Thursday, October 07, 2010

The Health Hazards of Being a Rebel Without a Clue

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and if the news report I came across on the Guardian today is true, then one 19 year old Syrian bloggeress is in a world of hurt right now. There's no reason why I should or shouldn't believe the charges against her are true, although based on my experience of dealing with Syrian bloggers, especially female Syrian bloggers, then naivety rather than any malice is probably the cause of her predicament.

If I am against apartheid in South Africa that does not mean I would have been caught dead wandering into a township. Even though I support Hezbullah and the Resistance, and recently visited the South of Lebanon, I avoided Hezbullah checkpoints like the plague for reasons which are obvious to anybody who knows me personally. And just because I have Che Guevara's face printed on a mug in my study, that doesn't mean I would have gone off to the jungle to meet him as he would probably have hung me by the balls, or I would have died of malaria. What I mean by all this is that politics isn't a game and these people don't have a sense of humour, nor do they have time for starry-eyed Palestine groupies who talk too much. Poor thing.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you. Let's also not forget that the west loves to peddle these stories about the evil nature of these middle east dictators who prey on poor little enthusiastic teenage idealists unlike the absolute freedom enjoyed in the west. Just a couple weeks ago a group of antiwar activists here in the US had their homes and offices raided by the FBI and were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury (which, to anyone who doesn't know, are monkey courts where the witness or defendant is not allowed to have a defense attorney in the courtroom and where the only people present are the prosecutor, jury, and witnesses). Of course this story didn't get much attention in the western press, as that would disrupt the nice world view that western media likes to portray.

This is no justification of what happened to this 19-year-old bloggeress, since, as you said, we do not know whether or not the charges against her are true. We also have no illusions about the nature of the regime in Syria. But we should also keep things in perspective.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations ya akhi W. for your refusal of self-deception ! (and great sense of humor - I really laughed when I read the second paragraph ; )

This is an off-topic message directed to Nour :

Why don't you post more messages on your blog? You have a very interesting approach. Even though I don't agree with everything, I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts. Regards

Lirun said...

interesting and revealing.. but hardly surprising..