Trendy wireless internet café in Damascus, Syria

...As long as you don't mind several waiters constantly hovering over you, micro-managing the arrangement of all items on the table, and reading everything on your laptop screen. And as long as you can get by with zero English. Good food and music (although only Western). Best to come in the morning or early afternoon, before the house gets packed. This place is just one block west of the statue of Hafez al-Assad (see my adjacent photo here).

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invisible consequential says:

Fun colors and reflections on the cybercafe. Thanks for sharing with Creative Commons. I used a crop of this image with an article on Internet extremism.
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

delayed gratification says:

Thanks for taking the time to let me know about the reproduction of
my cyber-cafe image -- to which of course you're totally welcome --
and sharing the link to your article. You have an interesting web
site. I'd like to offer a challenge to some of your information and
conclusions. As a US citizen who's lived and worked for most of a
year in Syria and the occupied Palestinian territories, I see a
troubling degree of fallacy in the dominant view of our mainstream
media and foreign policy toward this region, which I think your
article reflects relatively uncritically.

I regularly follow news of the current Assad government and I
disagree with our government's labeling of Syria as a "leading state
sponsor of terror," which your article reports but provides no
countervailing quotes of dissent. I also think it's potentially
misleading to associate an image of an upscale social hub in an open,
international city with the closed-minded extremism of anti-Western
vigilantes based in places that are far more politically charged,
such as Lahore or London, where such public connectivity really DOES
get used for nefarious purposes. Damascenes are overwhelmingly pro-
Western and care much more about stylish cars, clothes and
comfortable living than they do about politics. Everyone so far has
been delighted to receive American visitors and could not care less
about how I'll vote in 2008.

You cite Syria as a regime that "strictly censors online content,"
which just isn't true. I spend a lot of time here online, and I've
never encountered any censorship. The current president was a
Britain-educated I.T. CEO, and his administration was actually the
first to legalize and promote internet use. Beginning in 2000,
residential broadband and cheap cyber-cafes have proliferated
exponentially.

You also mention the State Department's work against terrorist
ideologies online. As a student of Arabic language I'm troubled by
your misleading oversimplification of the program's target blogs as
"Arabic-language blogs," suggesting that anything in Arabic is de
facto suspicious content. While you personally may not be jumping to
the conclusion that an entire people of a native tongue should be
held suspect and scrutinized, you're leading readers to do just
that. This leads to the very same polarization and radicalization
among ordinary Westerners that we spend so much time and money trying
to squash in the Middle East.

In my time here, I've had the opportunity to meet and dialogue with a
variety of refugees from Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine, seeking a new
beginning in neighboring Syria after their homes and communities
became "collateral damage" in US-led or US-funded campaigns against
their leaders or against militant groups based nearby. I can't think
of a better word to describe these people's feelings than
"terrorized." Consequently, I see no state higher on that list than
our very own.

I agree that the basic human activity of joining groups can either
serve to broaden or narrow one's perspectives. When individuals
receive inspiration to question their own assumptions and ask honest
questions, they become effective agents against intolerance. I
believe education is always the key. I don't agree that ongoing
globalization of the internet either promotes or discourages "an
increased tolerance of violence." People will always find an
available medium for forming groups and for trying to understand
their world, for better or for worse. As long as we've been human,
there always were and there will always be alternatives. In the days
before online child-porn rings, there were amateur child-porn magazines.

Thanks for your attention.
Best regards,
-Josh
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

invisible consequential says:

Josh,

Thanks for posting your email to me here as well. I share your concerns about the fact that terror is a two-way street under the Bush Administration, continuing America's history of dubious military engagements. The death toll resulting from the Iraq War is on par with the handiwork of violent dictators.

I agree that the phrase "Arabic-language blogs" is unfortunately vague, but the article's author informs me that in her research she couldn't find anything more specific from the State Department. The fact that the State Dept. bloggers disclose their identities and professional affiliation is, I'd say, a sign that they are sensitive to the ethics of Internet behavior. I don't think our phrasing is slanted or would lead readers to conclude that all Arabic blogs are suspect. It seems generic to me, along the lines of saying Al Jazeera editors read the English-language press.

As for Syria being a country that "strictly censors online content," I'll admit that the adverb is probably not ideal. But Syria does not allow total press freedom. Bloggers have been arrested in recent years. Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, and Global Voices Online all have coverage of this topic.

With kind wishes for your safety and support for your work in the Middle East,
Evan
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

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Trendy wireless internet café in Damascus, Syria

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invisible consequential says:

delayed gratification says:

invisible consequential says:

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