The Israelis arrest a Syrian citizen who was with the Freedom Flotilla

Photo Credit: www.alwatanonline.com

Updates below: Update 1 (June 1, 2010) & Update 2 (June 2, 2010)

The Damascus-based Syrian news website, DayPress, published today a report about a Syrian woman who was on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship Mavi Marmara that was attacked yesterday morning in international waters off the Gaza coast by a large Israeli force in front of the watchful eye of the entire world. The attack resulted in killing up to 19 civilians on the ship and injuring tens more. The story of the Syrian participant was originally published in the Syrian newspaper al-Watan.

Here is a partial English translation of the Arabic-language DayPress story to provide some detail: 

The Syrian al-Watan newspaper said that Israeli forces arrested Syrian citizen Shatha Barakat, the only Syrian who was among 700 activists of different nationalities who were on board the ships of the Freedom Flotilla. Her husband Ayman Bkairati said in an interview with al-Watan that the last communication between them was the day before yesterday while she was on board the Mavi Marmara ship that was raided by Israeli commandos yesterday morning. He said that he saw her on television screens when the Freedom Flotilla was still on its way to Gaza and that she was in good health. He has not heard from her since she was taken to Ashkelon Prison because she refused to sign a form committing not to return to Gaza in the future.  

[-------] 

Regarding whether she was hurt during the Israeli attack on Mavi Marmara, Bkairati said that he received assurances from families of the Turks who were with his wife that she was not hurt during the attack, pointing out that it was the Turkish families who told him that Barakat was taken to Ashkelon Prison.

And regarding any official Syrian measures, Bkairati said that he has not been contacted yet by Syrian officials, attributing this to the fact that no one knew that his wife was heading to Gaza. Even her siblings did not know about this until the moment she arrived at the Damascus International Airport. He added that he was confident that the Syrian government would place great importance on the welfare of citizens like his wife had they known that a Syrian national was participating in the flotilla. His wife was the only Syrian who was accepted out of 10,600 applicants of different nationalities. The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation approved only 700 of those applicants.

Bkairati also said: When my wife was at the Damascus International Airport on her way to Turkey to join the Freedom Flotilla, a security officer at the airport stopped her because she had a large amount of medicines to treat eye conditions. He asked her about the reason she had all these medicines with her. She told him where she was going. He then helped her carry her luggage into the airport.

Mrs. Shatha Barakat was born in Idleb in 1965 and she resides in Damascus. She is a mother of three and has participated in national issues in the past. She works currently as a director of an institute that teaches computer systems. She also worked as a teacher in the past and has many writings in journalism and fiction.

Update 1 (June 1, 2010):

An official Syrian source said according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that there were three other Syrians who were with the Freedom Flotilla along with Shatha Barakat. They are Archbishop Hilarion Capucci Bishop of Jerusalem in exile, Hasan al-Rifai & Mohammad Satleh. At the time of this writing, there are reports that Israel has agreed to release the Gaza Freedom Flotilla detainees within 48 hours.

Update 2 (June 2, 2010):

SANA reported today [AR] that the four Syrian activists with the Freedom Flotilla have arrived safely today at the Naseeb border crossing in Dara'a, Syria. Archbishop Capucci said that he was assaulted by the Israeli soldiers who handcuffed him and that one of the soldiers attempted to throw him on the ground. He emphasized that he would do this again along with all the activists to achieve the main goal of lifting the seige on Gaza. Mrs. Shatha Barakat said that the Israeli soldiers treated them in a brutal manner. She said the blood on the shawl she was wearing was that of a Turkish activist who was killed by the Israelis. She said some of the Turkish activists were thrown off the ship immediately after being killed. Syrian activist Hasan al-Rifai said that the decision to attack the activists on the ship was predetermined. He said that there were tens of dead and injured activists in the first 30 minutes of the attack; the soldiers were shooting directly at the activists and they killed two of the activists by direct shots to the head. Activist Mohammad Satleh expressed his satisfaction about what the Freedom Flotilla activists did and how it exposed the Israelis in front of the entire world.

Photo Credit: SANA

Musicians from the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra Orientalize Hip Hop on British TV

The program is Later... with Jools Holland, a late night music television show on BBC2, and the day was yesterday.

Musicians from the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra made the appearance on the show, as reported today by Alex Young of the American music publication Consequence of Sound, and performed "White Flag" with British band Gorillaz. White Flag is the third song in the newly released album by Gorillaz, Plastic Beach. In the album, the song is listed as "White Flag (Feat. Bashy, Kano And The National Orchestra For Arabic Music)"

Without further ado, here is "White Flag":



During the live performance, a video of a whirling dervish was showing with Arabic-language phrases that the computers at BBC2 could not display correctly! The words were written from left to right in disconnected letters. The phrases meant to say the following:

Ana Lastu Hatha أنا لست هذا (I'm Not This)

La Youjad Illa Wahed لا يوجد إلا واحد (There's Only One)

wal-Kull Huwa Nahnu والكل هو نحن (And The Whole Is Us)

You can listen to the album Plastic Beach for free, courtesy of The Guardian,  through this link.

It is Earth Day! Take some action!

If you are reading this, then you probably already know today is Earth Day. In today's world in which many of us pretty much eat, drink and breath online, there is very little chance not to know what "Day" it is today. So, let me paraphrase .. if you are alive, you probably already know that today is Earth Day!.

How can one not know it is Earth Day when Google's logo looks like this today? 

As I write this, "Happy Earth Day" is the top Trending Topic on Twitter, worldwide 

Every day in the morning, I stop to buy hot tea before heading to the office to start working. I work at the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) in Winnipeg. In most days, the hall in front of the gift shop next to the Thorlakson Building has a variety of stands that sell different things. One of the tables today featured a small exhibit by the "HSC Energy Management Program" on the occasion of Earth Day.

The poster presentation lists 10 actions and encourages the reader to "start with one ..." .. I took out the iPhone and took quick snapshots of the actions. Take a look .. How many of these do you do? 

Happy Earth Day! 

Exercise @ Calgary's airport

Download now or watch on posterous

19376DB1-8E2A-43AA-82A9-82D1DE405C24.mov (2763 KB)

via twittelator

Posted via web from sate3's posterous

Jumblatt Said

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Many Syrians have been irritated in the past few years by statements that the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party and prominent leader of the Druze community in Lebanon, Walid Jumblatt, said regarding Syria.  Some of the statements were quite provocative to say the least.  It is perplexing to many of us how Mr. Jumblatt changes his positions so dramatically and talks about opposite things with the same passion on two different but very close occasions.  But let's enjoy the moment for now as the tide in Mr. Jumblatt's thinking these days happens to be in Syria's favor.

The most recent episode started when Mr. Jumblatt declared on Al Jazeera Arabic (in the March 13, 2010 episode [Ar] of the program Hiwar Maftouh, or Open Dialogue) that his previous remarks were "indecent, out of context and go beyond the political manners".  About two weeks later, Mr. Jumblatt traveled to Damascus to meet the Syrian President.

Imad Marmal of the Lebanese Arabic-language newspaper As-safir wrote a piece [Ar] today quoting Jumblatt saying that he has regained his "inner peace" by his reconciliation with Damascus.  I find some of the other quotes by Jumblatt interesting. Here are some

«A personal and political solicitude has been taken off my shoulders»

«همٌ شخصي وسياسي أزيح عن كاهلي»

 ---

«In all honesty I have to say that [President al-Assad] won the battle of the past 5 years with all its Lebanese, regional and international challenges» 

 «والصراحة تقتضي الاعتراف بأنه انتصر في معركة السنوات الخمس الماضية وتحدياتها اللبنانية والاقليمية والدولية»

--- 

«Forget the issue of [Hezbollah's] weapons .. this is not the time»

«يطلعوا منها قصة السلاح.. هذا ليس وقتها» 

 ---

«Tasteless»

«بلا طعمة» 

[Addressing the issue of Hezbollah's weapons, that is]

In his piece [Ar] Marmal alludes to the technical glitch in the brakes of Mr. Jumblatt's car on his way back to Beirut from Damascus and how Mr. Jumblatt was initially worried about it.  But his worries dissipated when he remembered that the accompanying car ahead of him was a Hezbollah car.  Jumblatt was laughing when he told Marmal about that "technical detail".  But the screaming symbolism in this story did not escape Marmal: Hezbollah has become a personal and political "security valve" for Mr. Jumblatt.  Marmal also writes that Jumblatt has become ecstatic about his reconciliation with Syria.  Jumblatt's reconciliation "was not only with Damascus, but also with himself and with his history."

In the March 13, 2010 episode [Ar] of "Open Dialogue", program host Ghassan bin Jiddo alluded to Mr. Jumblatt's flip-flopping in his introduction using a very politically-correct language:  Mr. Jumblatt is "a generator of variable felxibility peculiar to him" «ولّاد مرونةٍ متحولةٍ خاصةٍ به».  What is the next position that will come out from Mr. Jumblatt's "variable flexibility"? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Syria's Enana Dance Theater in Canada and the United States in June

Syria's impressive dance group The Enana Dance Theater will make its debut in Canada in June when they participate in the Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity - Luminato. Luminato 2010 runs from June 11 to June 20.

The group will then make their first-ever performance in the United States at the 7th Annual Gala of the Arab American National Museum at the Max M. Fisher Music Hall in Detroit on June 22.



In both Toronto and Detroit, Enana will be performing Julia Domna which is about a Syrian girl from the ancient city of Emesa (modern day Homs), who became the wife of Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus.

No information is available as of yet regarding when tickets will go on sale for either of the group's two North American shows. Tickets are expected to be available on ticketmaster.ca for the Toronto show. Information about the Detroit show will appear on the website of the Arab American National Museum.

UPDATE 1 (Apr 7, 2010):


* Tickets for the Toronto shows (Fri, Jun 18, 2010, 8:00 PM & Sat, Jun 19, 2010 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM) can be purchased from Ticketmaster through this link.

* Tickets for the Detroit show (Tues, Jun 22, 2010 8:00 PM) can be purchased through the website of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) at this link. [Thanks to khaliph for the link]

RIP Hani ar-Romani

Hani ar-Romani هاني الروماني [Picture] was always on Syrian TV in some Syrian series or another for as long as I can remember. The announcement came out from the Syrian capital today that he just died. Here is an English translation of the short news report about this that appeared in Arabic in the Syrian newspaper, Tishreen:

Syrian actor and director Hani ar-Romani died this morning at the age of 70

Syrian actor and director Hani ar-Romani died this morning at the al-Assad University Hospital [in Damascus] at the age of 70.

Emergency Medicine physician Dr. Bashir Khankan told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that ar-Romani died in the hospital at 10:45 AM after he was transported there for cardiopulmonary arrest related to a chronic pulmonary disease.

ar-Romani, who was born in Damascus in 1939, was a veteran actor and director who had a long career dating back to the days when television and cinematic work first started in Syria. At one point, he was also a member of the Syrian Parliament.

Mr. ar-Romani made big contributions during his long artistic career, including many television series and TV and cinematic films, starting with the TV series As'ad al-Warraq in 1975, and ending with a new version of the same series, which has not been shown yet.