Author Archives: Mustapha

Press Pass

Posted on by Mustapha

I want to sincerely thank the people at Press Pass for sponsoring and supporting Beirut Spring this month. I get especially excited when a sponsor is a service I actually find very useful.

Press Pass is based in Dubai. It is an open live directory of journalists and media professionals organized by the outlets they work for and the beats and regions they cover. They track what journalists on Twitter are sharing, what they’re reading, how they rank compared to others, the topics they care about, who gets their attention..etc.

I strongly encourage you to check them out and learn more about the service and how you can use it. Also, don’t forget to follow them on twitter: @presspassme

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The Lebanonization Of the SNC?

Posted on by Mustapha

Hanin Ghaddar:

The Syrian National Council is suffering from March 14 syndrome. The obsession with power and media attention ruined their ability to stand up for the people, who are the main reason the revolution still has momentum. Exactly like March 14, the SNC still cannot agree on what kind of state they want after Assad leaves power.

Although I see her point, I’m not sure this is a fair characterization of what ails March 14 and the SNC. These parties don’t have a vision problem: They both envision a democratic country with a level playing field where one party cannot impose its will on the other with weapons and physical violence. The problems they’re facing are execution and the temptations of vanity and power.

Also, it is unfair to compare March 14 to the SNC. When there was an big, obvious injustice committed against the Lebanese (assassination of a prime Minister), the people united and got together in the form of March 14 and faced the threat. When the injustice became more subtle and less visible (Hezbollah’s long-term threat to the Lebanese state), the unity gave way to politics as usual. It is unforgivable that the SNC is behaving now –as the Syrian people is being bombed to smithereens– like March 14 are behaving after a long bout of fatigue and politics-as-usual.

Anthony Shadid’s Longing For His Lebanese Roots

Posted on by Mustapha

This portrait (Arabic) by Hussain Abdul Hussain of Anthony Shadid paints him as a figure many of us are familiar with: The man with Lebanese roots who had a nostalgia for an ideal of Lebanon, an ideal that never really existed, who was willing to give up everything to return “home” and build a new life there.

Except Shadid died early and never got to finish the script that is typically associated with those people. He never got a chance to actually move to Lebanon and settle down there, only to discover years later that he had made a terrible mistake.

Bonus: The “end of an era”, why Anthony Shadid’s reporting mattered so much for America’s understanding of Arabs.

Free Syrian Army… I salute you [Guest Post]

Posted on by Mustapha

Guest contributor Haytham Elkhoja wants to salute the Free Syrian Army (FSA). He explains why in this post.

—–

So I’m following up closely what’s happening in Syria and I can’t stop asking my self how come Syria never used that eminent army of theirs to free the occupied territory in the Golan heights.
Hezbollah’s Nasrallah wants to fool his followers that he’s supporting Syria’s regime because it is fiercely anti-Israeli and pro-resistance … but is it really?

Here are the facts:

  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against Hezbollah than it ever did against Israel
  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against the Lebanese army than it ever did against Israel
  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against the Lebanese war militias than it ever did against Israel
  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against the Palestinian camps than it ever did against Israel
  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against its own people in 1982 than it ever did against Israel
  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against Michel Aoun’s army than it ever did against Israel
  • Syria’s army carried out more military actions against its own people in 2011-2012 than it ever did against Israel

Moreover, Syria’s army carried out more military actions against Lebanese politicians (using their secret service or moukhabarat) than it ever did against Israeli diplomats and politicians
The last time Syria fired a bullet in the Golan was during the Six-Day war in 1967… and what a failure that was.

I was watching a heated discussion last time on Al Jazeera when a spokesman to the Free Syrian Army gave me the goosebumps when he passionately yelled:

“If the Syrian army would have used all that power used in Homs, they would have liberated the Golan height a long time ago” (My translation doesn’t do justice to the authenticity and sincerity of his voice.
The full show can be viewed here. )

To the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian people… I salute you.

Anthony Shadid is Dead

Posted on by Mustapha

My favorite reporter has passed away while working in Syria

Fluent in Arabic, with a gifted eye for detail and contextual writing, Mr. Shadid captured dimensions of life in the Middle East that many others failed to see. Those talents won him a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2004 for his coverage of the American invasion of Iraq and the occupation that followed, and a second Pulitzer in 2010, also for his Iraq reporting, both of them for The Washington Post. He also was a finalist in 2007 for his coverage of Lebanon, and has been nominated by The Times for his coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings that have transfixed the Middle East for the past year.

The phrase “by Anthony Shadid” always guaranteed that I clicked a link on Facebook or Twitter. I’m looking forward to the release of his upcoming memoir on his Lebanese roots.

As an aside, Arab media is reporting the news using the phrasing: “New York Times Reporter Anthony Shadid Killed in Syria”. This is definitely (intentionally?) misleading. He died of illness.

Syrian Activists Using Carrier Pigeons to Communicate?

Posted on by Mustapha

Very nice story (French) to share. But I looked at the YouTube video and something felt wrong. I finally realized what it is: It’s really weird to use a cellphone camera to take a video of a message being sent by a carrier pigeon, and then upload that video to YouTube. Why not send the message using a cellphone in the first place?

I’m not saying it’s fake, I’m just wondering. Perhaps the receivers don’t have internet access because they’re being bombarded? But would a pigeon fly into an area that is being shelled?