعاداة الامبريالية، سواءً كان هذا السجل مبالغاً فيه أم لا. منذ ذلك الحين، إتسّعت الانتفاضة في سوريا ... Read More »
من التخلف إلى الإستبداد
منذ عشرة أشهر وحين بدأت الشرارة الشبابية في سوريا، أبدى مجموع من الشباب والمواطنين والمراقبين دهشتهم مما بدأ يبرز، خصوصاً في العاصمة. وكان آخرون في بلدان عربية قد عاشوا المأساة البطولية، التي قدمها الشاب "بوعزيزي" في تونس. وكان سؤال كبير يطرح نفسه في الرأي العام العربي، بعد هذا الحادث: ما هو الاستثنائي ... Read More »
Palestinian Bloggers and Activists' Statement in Solidarity with Razan Ghazzawi
[The following statement was issued on 14 December 2011 by various Palestinian bloggers and activists in support of Razan Ghazzawi, a Syrian activist that was recently detained by the Syrian security forces and sentenced to fifteen years.] We, a group of Palestinian bloggers and activists raise our voices loud and ... Read More »
The Cell of Survival: Bara Sarraj
[This is the third part of Amal Hanano's series, Portraits of a People.] In the field of evolutionary immunology, “it is important to recognize that every organism living today has an immune system that has evolved to be absolutely capable of protecting it from most forms of harm; those organisms that did not ... Read More »
بدرخان علي: دور اليسار ومستقبله مرهون بالكفاح من أجل الكرامة والعدالة والمساواة
[أسئلة: فواز فرحان- عن موقع الحوار المتمدن] 1ــ هل كانت مشاركة القوى اليسارية والنقابات العمالية والاتحادات الجماهيرية مؤثرة في هذهِ الثورات؟ و إلى أي مدى؟ في الواقع اختلفت المشاركة هذه بحسب البلدان، أي بحسب المجال السياسيّ و طبيعة النظام والسلطة والقوى الاجتماعيّة والسياسيّة؛ ففي تونس كان هناك دور معروف لبعض ... Read More »
رزان مرت من هنا
معطف الممانعة الاحمر له أناقته الخاصة، فهو يحمي من التغيير ويدفئ القلوب الخائفة والمرعوبة من إسرائيل، فتسكّنها وتهدئ من روعها. معطف الممانعة يعطيك قوى خاصة، فتستطيع التنظير على الثورة السورية لأيام متواصلة، حتى ولم تكن سوريّاً، ولم تعش هناك ولم تُذل هناك، ولم تقهر هناك. معطف الممانعة يعطيك ... Read More »
BBC Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Bassam Haddad on Asad's ABC Interview
Too much was made of today's ABC Interview with the Syrian President Bashar Asad today, at least in the so-called "West," as compared with the Middle East. Notably, this was the first time in a long while that Bashar spoke publicly, and certainly the first time he appeared on an American network. In this BBC ... Read More »
Barbara Walters' ABC Interview With President Bashar Asad
What ABC interview? There was no interview. [Listen to a brief commentary on BBC by the author] Read More »
American Empire and the Good Life: Hypocrisy and Fantasy at Home and Abroad
On television, we watch attractive lovers drinking red wine in a lush New Zealand vineyard. Cut. Syrian soldiers drag a body down the street. Incongruous images like these aren’t just the stuff of late-night television viewing; equally discordant scenes, "links," flash up on computer screens where many ... Read More »
Quiet Crossings, Kinship, and Intimacy in Lebanon and Northeast Syria
George Awde, Solo Show at the Korn Gallery, Curated by Rebecca Soderholm, September 7 – October 14 George Awde’s first US solo exhibition offered an arresting and intimate look at the production of masculinity and kinship at the interstices between Syria and Lebanon. Awde, an American-born artist of Lebanese descent, ... Read More »
The Plot Thickens: Ghalyoun's “Ill-Conceived” Statements in the WSJ Interview
[For the text of the interview that the Wall Street Journal conducted with the head of the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalyoun, click here] Leaving the problematic statements about Iran and Hizballah aside, in whose interest is it for the head of the Syrian National Council (SNC) to talk about how the ... Read More »
A Syrian President's Daughter: Hana Choucri Al-Kouatly
[This is the second part of Amal Hanano's series, Portraits of a People.] In our dictator and monarch infested region, we have become accustomed to seeing the privileged children of power, the offsprings of presidents, kings, ministers, and mas’uleen, acting as if they owned the land and the people. A few weeks ago, ... Read More »
Religion/Morality, Syria/Resistance: For Syria, What is "Left?" (Part 2 of 3)
. . . a conversation among friends . . . and not necessarily for everyone. Exactly three months ago (see Part 1 here), I critiqued part of the left that continued to support the Syrian regime’s brutal repression of protests based on the latter’s anti-imperialist and resistance credentials, whether or not such ... Read More »
Suriye'deki Ayaklanmanin Dinamikleri
SURİYE’DEKI AYAKLANMANIN DİNAMİKLERİ Suriye’deki olaylarla ilgilenen çoğu insan, ülkenin aşırı istikrarlı olduğuna inanmaktaydı. Rejim destekli medyanın, Suriye’nin dünyadaki en güvenli ve istikrarlı olduğu savını düzenli olarak tekrarlaması, bu düşünceyi besleyen bir faktördü. Hal bu ki; bu istikrar yalnızca ... Read More »
"Arab League and United States Not Fit to Intervene in Syria": Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Bassam Haddad
As regional and international pressure mounts on Syria, the domestic scene seems to be heading towards civil war. No sooner than the Arab League sanctions on Syria were announced recently, did the camps that support or oppose the status quo there entrench themselves further in their position, leaving little room for ... Read More »
Who is Conspiring Against Syria?
After the breakdown of the rhetoric of a conspiracy of Salafis and armed gangs, the Syrian regime has resorted to a rhetoric of colonial conspiracy. This is especially so after the recent resolution by the Arab League [to suspend Syria’s membership]. This rhetoric of colonial conspiracy has traction with some of the ... Read More »
"Tattoo" by Muhammad Al-Maghut
[Muhammad Al-Maghut (1934-2006), was a Syrian poet, playwright, and journalist. He is one of the pioneers of the Arabic prose poem.] Tattoo Muhammad Al-Maghut Now At the third hour of the twentieth century Where nothing separates the corpses from pedestrians’ shoes except asphalt I will lie ... Read More »
Syrian Population Regression
Population: ~ 22.5 Million
2011: 5,800+ (killed)
2012: 60,000+ (killed) and 500,000+ (external refugees)
2013: 70,000+ (killed) and 1,000,000+ (external refugees)
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Syria Map and Stats
Population: 22,517,750
GDP: $107.4 billion
Unemployment: 8.3%; Youth Employment (ages 15-24): 19.1%
Internet Users: 4.469 million
Exchange Rate: ~ 98.00 Syrian pounds per US dollar
GDP Growth Rate: 3.2%
Military Expenditures: 5.9% of GDP (World Rank: 10)
Health Expenditures: 2.9% of GDP (World Rank: 180)
Population Growth Rate: 0.913%
Age Structure: 0-14 years: 35.2%; 15-64 years: 61%; 65 years and over: 3.8%
Literacy: 79.6%
Religious Demographics: Sunni Muslim 74%; other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%; Christian (various denominations) 10%
Ethnic Demographics: Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
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