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December 2013

Wound

December 30, 2013 § Leave a Comment

The story of a civil activist, secretly working as a nurse in a field hospital. Eight and a half intense minutes of strength and weakness, hope and despair, and conflicted emotions that Syrian activists experience, as they fight against dictatorship.

The activist, who used to work in an Intensive Care Unit in one of the most important hospitals in the Syrian capital Damascus, left her job and devoted her time to save those injured in demonstrations against the regime. As soon as her phone rings, she quickly carries a bag stuffed with medical supplies and medicines, and rushes towards another crime scene, passing through regime barriers with unstoppable courage, where she gets detained.

Wound is the tale of a woman who is aware of the brutality of the regime, but simultaneously knows quite well that Syrians can not stop fighting until they get hold of their freedom, because to her “this regime has consumed Syrians’ every breath”. In the short film you can see her crying while stitching wounds amid the shelling and destruction. Still, she refuses to give up saying “for the sake of a friend of mine who was killed yesterday, I must go on. For the sake of a friend who got detained I can’t lose hope.”

Wound was produced by Bidayat corporation and directed by Maher Qadlo, who dedicated his work to his friend: the field nurse who risked her own life to save others, in the hope of turning the wounds of many, into a long-awaited freedom.

source

15 Palestinians dead from hunger in Syria camp: UNRWA

A Palestinian boy, who had been living at Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, looks out of a bus window, as the bus arrives at the Lebanese-Syrian border, in al-Masnaa December 18, 2012. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

A Palestinian boy, who had been living at Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, looks out of a bus window, as the bus arrives at the Lebanese-Syrian border, in al-Masnaa December 18, 2012. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

BEIRUT: At least 15 Palestinians have died of hunger since September in a besieged refugee camp in the Syrian capital Damascus, the UN  agency  for Palestinian refugees told AFP  on Monday.

“Reports have come in over the weekend that at least five Palestinian refugees in the besieged refugee camp of Yarmuk in Damascus  have died because of malnutrition, bringing the total number of reported cases to 15,”  UN Relief and Works Agency  spokesman Chris Gunness  told AFP.

He warned of a deteriorating situation in the camp, where some 20,000 Palestinians are trapped, with limited food and medical supplies.

“Since September 2013 we have been unable to enter the area to deliver desperately needed relief supplies,” Gunness said.

“The continued presence of armed groups that entered the area at the end of 2012 and its closure by government forces have thwarted all our humanitarian efforts.”

Most of the Yarmuk camp in southern  Damascus is under the control of the armed opposition, and it has been under a siege by troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad for around a year.

The blockade has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, and the exodus of tens of thousands of the camp’s 170,000 residents.

On Friday, the Syrian Observatory   for Human Rights NGO reported five people in the camp had died of malnutrition, including an elderly man, a disabled man and a woman.

UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi  addressed the situation earlier this month, warning that conditions in Yarmuk had “progressively deteriorated”.

“If this situation is not addressed urgently, it may be too late to save the lives of thousands of people including children,” he warned.

Gunness said UNRWA was calling “all parties to immediately heed their legal obligations and facilitate the urgent provision of humanitarian assistance to Yarmuk and other Palestinian refugee camps.”

Syria   is officially home to nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees, around half of whom have been displaced by the deadly conflict that broke out in March 2011, becoming refugees for a second time.

More than 126,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict.

On modern servitude

Inside Assad’s Torture Chambers – Syria

via Pulse

Answering Karl reMarks: The Case Against Anti-Interventionism

 Karl reMarks: The Case Against Anti-Interventionism

Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:35 AM PST

Karl reMarks has written an essay describing the Arab uprising as a missed opportunity for self determination. I agree with him that there is a serious lack of historical context and political understanding when it comes to analysing and understanding the Arab spring, but I think his conclusions are, on the one hand, premature when it comes to judging some aspects of this spring a failure, and on the other, inaccurate when we come to the question of interventionism and the role played by outside countries in these national struggles. It is premature to say that any of these struggles has “failed” any more than it would be to proclaim that one has succeeded. After all, what does a “successful” revolution look like?
This is not a trivial question, but a very serious one. There is today a constant barrage of academics and journalists who talk about revolutions as if they were some kind of a project to be completed with tangible milestones and clear targets. And yet, if we look at the history of revolutions, we find them to be just as messy and chaotic as what we are seeing in the Arab world. Not only that, but almost all of these revolutions unleashed consequences and actors that none could have foreseen before they commenced. Karl argues that the Arab revolutions represented a real opportunity for change, albeit one that has now been missed. He pins this failure on a twin dynamic: The failure of the domestic political opposition to seize this opportunity; and the intervention of outside powers. And yet we are reading his words only three years after the first protests began in Tunisia. If a commentator were to have written similar arguments three years after the Russian, French, or even English, revolutions would that not also have been considered equally premature?
None of these revolutions could have been considered a “success” three years after their eruption, nor were they free of outside intervention. Even during the American revolution, the Founding Fathers did not think it beneath their principles to accept assistance from France in their struggle against King George III. And none of these revolutions lacked failed political leaderships and lost opportunities. So why are we constantly expecting so much from the Arab revolutions? And why is the concept of national sovereignty only invoked when a foreign country is about to intervene but not when it comes to tyrants usurping the state and subverting the laws of the land. Is the Assad regime’s bastardization of Syrian law and his emasculation of Parliament no less an infringement on Syrian national sovereignty? And is that not worthy of the outrage of foreign and domestic commentators alike?
Furthermore, and to use the “language of humanitarianism” as Karl described it, is it not just as legitimate to draw parallels between Hitler’s hijacking of Germany in the thirties and the Assad regime’s hollowing out of the Syrian state today? And can we not see in the regime’s systematic brutalization of Syria’s Sunni hinterland the same sectarian ferocity of a Milosevic? I disagree strongly with Karl in that the Holocaust and Bosnia are not tired cliches that have been misused but important lessons from the past that tell us what happens when “The State” goes insane. It is only when we move beyond this triviality that we can see national sovereignty for what it is, a privilege and not a right, and it is based upon these valuable lessons that doctrines such as the Responsibility to Protect have arisen.
Should we dismiss this doctrine simply because it has been cynically used by some countries for their own interests? Certainly not. The fact that the intervention in Libya or in Sudan was triggered by Western interests and not a genuine humanitarian concern should not detract from the very real crisis faced by the Libyans and Sudanese, and continues to be faced by Syrians today. Karl refers to the Western intervention as somehow denying a national Libyan expression from coming into its own as it fought Gaddafi’s brigades, but it is difficult to see how anything could have grown under the withering brutality of that tyrant. In the early days of the Libyan revolution, as would be echoed in the Syrian town of Deraa, the regime used anti-aircraft guns to fire rounds the size of Coca-Cola bottles at unarmed protesters. That a national opposition with principles that Karl can approve of could emerge under such difficult conditions is extremely doubtful. The sad fact is that the modern means at the disposal of “states” makes it all but impossible for the kind of national resistance movement we saw in Algeria and it would be simply impossible for such movements to ever come into existence through their own efforts. If such an endeavor was ever attempted seriously today the consequences on the civilian population would be far greater than what we are seeing in Syria or what we ever saw in Libya.
Viewed in this light, the “competition to gain victim status” as Karl so derisively puts it, is nothing more than the sheer desperation of people who are looking directly into the abyss. In such a situation who could be blamed for wanting any other country to come and assist, and at any cost? And who are we to insist that they die for the principles of self determination? I refer here to the example of a Syrian woman reported to have crossed the borders into the occupied Golan Heights to give birth in an Israeli hospital. Was she in contravention to the principles of self determination that would make a revolution legitimate and successful? Are we to tell her that it would be far better to risk her and her child’s life by giving birth in a ditch somewhere whilst under shelling? Have we become so crass? I should hope not, and I will not be the one to rebuke her brave decision or even question her judgment.
To choose inaction against regimes that fire rounds the size of Coca Cola bottles at unarmed protesters and drop barrel bombs on their own citizens is to turn a blind eye to it under the pretext of respecting a non-existent national sovereignty. The reality that has never changed is that we do live in a world where states meddle in the affairs of other countries, and where non-state actors will constantly try to subvert law and exist in conditions of lawlessness. Karl’s description of al Qaeda as the Syrian opposition’s scapegoat for its own failures is at best disingenuous. We should not dismiss the “vacuum theory” of extremist groups in Syria lightly, in the same way that we cannot blame the existence of al Qaeda in Iraq on the American invasion in 2003, regardless of its legality. Can we really claim that it was only Western intervention which turned Iraq into a “disaster” ignore over thirty years of Saddam’s rule that scourged an entire generation of Iraqis and Iranians in a needless ten year war? That states cynically play games with each other is not news, nor is it only something that Western governments do. In Vietnam, Chinese support was essential to the North Vietnamese. The “catastrophic” intervention in Afghanistan, as Karl puts it, was nowhere near as controversial in the wake of the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001. Missing in this narrative is that the collapse of Afghanistan as a country was triggered by Soviet intervention, and that the rise of the Taleban after the Soviet withdrawal came about precisely because Western assistance was pulled back as a result of that withdrawal.
The world has moved on from the days of the United Fruit Company and Guatemala, and believe it or not it has also moved on from the Iraq invasion of 2003. There have been numerous foreign interventions in many countries that have been illegal, catastrophic and immoral, but there have also been interventions such as in Kosovo and Bosnia where many people are alive today as a result. And, to be fair, let us not forget the invasion of Cambodia that put an end to the butchery of the Khmer Rouge, a butchery that had no end in sight were it not for outside intervention, even if it was by China. It has not been Western foreign meddling which has escalated the war in Syria, but the Assad regime and its allies. Answering unarmed protesters with live ammunition and tanks in the streets represents a pretty significant escalation, in my opinion. And when we consider the paucity of Western aid to the rebels, especially in the early days when one could still speak of a nascent Free Syrian Army espousing a moderately secular vision of Syria, the idea that Western “meddling” has somehow provoked Iran and Hezbullah to escalate their support for the regime, as if such allies needed this pretext, detracts from the very real advances made by the Syrian rebel groups in the early days, advances that came about mostly because of their own ingenuity in stealing, bartering and buying the weapons that they needed to advance and hold ground. In effect it was the kind of self determination that Karl laments today and which was in fact crushed by the one-sided foreign assistance given to Assad. The only foolish meddling the West can be accused of has been in its amateurish diplomacy with Russia and Iran, rather than any kind of material support for the Syrian people.

Christmas Message 2013 from Palestine

and

A Christmas Message From Edward Snowden

Christmas in Saraqeb

December 24, 2013

Christmas in Saraqeb, Idlib provine, Syria. Happy Christmas everyone, and especially to Syrian Christians. May we all celebrate next year i freedom and peace.

source

ABU DHABI // They asked you to open your hearts and open your wallets – and your response was magnificent

.
Comment Helping Syrians will require a global response

ABU DHABI // They asked you to open your hearts and open your wallets – and your response was magnificent.

* Anwar Ahmad

A three-day fundraising telethon drive on Abu Dhabi TV ended on Saturday with more than Dh120 million raised to help thousands displaced by Syria’s civil war to survive a freezing winter in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.

There was a further boost when Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, ordered Dh15.5m worth of heavy equipment to be delivered to Jordan to clear away the heavy snow and ice that has been hampering the distribution of vital humanitarian aid.

The scale of the task confronting aid agencies was brought tragically home during Saturday’s telethon. As cash donations poured in, viewers learnt that their generosity had come too late for a two-year-old child in a camp in Jordan set up by the UAE.

“The killer snow storms led to the death of a child in the camp,” Ahmed Al Yamahi reported from the camp, which provides shelter for about 4,000 refugees.

Children, mothers and the elderly were crying and fighting for their survival amid severe weather conditions, Al Yamahi said.

Syed Mustafa, Syrian refugee affairs manager in Jordan, said: “There are 10,000 refugees in different parts of Jordan and they are going through tough times as the weather here is fatal.”

The telethon broadcast live footage of the living conditions of Syrian refugees, some of whom told of their suffering and fight for survival as winter storms battered their makeshift homes.

One refugee, Hazim Al Habiah, told Abu Dhabi TV: “We have lost everything. I don’t have home, work, food and nothing to lead a life. Everything has gone.

“Children are fighting the cold as temperatures drop below zero here. The situation here is very, very bad and further deteriorating.”

A woman, Syedah Sharifah, said: “I have five children and live here in the Emirati camp. My children demand different things to eat and wear and I satisfy them somehow.

“There are no proper things to support life for our children. We need food, medicines and clothing to protect ourselves from the cold.”

She thanked Sheikh Khalifa, the President and the people of the UAE for helping them and supplying food and medicines.

Emaa, a five-year-old girl in the refugee camp, said: “I feel cold during the night and my sister is not able to sleep due to cold and hunger.”

Another little girl, Rahaf, 6, said: “We need help and we don’t have access to food and water and life is very difficult here.”

Alaa, a boy of about 10, said, “I thank the Emirates for their help and thank the government of Jordan too.”

An elderly man from the camp said: “We don’t have food, water to drink and medicine. We need all kind of assistance. All thanks to the Emirates, as we are brothers, they are doing so much for us.”

To cope with the flood of donations, Abu Dhabi TV extended the telethon until 6pm, two hours after its scheduled close.

The funds have been raised as part of the Emirates Red Crescent’s “Our Hearts Are With the Syrian People” campaign, launched after a directive from the President, Sheikh Khalifa.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi donated Dh3m, National Investment Corporation and an anonymous donor gave Dh2m each, Abdur Rehman Al Awais Dh2m, Sharjah Islamic Bank Dh1m, Ahmed Siddique and Sons Dh1m, Saif bin Darwesh Company Dh1m, Dubai Charity Association Dh1m, Sheikh Mohammed bin Nasir Al Hajiri Dh1m, Sheikha Alya bint Khalifa Al Maktoum Dh1m, Fujairah Welfare Association Dh1m, Ali Khalfan Al Dhahiri and Sons Dh1m and Awqaf Dh1m.

Habib Al Sayegh, adviser on editorial affairs at the Sharjah publishers Dar Al Khaleej, said during the telethon: “About 15,000 doctors have left Syria since the crisis started two years back. So the country is in dire need of doctors as many people there are dying of cold due to harsh weather now.”

More than 2.3 million Syrians have been forced out of their homes since the civil war broke out on March 2011. About 800,000 refugees are in Lebanon, with 569,000 in Jordan, 553,000 in Turkey and 209,460 in Iraq.

About 5,000 people flee Syria every day.

Abu Dhabi TV is owned by Abu Dhabi Media, publishers of The National.

anwar@thenational.ae

■ UAE has clothing drive for Syrian refugees
■ Dh66 million raised for Syrian refugees
■ Dh18.1m raised in first day of Syrian refugee charity campaign
■ Friday sermon: Help the Syrian refugees

Topic

Charity
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed
Syria unrest

Donation timeline

First day (Thursday) Dh18.1 million

Second day (Friday) Dh66m

Third day (yesterday)

2.40pm more than Dh84m

3.30pm more than Dh85m

4.30pm more than Dh88m

5.27pm more than Dh90m

5.45pm more than Dh106m

Final more than Dh120m

* Anwar Ahmad

A three-day fundraising telethon drive on Abu Dhabi TV ended on Saturday with more than Dh120 million raised to help thousands displaced by Syria’s civil war to survive a freezing winter in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.

There was a further boost when Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, ordered Dh15.5m worth of heavy equipment to be delivered to Jordan to clear away the heavy snow and ice that has been hampering the distribution of vital humanitarian aid.

The scale of the task confronting aid agencies was brought tragically home during Saturday’s telethon. As cash donations poured in, viewers learnt that their generosity had come too late for a two-year-old child in a camp in Jordan set up by the UAE.

“The killer snow storms led to the death of a child in the camp,” Ahmed Al Yamahi reported from the camp, which provides shelter for about 4,000 refugees.

Children, mothers and the elderly were crying and fighting for their survival amid severe weather conditions, Al Yamahi said.

Syed Mustafa, Syrian refugee affairs manager in Jordan, said: “There are 10,000 refugees in different parts of Jordan and they are going through tough times as the weather here is fatal.”

The telethon broadcast live footage of the living conditions of Syrian refugees, some of whom told of their suffering and fight for survival as winter storms battered their makeshift homes.

One refugee, Hazim Al Habiah, told Abu Dhabi TV: “We have lost everything. I don’t have home, work, food and nothing to lead a life. Everything has gone.

“Children are fighting the cold as temperatures drop below zero here. The situation here is very, very bad and further deteriorating.”

A woman, Syedah Sharifah, said: “I have five children and live here in the Emirati camp. My children demand different things to eat and wear and I satisfy them somehow.

“There are no proper things to support life for our children. We need food, medicines and clothing to protect ourselves from the cold.”

She thanked Sheikh Khalifa, the President and the people of the UAE for helping them and supplying food and medicines.

Emaa, a five-year-old girl in the refugee camp, said: “I feel cold during the night and my sister is not able to sleep due to cold and hunger.”

Another little girl, Rahaf, 6, said: “We need help and we don’t have access to food and water and life is very difficult here.”

Alaa, a boy of about 10, said, “I thank the Emirates for their help and thank the government of Jordan too.”

An elderly man from the camp said: “We don’t have food, water to drink and medicine. We need all kind of assistance. All thanks to the Emirates, as we are brothers, they are doing so much for us.”

To cope with the flood of donations, Abu Dhabi TV extended the telethon until 6pm, two hours after its scheduled close.

The funds have been raised as part of the Emirates Red Crescent’s “Our Hearts Are With the Syrian People” campaign, launched after a directive from the President, Sheikh Khalifa.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi donated Dh3m, National Investment Corporation and an anonymous donor gave Dh2m each, Abdur Rehman Al Awais Dh2m, Sharjah Islamic Bank Dh1m, Ahmed Siddique and Sons Dh1m, Saif bin Darwesh Company Dh1m, Dubai Charity Association Dh1m, Sheikh Mohammed bin Nasir Al Hajiri Dh1m, Sheikha Alya bint Khalifa Al Maktoum Dh1m, Fujairah Welfare Association Dh1m, Ali Khalfan Al Dhahiri and Sons Dh1m and Awqaf Dh1m.

Habib Al Sayegh, adviser on editorial affairs at the Sharjah publishers Dar Al Khaleej, said during the telethon: “About 15,000 doctors have left Syria since the crisis started two years back. So the country is in dire need of doctors as many people there are dying of cold due to harsh weather now.”

More than 2.3 million Syrians have been forced out of their homes since the civil war broke out on March 2011. About 800,000 refugees are in Lebanon, with 569,000 in Jordan, 553,000 in Turkey and 209,460 in Iraq.

About 5,000 people flee Syria every day.

Abu Dhabi TV is owned by Abu Dhabi Media, publishers of The National.

anwar@thenational.ae

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/heritage/aid-appeal-for-syrian-refugees-on-abu-dhabi-tv-hits-dh120m?utm_source=Communicator&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=%5b%5bADMC_THENATIONAL_LT.ADMC_THENATIONAL_LT.LATEST_NEWS_SUBJECT%3a%3a%7b1%7d%3f%3fThe+National+Newsletter%5d%5d#ixzz2oH3EZjke
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source

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