· November, 2008

Stories about Syria from November, 2008

Syria: A Blogosphere Divided

The Syrian blogsphere has been embroiled in a heated debate over the weekend. It is a debate that is quite reflective of some of our modern disagreements as Syrians, over a wide range of basic issues: identity, religion, state and personal freedom. Yazan Badran gathers the different threads of this controversy here.

24 November 2008

MENA: How to deal with Somali piracy?

Last week a Saudi supertanker was hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Kenya, making it the largest ship ever to have been seized in this way. The problem of Somali piracy is growing; in this post we hear bloggers' reactions from around the Middle East.

22 November 2008

Syria: Stop Generalisations

From Syria, Maysaloon [dead link/this post has since been deleted] wishes that writers and bloggers will stop generalising when addressing political issues and “stop speaking for ‘most’ or ‘many’ Syrians.”

20 November 2008

Syria: Art of Dialogue

“An argument in olden Arab times was like a dance. People wooed each other, rejected or accepted, negotiated, insulted and convinced each other using subtle messages & connotations, all applied...

17 November 2008

Syria: Misquoted

Syrian blogger Rime Allaf says she was misquoted in a Press interview. “I have been misquoted in the past, about more “serious” issues resulting in strange statements, but I think...

17 November 2008

Syria: No More Bab el Hara

Ayman Haykal [Ar] links to a report published on Haaretz that says the Israeli cellular provider, Cellcom, made a profit of approximately 400.000 shekels per month this year from the...

17 November 2008

Syria: Love is in Stuttgart

Forget politics, Obama or the economic crisis. The new buzz in the Syrian blogosphere is about love. Mariyah, a Syrian blogger from Damascus, has been playing with the hearts of...

15 November 2008

Syria: Using ScribeFire

In this post, Omar [AR] tells us that he used the FireFox add-on, Scribefire, to publish his post. He explains how it is easy to add the plug-in in your...

14 November 2008

Syria: Bloggers Unite to Read

For the first time in the Syrian blogosphere, local Syrian bloggers have came up with a refreshing idea; forming an online book club in which they decide on reading a...

12 November 2008

Syria: Unprofessional Websites

Salam [AR] lists in this post problems most Arabic internet users face as they're viewing Arabic websites. He argues that the reason behind such problems is mostly due to the...

12 November 2008

Syria: Comments on the U.S. Elections

The Syrian blogosphere, particularly the contingent that blogs in English, has been somewhat quiet about the U.S. elections, at least in comparison to its neighbors. It's no secret that many bloggers in the Arab world are frustrated with some of Obama's policies, even if they are glad that some change has come. In this post, we will take a look at three different Syrian perspectives on the recent elections in the U.S.

8 November 2008