Category: Activism & Advocacy

Tweeting Against Tyranny

  1. People can behave and think pragmatically only when they have something to lose. Impoverished, we become radicals incapable of compromise. 4:38 PM May 29th
  2. So the Wall is still standing and my head bleeds! So what? At least I have something to warm me, to cover my shame. My blood is my fig leaf. 7:29 PM May 29th
  3. Those who reduce our current dilemma to a choice between peace and freedom deprive us of both. 10:48 PM May 29th
  4. We fight for freedom. We fight for peace. We fight for justice. We fight for hope. We fight for love. Fighting is how we communicate best. 12:36 AM May 30th
  5. If you want to change the world, then put something of yourself in it. That’s the best recipe for change I know, for better or worse. 8:19 PM May 31st Continue reading “Tweeting Against Tyranny” →

Obama Administration Designing Mideast Policy

Quoted by NPR

KELEMEN: Secretary Clinton says she raised human rights issues with her Egyptian counterpart yesterday, but some activists feel the Obama administration has been far too quiet. It’s diplomatic outreach to Syria is another troubling factor for Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident who runs the Tharwa Foundation.

Mr. AMMAR ABDULHAMID (Founder, The Tharwa Foundation): If you are only going to talk about Syria’s regional involvement and adventurism and forget about the internal dimension, then this will be a major blow to Syrian human rights activists in the sense it will make the regime behave with greater impunity towards human rights activists.

KELEMEN: Abdulhamid says that’s happening already. It is, quote, “open season” on human rights and democracy activists in Syria, he says, adding so far, the Obama administration’s silence is deafening.

 

Few Tweets of Obama and Pipedreams

  1. In our struggle to even things out, to bring a measure of justice into our lives, we should always be aware that the odds are against us. 4:28 PM May 24th
  2. Describing an ugly reality is not the same as endorsing it. We have to know what we are dealing with here. Freedom is not easily achieved. 4:32 PM May 24th
  3. Life is not just. Freedom is not a given. We have to fight hard to get where we want, and have to remain true to who we are in the process. 4:43 PM May 24th
  4. As the world unravels into multipolarity, peace and security, for many, become more hollow as concepts, and more untenable as realities. 3:43 AM May 25th
  5. Ours is an age of many fast-paced transformations, too far reaching, too overwhelming, the violent atavistic backlash is already unfolding. 3:56 AM May 25th Continue reading “Few Tweets of Obama and Pipedreams” →

Only Attention Will Keep Imprisoned Bloggers Alive

Quoted in Mideast Youth

At the Committee to Protect Bloggers, we have occasionally been contacted by people who knew they were going to have to go in for interrogation and possible arrest. One of them was the Syrian poet and novelist, Ammar Abdulhamid, who has since left Syria to take up a position in Washington, D.C. as a non-resident fellow at the Saban Institute of the Brookings Institution.

“In times of trouble, activists and their families are often told to shy away from publicizing their ordeal,” said Abdulhamid. “They are advised that this is indeed the best way to make it short and to navigate back to safety. In my case, however, international attention eased my way to freedom. Without it, I might not even be alive today. Still, there are no hard-fast rules here, and the best thing that international supporters and sympathizers can do is to follow the wishes of the (effected person), when they can be reached, or the wishes of their family members and/or friends.“