Maysaloon - ميسلون

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:24:09 PDT

I need to write like I need to breathe...

Summer in Damascus

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:13:32 PDT

In times like this I think about the long, lazy afternoons. Of a breeze gently pushing past the curtains of the balcony as I lay dozing on a sofa in our cool living room. Outside, the streets are...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 26 May 2012 01:30:24 PDT

When did our streets and homes become a battlefield? At what point did we cross that boundary between normal life and abnormality? The streets of a country are already starting to look overgrown,...

El Tres de Mayo

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 26 May 2012 01:23:56 PDT

The men are always faceless, the angles in which they are painted sharp, angular. A sword hangs in motionless from the side of one of the soldiers, a latent violence that is ready to murder should...

Portrait of a Liar

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:39:46 PDT

"Let me tell you my friend, you do not...ahhh...how should I put this?" The tall, burly man, who was doing the talking had a handsome face, but there was a hardness in his eyes that did not diminish...

What Can the Average Syrian Do?

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:38:22 PDT

I really don't know what game the Syrian oppositions are playing at. After much initial fanfare and hullaballoo, they are still unable to organise themselves. I don't think Haitham Manaa or Burhan...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:37:10 PDT

I heard that Assad is warning countries that sow chaos in Syria that they will suffer. I can just imagine NATO, on hearing this news, convening an emergency meeting to discuss contingency plans...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:25:51 PDT

Ever since the fall of Bab Amr in Homs there seems to have been a lull in Syria. A regime unable to control the country and a revolution that won't go away. Then you have a Syrian opposition abroad...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:04:37 PDT

Pity the tyrant, because he will forever be trying to stamp out the weeds of truth. From the start he fights a losing battle, and hasn't even valour to aid him.

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:59:56 PDT

The word Nakba means calamity in Arabic, and today, of all days, many people will write many things about what they think of it, and whether it is something that we should remind ourselves of on a...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 12 May 2012 08:03:20 PDT

I'm not sure where to start with this spate of bombings that has struck Syria. On one level there is a regime that has no limit to the depths it will plunge to, and on the other hand there are is no...

The Kaff

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:35:09 PDT

I was told a story once. It was about what happens to disgraced generals when they are arrested by the secret police. First they are dragged to the interrogation centre. There, they stand them up in...

حالي حالي حال

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:59:33 PDT

I don't know who these guys are. A few years ago one particular song wouldn't leave my head and I searched on Youtube to find a version of it that I would like. I came across this clip of a bunch of...

Dead Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 06 May 2012 05:22:26 PDT

Soulless, dead eyes stare out of the screen unblinkingly. The man's suit is immaculate, and he is wearing glasses that sometimes, if the light shines at them in the right way reflect as shiny white...

The Degeneration of a Nation

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:57:17 PDT

Haven't you heard? There are elections to be held soon and democracy is in the air my friend! The dictator is not a dictator, he is a friendly young man who is struggling hard to force Syrians to be...

Dialogues

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:07:36 PDT

Writing on his blog, Qunfuz expresses so well what I have felt for months: But the written word, and in English – what use is it? To point out that the regime is barbaric, criminal and stupid?...

The Street Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:29:52 PDT

I walked down a busy market street with my kid-cousin. We were looking to buy something for him, though at this moment I cannot remember what. On one of the pavements, leaning against the wall and...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:04:47 PDT

I haven't been able to write properly for some time and this is mainly because I have far too much on my plate at the moment. Yes, I do have a life beyond this blog! I will be back soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:18:03 PDT

The philosophy of the Stoics is something that has fascinated me for almost ten years. If you haven't read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations then I suggest you do so. Another favourite of mine is the...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:43:56 PDT

I am pessimistic about their chances of success, but if the presence of UN monitors means the bloodshed will become less in Syria then I believe it is a good thing. On another note, somebody who...

Post Anti-Imperialism, and Post-Post-Colonialism

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:56:25 PDT

The excellent Robin Yassin-Kassab on sectarianism in Syria: The ugly history has to be understood now most urgently because the regime has instrumentalised sect so savagely since the uprising began....

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:12:56 PDT

If the murder of over ten thousand people by a tinpot dictator isn't enough to change somebody's politics, then I don't know what will.

"Clarifications"

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:12:41 PDT

I knew there was something wrong with this whole ceasefire business. The Syrian Foreign Ministry has announced that the regime will not withdraw its armed forces from Syrian cities until it has a...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:36:16 PDT

The flood of refugees continues: "The army is destroying buildings and bombing them 'til they turn to charcoal," Mohammed Khatib, a refugee who said he came from Kastanaz, a Syrian town of 20,000...

Freedom is Slavery...

noreply@blogger.com (Maysaloon) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:52:50 PDT

Sitting in a fluorescent lit room in one of the many nondescript government buildings that dot the city, a man stares at his computer screen and clicks on his list of bookmarks. First one, then...