Syrian Blogsphere in a week · Global Voices
Yazan Badran

The Syrian blogsphere took a very important step this week, launching Syria Planet. The first online portal for All Syrian bloggers. Encouraged by the blogging boom Syria witnessed this last year.
Ayman Hourieh, one of the Administrators of Syria Planet says…
Syria Planet, the community site for Syrian bloggers, is now online, it features an aggregator of member blogs (Syrian or about Syria), and forums for arranging activities and meetings, and discussing what's going on in Syria and the blogosphere, among the other things.
On to politics, this week was very important and busy for Syria. March 8th holds the 43rd anniversary of the Baath Party coup in 1963. Which excites yearly sit-ins and opposition meetings in protest to the One-Party rule since then, and the Emergency Laws enacted since March 9th, 1963.
Ammar Abdulhamid had a roundup of this year's opposition activities…
In London, on the other hand, meetings gave way to a sit-in organized by various local opposition groups in front of the Syrian Embassy in commemoration of the Baath coup of March 8, 1063. A similar affair on the grounds of the University of Damascus was violently crushed by a gang of students affiliated with the country's various security apparatuses. In the process, author Samar Yazbek was bludgeoned into unconsciousness.
Rime Allaf  also comments on the occasion, and the long-waited Party Law that's expected to be enacted in the next few months.
The glorious March 8 revolution, celebrated especially by numerous pedantic men sporting March 8 mustaches (and other men trying but failing to grow them), celebrates its 43rd anniversary today. In other words, commiserations are in order for the Syrian people, and for the sad state of the Syrian state. Instead of making way for the new political parties everyone's so excited about, the Baath is digging its heels and waving Article 8 of the constitution in our faces.
Yazan had a bitter post about this topic as well.
43 Years of “Revolution”…
43 years of Emergency Laws.
43 Years of legalized torture.
43 Years of legalized political repression.
43 Years of legalized corruption.
Innocent Criminal posted a harsh critique on the state-run official news agency of Syria (SANA), commenting on its inadequacy and lack of professionalism.
How and why would crap like Arabs Reject Targeting Syria, Sudanese President Advisor Says be your fucking headline? What’s wrong with these morons? This is not an Arabic Syrian daily where toeing the government line blindly is accepted. This is an English media outlet that everyone can read. So why can’t they utilize it to express their point in a semi-intelligent manner instead of wasting digital storage space with this is diarrhea like shit?
Away from politics, Strontium has an interesting post about Celtic knots, with a very valid theory that Syrian architecture in the Hellenistic and Roman periods may be the unknown origin for this style of ornamentation.
Plaitwork, which is a pattern of interwoven unknotted cords, is the earliest known form of knotwork. Plaitwork is not unique to the Celts, examples are found in many cultures. By breaking the plait’s cords and reattaching them, knotwork patterns can be derived. The first examples of this practice can be observed in early 8th century in Italy, but many examples of plaitwork and primitive knots can be found in early Syrian art from Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods.
Finally, a fun post by Bassam on his and others experience in the bureaucracies of the Stationary Centers, and how to cheat your way out of the Military Service.
- One guy has faked a surgical operation of his back for “disc problems” and brought films with him. Apparently his doctor made a skin incision without any additional thing and closed the wound, on purpose of course. He was caught and was handed to investigators.