Selections of Status Updates, Notes, Comments and Tweets made since 2009, a year which coincided with the gradual discovery by Arab and Middle Eastern activists of the potential of Facebook and Twitter as tools for social and political activism.
Comment 1: If you want to build something then what you affirm counts more than what you reject, and the more specific your project is, the more viable it could be.
Comment 2: Global power alignments in absence of credible global leaders and in the midst of rising and clashing populisms and a nuclear arms-race is no ground for optimism and does not augur well for the immediate future.
Comment 1: Countries like South Africa, India, Malaysia and Indonesia that invest in education, technology and development can overcome much of their internal problems and shortcomings and emerge as real world powers in relatively short span of time. Meanwhile Arab countries focus on resistance ideology, importing technology and repelling indigenous talent. Authoritarianism is our plague. Continue reading “Development and Authoritarianism”
Comment 1: Even decorum can be approached with ideological passion, and that the desire to remain above the fray, to remain pure, can often be quite hypocritical. For change cannot be wrought out from High Heaven, that’s why “gods” always had interlocutors on the ground and why they often descended there themselves. Change can only be wrought out from within the fray, at the risk of ending up with a guilty conscience. Continue reading “Of Guilt and Hypocrisy!”
As the elected president of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration, the largest opposition movement in Syria, Dr. Fedaa Al-Horani, now languishing in Syrian jails alongside other Council members and thousands of Syrian political prisoners of all ages and political backgrounds, is simply put our Syrian Aung San Suu Kyi. Unfortunately, her plight and that of her comrades continue to receive scant international attention. But, as the International Woman’s Day (March 8th) approaches, it seems fitting for all free Syrians to celebrate the achievements and stands of Dr. Al-Horani. Here’s to a great lady!
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 