From a reader who does not wish to be identified:
"Salamat from....
I prefer to remain anonymous for multiple reasons, and trust that you will respect my request.
For years I have read your blog with some regularity, and have even contributed a short translation in the past. I was amused by your entry regarding ‘Huna Dimashq’.
I wanted to share that yesterday afternoon, whilst at work, I believe I was the first to post a ‘Min B…Huna Dimashq’ as my facebook status. I have spent the past two days quite agitated about being unable to reach my family in Damascus and was very angry about the blackout for many reasons.
Spectacularly, and within seconds of posting, it was picked up [and I hope the underlying reference understood] by my Arab/Arabic-speaking facebook friends before spreading like wildfire... I found this simultaneously fascinating and frightening. Within a less than an hour, a video and some graphics were produced, and variations on the theme introduced and facebook groups and explanations made…An hour or so later, hoping to motivate my non-Arabic speaking friends to participate, I excitedly wrote an English language text underneath my status, even though I got my history/geography mixed up [I was not explicit because I was not certain, but I thought it was Cairo that broadcast ‘huna Dimashq’ in 1973 …]
Anyway, I spent my evening watching this metamorphose into a [hopefully short-lived] internet ‘action’… and was equally dumbfounded by its adoption by the few facebook friends I have who still support the regime…I, too, am very tired of ‘revolutionary’ posturing…particularly online/from abroad...one more reason, if one is needed, to wish the demise of this murderous regime sooner rather than later.
And no, it is not a Zionist conspiracy because I currently live in... and it was picked up by al-Arabiyya…just a funny coincidence.
I think this time Asaad, for jumping to conclusions, perhaps it is you that should go play in the garden and fly a kite.
Respectively,
k."
"Salamat from....
I prefer to remain anonymous for multiple reasons, and trust that you will respect my request.
For years I have read your blog with some regularity, and have even contributed a short translation in the past. I was amused by your entry regarding ‘Huna Dimashq’.
I wanted to share that yesterday afternoon, whilst at work, I believe I was the first to post a ‘Min B…Huna Dimashq’ as my facebook status. I have spent the past two days quite agitated about being unable to reach my family in Damascus and was very angry about the blackout for many reasons.
Spectacularly, and within seconds of posting, it was picked up [and I hope the underlying reference understood] by my Arab/Arabic-speaking facebook friends before spreading like wildfire... I found this simultaneously fascinating and frightening. Within a less than an hour, a video and some graphics were produced, and variations on the theme introduced and facebook groups and explanations made…An hour or so later, hoping to motivate my non-Arabic speaking friends to participate, I excitedly wrote an English language text underneath my status, even though I got my history/geography mixed up [I was not explicit because I was not certain, but I thought it was Cairo that broadcast ‘huna Dimashq’ in 1973 …]
Anyway, I spent my evening watching this metamorphose into a [hopefully short-lived] internet ‘action’… and was equally dumbfounded by its adoption by the few facebook friends I have who still support the regime…I, too, am very tired of ‘revolutionary’ posturing…particularly online/from abroad...one more reason, if one is needed, to wish the demise of this murderous regime sooner rather than later.
And no, it is not a Zionist conspiracy because I currently live in... and it was picked up by al-Arabiyya…just a funny coincidence.
I think this time Asaad, for jumping to conclusions, perhaps it is you that should go play in the garden and fly a kite.
Respectively,
k."
