It was a shock for me to see Syrians living in camps like this one in the picture, in Lebanon. The irony is that there are people in that camp who come from Yarmouk, which they also call “camp” but it`s not really a camp as we image it. It`s a lively area of Damascus, it`s a neighborhood plenty of shops, markets, mostly inhabited by Palestinian Syrians. Many of them had to leave Yarmouk when it was bombed by the regime. Apparently, they sent  a MIG airplane inside which destroyed buildings and killed many people. Many of those I met yesterday have lost friends or relatives during the bombing, so they have decided to leave immediately. Same stories from other families coming from different Syrian cities, such as Aleppo or Homs.

Now they live in these tents, sometimes ten people in one tent. A shared kitchen and bathrooms are outside. They do everything in these small spaces. And, I dont know how, but at some point they made coffee. All of a sudden, I smelled the beautiful smell of Turkish coffee that I used to drink every day in Syria. There were little cups and spoons, and sweets, too. The family smiled at me, offered coffee, said: “Thank God, we are alive. Eventually we will go back to our country, Syria”.

This is only just another example of the dignity of the Syrian people. I am humbled by people whose first thought is to offer you coffee and welcome you warmly even if they are obliged to live in such a small space, all together. I am humbled by their smiles and by the way they thank God to have preserved their lives, even if they have to live as refugees now.

We have failed the Syrian civil society. We fail them each time we focus our attention only on geo-strategical issues, or when we are obsessed about fears of seeing Islamists ruling a post-Assad Syria. We fail them each time we build scenarios for the future of this country instead of thinking about the present, about what is needed now by this society which is suffering so much.

Harasta is a suburb of Damascus` countryside. My dear friend Bassel Safadi, who has now been jailed for more than one year, used to live there. There is no such a thing named Harasta anymore. It has been completely destroyed.

Yet, that fridge is still standing. Like the Syrian people. Against all odds, left alone by Western and Arab governments, public opinion, media. They are still standing. It breaks my heart to see how people outside only care about what`s gonna happen in Syria after the fall of the Assads – whether this materializes the fear of having Islamists seizing power or other sorts of fears -, yet very few care about what`s happening in Syria NOW.

The fridge is still standing. But it`s not because of us.

(I thank so much my anonymous friend for having thought about me and sent this picture)

Domani alle 14. 30 alla Casa del Pane a Porta Venezia a Milano inauguriamo “Creative Syria”, una piccola finestra sulla creativita` siriana che si ispira alle precedenti esperienze fatte  con Culture in Defiance. Continuing traditions of satire, art, and the struggle for freedom in Syria promossa l`anno scorso dalla Prince Claus Fund di Amsterdam e che ho curato insieme a Malu Halasa, Aram Tahhan, Leen Zyiad , e Syria`s art of resistance, sempre curata da noi ed esposta fino al 12 maggio 2013 al Centre for Culture and Development di Copenhagen.

Creative Syria nasce dall’idea di raccontare la società civile siriana e il suo sforzo di resistenza creativa, che oggi viene oscurato, nel racconto dei mass media, da immagini di violenza e distruzione. Fin dal 15 Marzo 2011, inizio delle prime manifestazioni anti-governative in Siria, un’incredibile esplosione di creatività ha riempito le piazze virtuali di Internet e si è riversata nelle strade del paese, accompagnando le proteste in nome di libertà e dignità. Non solo giovani artisti, ma soprattutto semplici cittadini e utenti anonimi hanno voluto esprimere la loro idea di resistenza creativa alternativa alla violenza che riempiva le strade e le piazze siriane.

La mostra cerca di documentare questa creatività presentando un mix di lavori di artisti siriani noti ed emergenti, e opere di autori anonimi, user-generated e diffuse viralmente su Internet.

Il programma della mostra e degli eventi live e` disponibile qui.

Creative Syria e` stata realizzata grazie al sostegno di tutto il meraviglioso team del Festival del Cinema africano, d`Asia e d`America Latina, con cui abbiamo gia` collaborato in precedenti edizioni e che, con grande entusiamo e passione, ha trovato il modo di portare questo pezzetto di Siria creativa in Italia.

Qualche articolo gia` uscito su Creative Syria e` disponibile qui, qui e qui. 

Higgins does not speak Arabic and has never been in the Arab world or  “anywhere in the Middle East”, he says, “other than the Dubai airport”. Yet, he was able to build up a powerful list of resources, mostly YouTube channels, that document what`s happening in Syria. Starting as a “news junkie”, he has so far collected one of the biggest online libraries about the Syrian revolution and has also helped Human Rights Watch to find evidence of the use of cluster bombs in Syria. All of that, using YouTube and social media only.

Higgins says here:

“Sitting in my living room in England, it’s incredible to think that from anywhere in the world it’s possible to see the day-to-day struggles of the Syrian people and the scale of the violence they witness. What makes Syria so unusual is — despite the two years of conflict in the country, from street protests to civil war — the Internet has rarely been cut off. As a result, there has been a constant flow of information from the country through social media — with hundreds of thousands of Syrian YouTube videos, Tweets, and Facebook posts over the last two years. It’s an overwhelming amount of information, a maelstrom of data”.

This makes me think about Andy Carvin, the NPR new media specialist who has become  well known to the international and Arab crowd for having documented the Arab Spring without moving from Washington DC.

Despite I really admire folks like Andy and Eliot, I find really hard to embrace their theory of documenting something without never having been on the ground, without speaking the language, without understanding the culture. I have myself lived in Syria for years, I speak the language and know many things about the culture, but I find so hard to keep track of everything, verify all the accents in local dialects from different places in Syria, the geography, etc.

If we can document and verify things remotely, only using social media, like Andy and Eliot do, well then why spending so many years and hours and hours of hard study to understand a language, a culture?

I admire them, but remain skeptical.

And, the “sitting on your sofa and watching” thing made me think of this very sad cartoon which Syrians are widely sharing on Facebook these days…

On April 19th the little village of Kafranbel (also translitterated Kafr Nbel or Kafr Nbal), in Northen Syria, released this picture in solidarity with Boston hit by the marathon bombing. Since the beginning of the Syrian uprsing, Kafranbel has always been a creative hub for producing slogans, pictures and drawings strictly related to Syria and global events. Many of their colored protest posters can be found here and here.

(video from Kafranbel, 19-04-2013)

Today, this picture was widely shared on social networks. It`s a thank you message from Boston to Syria...

Recently, Youssef has made headlines worldwide for being accused of “insulting the president” (Morsi) in his show, but two days ago the case was dismissed by a Cairo court.

This episode n 20 of “El Bernameg” not only documents the solidarity that Youssef has received from journalists and activists worldwide.

Actually, the most interesting part is when the comedian mocks Qatar and its intervention in Egypt`s internal affairs — well, he also mentions how the tiny Gulf state is buying France, UK, Italy, etc–.

There is also a sketch featuring Youssef and two Qatari men who are supposed to be the correspondents for a new version of  “El Bernameg”, a version that should give more prominence to the Gulf state. But eventually Youssef discovers that the two Qataris have bought the entire TV show. When Youssef asks them “what about our audience?”, the two Qataris promptly answer “How much is it?”. “How much are your eyes, Bassem?”, they add.

The most hilarious part is probably the choir mocking Qatar and its “qawmiyya al-arabiyya” (Arab nationalism).

I dont usually like to refer to Memri which is a very questionable organization but, for those who don`t understand Arabic and are curious to learn what this choir is about, here is the English translation provided by the US based research center.

Bassem Youssef`s words towards the end of the show should be kept in mind. He reminds the audience that the real problem does not lie in the one who buys, but in the one who sells. It`s Egypt who is selling everything to Qatar, Qatar only buys what is on sale. A clear accusation to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood who are currently ruling the country.

But soon the situation changed and Al Jazeera started to cover Syria extensively. I remember very well those Fridays during which I would sit with friends in Damascus to watch the  Al Jazeera-exclusive live coverage of the demonstrations from places such as Daraa, Homs, or from the suburbs of the capital. Sometimes they would split the TV screen into four, in order to give space and relevance to each city that was protesting.

This was when the majority of the Syrian activists were still in love with Al Jazeera, and when pro-regimes were actively engaged in a campaign aimed at defaming the channel for its allegedly unbalanced and unprofessional coverage of the crisis in Syria. This campaign even took some “creative” aspects as in these posters designed by pro-regime activists and distributed on Facebook.

(source: anonymous pro-regime activists on Facebook)

After these episodes, which were mostly concentrated in the first six months of the uprising, many things have happened. Criticism is now coming not only from pro-regime activists, but also from some of Al Jazeera`s employees, such as the head of Beirut office Ghassan Ben Jeddo, who resigned in protest of an alleged lack of professionalism of the channel in reporting the Syria crisis; or Ali Hashem, a journalist from Beirut.

Internal criticism coming from the employees of the channel has matched with an increasing criticism coming from Arab analysts, such as Sultan al Qassemi, who in this article accused Al Jazeera to have failed to portray the Syrian uprising in a professional, balanced way. Many Syrian activists, too,  have lamented the alleged sectarian angle of Al Jazeera`s coverage of Syria, which would give prominence and relevance to the Sunni-led component of the uprising, ignoring the contributions given by Syrian minorities (such as Christians, Ismailis and Alawis) to organizing protests and anti-regime civil disobedience actions.

Despite all the criticism and many mistakes made by Al Jazeera (as much as by other channels, I have to say) in terms, for example, of not always verifying information and videos coming from social media before the actual broadcast, I have t to admit that I was pretty interested by the way they covered the “dhikra” of the second year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, few days ago. It was quite comprehensive, touching various angles, from the military one to the humanitarian, and covering different part of Syria in a simultaneous way.

I was particularly touched by the coverage of Aleppo done by Ghada Oweis, who reported from inside the city, focusing on how life goes on, despite all the difficulties, in areas that are under the control of the Free Syrian Army. Al Jazeera has put a different correspondent in each different areas of Aleppo, and sometimes they do a live broadcast going from one neighbourhood to the other, giving a pretty incredible feeling of simultaneity, hence a feeling of life.

Ghada Oweis, according to this post distributed virally on Facebook, is “wanted” by an Aleppian businessman who is ready to pay 50.000 USD dollars to have the journalist (and “terrorist” as it is written in the post) remitted to the Syrian authorities, “dead or alive”.

I dont know this gentleman and have not enough connections to verify if this post is true or is fabricated by other parties in order to suggest that pro-regime activists are ready to kill journalists. I don`t know.

(source: Facebook)

There are so many things we don`t know. I watched another news story done by Ghada in Aleppo few days ago, concerning an historical building being reconverted in a school for children after being bombed by the regime. There was a teacher being interviewed who told the story of the building, of the kids, of the attempts to have life back in that building despite all odds. It was a touching story but I felt something strange when the guy mentioned the fact that the building was bombed “an year  and half ago”. At the time, in fact, bombing of Aleppo had not started yet. But, I thought, the guy might have been just a bit emotional and made a mistake (although the journalist should have corrected him). When I switched Twitter on, however, I found something in Edward Dark`s timeline which was pretty incredible. Edward is a nickname for a well-know activist from Aleppo who stood against the regime since the beginning of the revolution, but eventually turned against the revolution itself when it reached an armed phase, and notably when the FSA gained ground in his own city, Aleppo.

So what was in Edward`s timeline? A message from a Facebook account, allegedly that of lawyer Alaa al Sayed who, according to Edward, is a famous pro-civil society activist (and, I gather, not a regime goon). He said:

الاعلامية غادة عويس على الجزيرة غطت منذ قليل بتقرير صحفي بناء تاريخي حلبي تعرض للقصف :
للتوثيق و التاريخ :
—————————
البناء هو للكنيسة اليسوعية التي بنيت عام 1887 م ثم
تم تأجيرها لمديرية التربية في بداية الخمسينات و صارت مدرسة،
بعدما انتقلت الكنيسة الى ساحة الكرنك ثم الى العزيزية .
تم استخدامها كروضة باسم روضة ازهار تشرين حتى اغلاقها منذ ما يزيد على السنتين
و تم تحويلها بعد ترميمها الى متحف وضعت فيه الوسائل التعليمية الاثرية التي كانت مستخدمة في مدرسة المأمون منذ مائة عام والتي وجدت في أقبية المأمون عند ترميمها .
ملاحظات على التقرير :
—————————-
لم تكن الروضة مفتوحة منذ عام و نصف و اغلقت بسبب القصف، فلم يكن هناك قصف بحلب منذ عام و نصف.
و الروضة مغلقة قبل ذلك بكثير .
و الشاب الذي زعم انه معلم في هذه الروضة و توقف طلابه عن تلقي العلم غبر صادق .
لم تكن هذه الكنيسة يوما مدرسة الشمبانيا و هي معهد الاخوة الفرير في منطقة المحافظة، و صورة التلاميذ و الاساتذة المكتوب عليها مدرسة الشمبانيا التي استندت اليها الاعلامية عبارة عن صورة تاريخية وضعت في المتحف .
و الرجل من اهل الحي الذي قابلته و قال ذلك لا يمكن ان يكون من اهل الحي يوما .
الرجل الذي قال انه من اهل الحي و اولاده كانوا طلابا في روضة المدرسة و انقطعوا عن الدوام بسبب الاحوال الحالية ، غير صادق فلا هو من اهل الحي و لا اولاده كانوا في الروضة المغلقة من سنوات .
غادة العويس : في حلب تحديدا يطلب منك مزيدا من المهنية و التدقيق …ديري بالك معنا ما في لعب …

I won`t translate the message, but just the most important part of it, which is that, according to this gentleman, Ghada has been inaccurate in her story about the old building. First, because as I had also noticed, there was no bombing in Aleppo “half an year ago”. “The building was closed much longer before”. Second, because the guy who pretended in the news items to be a teacher in that school would be lying. Third, because the place itself was not what the report pretends it to be, but an historical Jesuit church which then became an institute run by the “Freres” , etc etc etc. Fourth, because the picture featuring the school pupils which the report shows is, according to Mr Al Sayed, an historical picture coming from the museum.

I could continue but I will stop. What does this lesson teach us? Not to trust Al Jazeera? Not to trust Twitter and Facebook? not to trust images?

I don`t know Aleppo enough to establish the truth on that building, or church, or whatever it is. I don`t know either Ghada Oweis or Alaa al Sayed to have enough elements to decide about who is right and who is wrong. This is yet another example of the complexity we are running through, every day, when it comes to Syria coverage.  But we should not embrace nihilism, as many are doing: “since everything can be fabricated by those folks, by both sides, then everything will be fabricated so I wont believe to anything that comes out from Syria”.

At the end of the day, this is the game the regime wants to play. And this is why at the beginning of the revolution, and for a very long time, it was so careful not to allow professional journalists in the country, which has left the entire Syria coverage in the hands of activists.

What we should do is to continue asking questions, to ourselves and to the others, every time we watch a news item -as much as when we read Facebook posts or  a tweet-, in order to understand where the truth lies. It is a time-consuming operation, I know. I have myself not enough time to do it -as journalism is not my daily job, and this blog posts took at least three days before being written, as I had promised  Ryan Smith on Twitter -.

But we should aim at doing it, always. Asking questions is an healthy exercise.

Nihilism is not.

I GUARDIANI DELLE IMMAGINI

Un work in progress su immagini, testi, musica, social media, e altre suggestioni dalla rivoluzione siriana

Raccontare quello che sta succedendo in Siria, da due anni a questa parte, è doloroso. Doloroso parlare di morti, violenza, bombardamenti, sangue versato quotidianamente, rifugiati, sfollati. Una tragedia a cui assistiamo, attraverso sottili schermi di computer e televisori ad attuttirci il senso di realtà e di dolore. 

Eppure, insieme alla violenza, ogni giorno dalla Siria emerge la vita. Emerge dalle poesie, dalla musica, dai disegni, dalle immagini, dall’arte che in ogni (maledetto) giorno di morte i siriani trasformano in un’ode disperata al vivere. La societa` civile siriana non ha mai smesso di essere attiva, e creativa, nel silenzio dei media e dei politici, troppo concentrati a costruire scenari per il “giorno dopo”, mentre il presente viene messo da parte, con tutte le sue imbarazzanti domande e l’immobilita` del mondo. 

Everybody thinks we are pretty much the country of pizza, mafia, and Berlusconi, so if this piece can help shed a different light on Italy that would be already a good result. Italy is such a complex country. I hope I have succeeded in explaining the difference between legality and legitimacy in this new wave of occupations which is quite key, in my view, to understand the phenomenon.

“OCCUPY” THE COMMONS

A new wave of occupations redefines citizenship and political participation in Italy, as elections fast approach. Last Modified: 20 Feb 2013 08:55

Teatro Valle, the 18th century theatre occupied since June 2011, has paved way to the citizens’ movements and inspired similar occupations and grassroots campaigns all over Italy [Photo courtesy: Teatro Valle Occupato]

Eight months ago, Scup (Sport e Cultura Popolare) as the space has been renamed, was occupied, cleaned up and brought back to life by a mixed group of young activists, sport instructors and some residents of the neighbourhood. They were outraged by the lack of public spaces for leisure and sport activities in an area that has become more and more gentrified while rental prices have soared. In Italy, the public sector downsizing has resulted not only in cutting public funds for culture, instruction and health care, but has also pushed speculation in the real estate market to grow. It has helped shady private firms to acquire under-priced properties that the government needs to sell for quick cash. “Occupying is an expression of public outrage,” says Carlo, a young activist born in the neighbourhood who, a few days ago, re-occupied Scup for the second time, after the police had cleared the area in an attempt to discourage the occupiers. In an act of ongoing defiance, Carlo and the neighbourhood residents regained control of the space, asking once more to stop speculating on public buildings, demanding the government to provide basic public services, such as gyms and kindergartens at affordable prices. Housing also represents a dramatic problem in this neighbourhood and generally speaking, in the city of Rome, which is filled up with publicly-owned buildings – either dismissed or abandoned. Many of them have been occupied by low-income families in need of a place to live. A few miles away from Scup, since 2004, 80 families have (illegally) taken control of a fairly central building, close to the historical church of San Giovanni. On several occasions, the local government has ended up formalising such housing occupations and granting former occupiers the right to stay. In the case of Cinema Palazzo, an occupied movie theatre which was about to be converted into a casino before being taken over by an outraged crowd of students and local residents, the court ruled that the occupation serves the goals of a broader collectivity and not private interests. So, the occupiers continue staying there, running cultural activities and workshops for the families of the neighbourhood, while the speculation project has been put on hold.   “Occupying is an expression of public outrage.”                           – Carlo, a young activist For those who are not familiar with Italian politics, the fact that an illegal act – such as an occupation – can be recognised by a court as legitimate might look odd, at the least. Yet, caught in a wave of neoliberalism and committed to dismantling the welfare state apparatus, mainstream politics in the country has often failed to protect rights that are granted by the Constitution, such as the right to proper housing. This has left a huge void that social and political experiments – such as the new wave of occupations – are trying to fill in the name of constitutional legitimacy. A new generation of occupations  Currently, the city of Rome alone counts hundreds of housing occupations and dismissed buildings that have been occupied and converted into centres for cultural activities or youth places. The oldest ones, with a clear militant orientation, have existed for decades. While some of them have been living under a permanent threat of being cleared by the police, others have been legalised and are paying a rent to the municipality, albeit within a scheme of controlled prices. Some others are just tolerated by the local authorities – whether right or left-wing oriented – in a sort of “live and let live” philosophy. But new occupations, such as Scup or Cinema Palazzo, wish neither to be institutionalised nor just to survive by being ignored or forgotten by the local government. They firmly denounce the lack of social services in town, at the same time claiming for their legitimate rights, as citizens and taxpayers, to get health assistance, children care and infrastructure for leisure at affordable prices. Valeria and Chiara, among the students who are occupying Cinema Palazzo, explain that “occupied places do not aim at offering services to the citizenry, but at showing them how knowledge can be built in a co-operative way”. This attempt of creating spaces for peer-production distinguishes all the newly occupied places, aiming at establishing open workshops where people can experiment different ways of doing politics together. It is a new attitude towards pro-active citizenship – in sharp contrast with the idea that political representation, obtained through the voting process, can alone defend citizens’ rights. Yet this idea, in the past years, has resulted in emptying politics from any participatory meaning and turning Italian youth away from it. But now, many seem to have realised that pro-active citizenship is the only way to hold politicians accountable and directly claim their citizen rights. “This is a new wave of occupation,” Carlo from Scup notices. “They are initiated not only by activists. Citizens themselves help a great deal, together with the workers of a given sector which has been downsized, for example, culture, sport, health care… It is a much broader phenomenon with a potentially wider impact.” Cinema America, the brand new occupation in town, symbolises this new attitude of opposing speculation and defending public goods across generations and social backgrounds – by linking activists, workers and local residents. In the neighbourhood of Trastevere, a movie theatre – designed by renowned architect Di Castro - which was to give way to a three-storeyed parking lot and luxury apartments has been turned by young students into a multi-cultural centre, offering film screenings for children, theatre classes and artistic workshops. The place also hosts the neighbourhood’s public assemblies and has become a hang-out for all generations. Recently, the efforts were rewarded, as Cinema America attracted the attention of a wider coalition of architects, actors and intellectuals who publicly stood by the occupation, emphasising its ultimate goal of preserving a public good. “Nobody would expect us to keep this place so clean and tidy, and to be able to self-govern it. We are young, but responsible. It is politics that does not want us to grow up,” says Matteo, a 20-year-old who lives in Cinema America, maybe hinting at those government officials, from both the right and the left-wing, who have portrayed Italian youth as lazy, spoiled and even “choosy” when it comes to finding employment. By taking over public places, the occupiers claim to have given them back to the citizens [Courtesy: Teatro Valle Occupato]  Fighting for the ‘commons’  The general outrage at the greed of private interests and the weakness of public sector that sells off common wealth with an excuse of efficiency and rationalisation, has also entered the healthcare category. CTO Andrea Alesini hospital has been in permanent mobilisation since December 2012. An “occupy” tent and coloured protest signs are placed at its entrance, explaining the passersby how a section of the emergency has been shut down without any notice. Other departments are threatened to follow the same fate, if not the entire hospital, one of the few in the Italian capital to be equipped with a helicopter landing for serious emergencies and well-known for its specialised orthopaedic surgeries. The spending review, which the government wanted to be a process to rationalise public spending and make it more efficient, has in fact resulted in a blind downsizing that undermines public health and obliges citizens to look at alternative forms of assistance, such as private insurance companies. This pattern is replicated in different sectors and this is why the employees of CTO hospital are joining the “occupy” movement in Rome – to host joint assemblies, to co-ordinate common actions to defend public services and to fight wild privatisation and speculation. Teatro Valle, the 18th century theatre in the heart of Rome occupied since June 2011, has paved way to the citizens’ movements and inspired similar occupations and grassroots campaigns not only in Rome, but all over Italy, from Sicily to Milan. The latest initiative from Teatro Valle Occupato is promoted in co-operation with law professor Stefano Rodota. The plan is to restore a former parliamentary committee that, in 2007, before the fall of Romano Prodi’s government, was in charge of drafting a law proposal to protect the “commons”, shared resources such as water, environment – “and now we have added the internet,” reminds Laura, an actress occupying Teatro Valle. For the first time ever, this committee, composed of senior law experts, will work jointly with civil society. Public assemblies will be hosted in different occupied places, starting from the stunning historical location of Teatro Valle, which now runs different types of activities by volunteers and survives through people’s donations. By taking over places like Teatro Valle, the occupiers claim to have given them back to the citizens. Paradoxically, this would be an act against legality, yet a legitimate one, since it is carried out in order to defend rights and principles granted by the Constitution. Constitutional rights and political participation  The Italian Constitution and constitutional rights are repeatedly invoked and quoted by the occupiers, even by the youngest at Cinema America. The awareness of this new generation of occupiers vis-a-vis citizens’ rights and the respect they pay to constitutional duties, manifest in the way they fight speculation and try to defend the commons. Against all odds, these youth will go to vote at the upcoming parliamentary and regional elections on February 24 and 25. Trying to draw a different meaning of democracy, which goes further electing political representatives at the Parliament, the “occupy” movement seems not wanting to reject representative democracy as a whole. Instead, it tries to integrate the latter with new practices of direct democracy, where politics can be understood in a more pro-active way. This is a unique opportunity for activists, students, workers, citizens as a whole to be politically creative and try to experiment a new idea of active citizenship. Donatella Della Ratta is a PhD fellow at University of Copenhagen focusing her research on the Syrian TV industry. Follow her on Twitter: @donatelladr

A hundred people gathered in front of the police station and shouted “The Syrian people won`t be humiliated”. The protest did not have a directly political nature; rather, it was a spontaneous expression of popular rage, for a man had been beaten by local police. The protesters asked for the excuses of the local authorities and, in fact, the police apparently apologized and the protest ended.

But this was just one of the many signals you could hear in town during those first months of 2011, following a general unrest that started in the Arab world since Mohamed Bouazizi had set himself on fire in December 2010.

The fact that nobody attended the “Syrian days of rage” on 4 and 5 February 2011, which had been organized by a Facebook group from outside Syria, only proved that protests cannot be staged from abroad if there is no genuine feeling amongst the local population.

So the Syrian days of rage protests went unattended.

Yet, genuine sparks of protests and unrest happened in Damascus in that very same month of February 2011, and nobody can claim they were managed or engineered from abroad. Whoever was there in Hariqa, that 17 February of two years ago, knows that this was a genuine feeling of anger; as much as whoever attended the sit-in in front of the Libyan Embassy in Damascus, few days after the Hariqa protest, knows that this was a sort of general rehearsal to express feelings that were directed at the Syrian regime, not at the Libyan one. And, in fact, on February 24th (the second day of the protest in front of the Libyan embassy) Syrian police crushed the sit-in and arrested many of the protesters.

All these “little” episodes happened in February 2011, which  seems so far away. Yet, maybe it is worth recalling them to our memory, especially now that the escalating violence and the increasing number of armed foreign fighters in Syria give a perfect excuse to those who claim  that Syrian revolution was never started by Syrians asking for their legitimate rights.